Tree House Mystery

The Boxcar Children Graphic Novels [2009 Albert Whitman] #8

by Christopher E. Long, Gertrude Chandler Warner, Mark Bloodworth (Illustrator)

The Aldens have new neighbors, and they're helping them build a tree house! From up high they can see things they hadn't seen before. There's a strange round window on the house next door that's been hidden by trees--but nobody can find the window from inside the attic. Does their neighbor's old house have a secret?

Genres: Graphic Novels, Mystery, Childrens

32 pages, Library Binding

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Christopher E. Long’s comic books have been published by the likes of Marvel Comics, DC Comics, IDW Publishing and Image Comics.

His articles and short stories have been published in a variety of magazines, including Flaunt, Spinetingler Magazine, and Thuglit.

His first published comic book was “Easy Way,” which he got the title tattooed on his arm. “Hero Worship” is his debut young adult novel, so he’s getting that tattooed on his arm soon.

Christopher was born in Seattle, Washington, raised in Logan, Utah, and currently lives in Southern California with his wife and son.

Reviews

[Moesha Crawford · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the graphic book The Boxcar Children Graphic Novel: Tree House Mystery the Alden kids Henry, Violet, Jessie and Benny got new neighbors that have children they could play with as well! The new family was the Beach family and they have two kids Jeffery and Sammy. The Alden kids were immediately excited to see have new kids to play with so they came up with the idea to build a tree house at the Beach’s tree that they can all play on together. Although the Beach kids remembered that their Uncle Max and father would play in that tree when they were young look at the thing with their telescope, but when the telescope went missing Mr. Beach blames Uncle Max, and Uncle Max blames Mr. Beach for years. As the kids began making their tree house they found the telescope Mr. Beach and Uncle Max fought over. As they pointed the telescope to the Alden kids’ house and looked through if they saw a circle window they have never seen before and were curious about what exactly it was. The ran quickly to the Alden kids’ house and to the attic and saw flower wallpaper. The kids starting knocking against the wallpaper and heard a hollow sound. The kids all began tearing the wallpaper off the wall and found a door. As they opened the door they went into the room of a young boy they later realized was Willy Carter’s room filled with many toys and the rocking horse. The kids wondered why was this room sealed up? After asking their parents, Uncle Max, Mrs. McGregor, and going to the librarian for help. They figured out the room was closed up because Willy was visiting from England for the summer he was planning to go back home in August and Mrs. Carver wanted to make sure no one else would play with his toys until Willy was back. Although, later that year she sold her house to the Johnson Family that has five kids. The novel does have an interesting cover that depicts what the mystery will be about. The sequence of the images aide the reader to understand what the dialogue is saying, they are arranged in an easy to follow way so that the reader does not get lost. It also is easy to follow because of the use of gutters. Gutters allow space in the story sequence representing one action to another. The illustrations in the graphic novel represent the mood of the characters. The story is mostly made for an audience of second graders because it has an age appropriate depiction of the readers themselves.

[Britt Guild · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have heard that this series of graphic novels is excellent, but I was a bit disappointed with this particular book. I liked the illustrations and concept of Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny working together to solve the mystery, but I thought the mystery itself wasn't that exciting and interesting to solve. I was expecting more as the title hooked me into wanting to read the book, but the story line and ending was rather flat for me.

This graphic novel is about the Aldens who have new neighbors. Henry, Jessie, Violet and Benny look from their tree house and notice their neighbor's round window. But why can't they find the same window from inside the attic? Who is living behind this window? The story unfolds as they discover another room and a secret door. I was hoping for a more exciting and mysterious ending.

This is a graphic novel as it is written like a comic strip. Some students are enamored by graphic novels, so it will be important for me to have the genre represented in my classroom library. Since I was disappointed in the ending of this particular story, I would use this novel to ask students to write an alternate ending to the story.

Mysteries are fun to read and fun to write, so I would use this novel as an example of a mystery to show the structure of a mystery. I would illustrate using the mystery the progression of the story from introduction to rising action to climax to falling action to conclusion. Students could write their own mystery using this structure.

[Nicole Marzan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This graphic novel adaptation is about Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny Alden. They have new neighbors and in order to get to know them, the Aldens build a tree house with them. From the tree house, they are able to see a round window from the attic of the house next door, but nobody can see the window from inside the attic. The children spend the rest of the story trying to figure out the secret behind their neighbor's house.

I gave this book 2 stars because it was slightly difficult to follow. The illustrations were very busy. Each page having multiple "squares" with different illustrations made it difficult for me to read and understand. Also, the text bubbles just added to the busy images. I did enjoy the way the illustrator did the faces of the characters. It is very clear what each character is feeling because of the detail he put into their faces. Each character also has a very different look, which I also liked. Overall, this book was not one of my favorites, but maybe kids who are followers of the series will enjoy it more than I did.

[Jordan · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this story young kids have new neighbors move in. They want to get them out and playing so they build a tree house. They end up going on an adventures with their new friends to solve tree house mystery's. I could have students relate this to themselves by talking about making new friends. They could relate to the world by looking at other adventures and mysteries. They could compare this text to the many other adventure texts and movies.

[Kelly]

Probably missing a lot of plot from the real book. I don't know why they made these so short. The illustrations certainly aren't as great as in the original series, and reading it feels like reading a book with pages missing. I wouldn't read another one of these.

[Lecy Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

This graphic novel was fun. I enjoy the illustrations that bring old classics to life.