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The Boxcar Children #11
Caboose Mystery
A trip in a caboose at the end of a freight train leads to an old clown and a search.
128 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1966
96 people are currently reading
1214 people want to read
About the author
Gertrude Chandler Warner
541 books769 followersGertrude Chandler Warner was born in Putnam, Connecticut, on April 16, 1890, to Edgar and Jane Warner. Her family included a sister, Frances, and a brother, John. From the age of five, she dreamed of becoming an author. She wrote stories for her Grandfather Carpenter, and each Christmas she gave him one of these stories as a gift. Today, Ms. Warner is best remembered as the author of THE BOXCAR CHILDREN MYSTERIES.
As a child, Gertrude enjoyed many of the things that girls enjoy today. She loved furnishing a dollhouse with handmade furniture and she liked to read. Her favorite book was ALICE IN WONDERLAND. Often on Sundays after church, Gertrude enjoyed trips to visit her grandparents' farm. Along the way, she and Frances would stop to pick the wildflowers they both loved. Gertrude's favorite flower was the violet.
Her family was a very musical one. They were able to have a family orchestra, and Gertrude enjoyed playing the cello. Her father had brought her one from New York ---a cello, a bow, a case and an instruction book. All together, he paid $14. Later, as an adult, she began playing the pipe organ and sometimes substituted for the church organist.
Due to ill health, Ms. Warner never finished high school. She left in the middle of her second year and studied with a tutor. Then, in 1918, when teachers were called to serve in World War I, the school board asked her to teach first grade. She had forty children in the morning and forty more in the afternoon. Ms. Warner wrote, "I was asked or begged to take this job because I taught Sunday School. But believe me, day school is nothing like Sunday School, and I sure learned by doing --- I taught in that same room for 32 years, retiring at 60 to have more time to write." Eventually, Ms. Warner attended Yale, where she took several teacher training courses.
Once when she was sick and had to stay home from teaching, she thought up the story about the Boxcar Children. It was inspired by her childhood dreams. As a child, she had spent hours watching the trains go by near her family's home. Sometimes she could look through the window of a caboose and see a small stove, a little table, cracked cups with no saucers, and a tin coffee pot boiling away on the stove. The sight had fascinated her and made her dream about how much fun it would be to live and keep house in a boxcar or caboose. She read the story to her classes and rewrote it many times so the words were easy to understand. Some of her pupils spoke other languages at home and were just learning English. THE BOXCAR CHILDREN gave them a fun story that was easy to read.
Ms. Warner once wrote for her fans, "Perhaps you know that the original BOXCAR CHILDREN. . . raised a storm of protest from librarians who thought the children were having too good a time without any parental control! That is exactly why children like it! Most of my own childhood exploits, such as living in a freight car, received very little cooperation from my parents."
Though the story of THE BOXCAR CHILDREN went through some changes after it was first written, the version that we are familiar with today was originally published in 1942 by Scott Foresman. Today, Albert Whitman & Company publishes this first classic story as well as the next eighteen Alden children adventures that were written by Ms. Warner.
Gertrude Chandler Warner died in 1979 at the age of 89 after a full life as a teacher, author, and volunteer for the American Red Cross and other charitable organizations. After her death, Albert Whitman & Company continued to receive mail from children across the country asking for more adventures about Henry, Jessie, Violet and Benny Alden. In 1991, Albert Whitman added to THE BOXCAR CHILDREN MYSTERIES so that today's children can enjoy many more adventures about this independent and caring group of children.
Books about Gertrude: https://www.goodreads.com/characters/...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 93 reviews
April 6, 2020
I had no memory of the Caboose Mystery until I picked it up again and the whole crazy-pants plotline came rushing back to me, like the morning after a long night of drinking. Truly, Gertrude outdid herself–it is more bananas than anything we’ve seen so far.
It starts out (just like the Schoolhouse Mystery) with Benny thinking (I hope Benny thinking is not going to become a recurring theme). Benny is musing about how ridiculously eventful his life with Grandfather and his siblings has been thus far…almost ‘unbelievable,’ if you will. I think for a moment that Benny is about to wise up to the fact that his life is in fact a farce, manipulated by Grandfather’s puppetmaster ways–but just as he almost becomes sentient–he is distracted. Damn ADHD.
Grandfather breaks the news that their new adventure will be traveling the world (or a 20 mile radius) in an old fashioned caboose! He actually has rented two, so the boys and girls don’t have to mix, avoiding incestuous scandal. The real surprise here is that NO ONE mentions ‘the old boxcar’ fondly. It’s as if the children have never spent copious amounts of time inside a train car–it’s eery almost–especially remembering a few books back when they wouldn’t shut up about it. I guess all the mind-modifications have damaged their memory.
Grandfather’s ‘friend’ Mr. Carr who manages the ‘cars’ of the train (I mention this only to point out how delightful the children find this coincidence) mentions that the big caboose has a ‘history.’ Benny, with his attention deficit disorder is only half listening and thinks he says ‘mystery.’ Thanks for giving away the plot Benny.
The next morning, arriving at the train yard, there is a mailman hand-delivering letters to Mr. Carr. I’m guessing the postman is integral to the plot by all the detail lavished on him; also he is fat, which the Boxcar children always like to point out with wide-eyed wonder. AND he wants to see the inside of the biggest caboose, ‘just for a moment,’ but there isn’t a moment Mr. Postman because this is a train and trains run on tight schedules and we don’t have time for your mysterious questions!
Benny remarks that he ‘has always wanted to live in a caboose.’ I doubt this very much, not just because that’s a freaking weird thing to have ‘always wanted,’ but also, as aforementioned, THEY USED TO LIVE IN A STUPID BOXCAR! IT’S PRETTY MUCH THE EXACT SAME THING. Grandfather lies and says he always wanted to live in one too, which is a pathetic excuse to try and relate to his young grandson, with whom he shares no common interests. Benny is not yet old enough to enjoy hookers and blow.
The train turns out to be the perfect vacation for the Aldens, as it allows them to enjoy one of their favorite pastimes–sitting down and staring into space. For the next several hours (after exhausting the topic of how fat the postman is) they sit silently, watching the scenery pass by. This might have been more exciting if the scenery wasn’t just endless rows of corn, since we all know the Alden universe consists of only 10-12 actual buildings.
It wouldn’t be a true Boxcar story if there weren’t pages and pages of food descriptions, so I’m unsurprised that the engineer owns some of these corn fields, and they stop the train (was this on the train schedule?!) to pick some corn for dinner. Which they have with hamburgers, even though there is no explanation on how they cook said hamburgers in their caboose. On a train. I guess Jessie is just such a great housekeeper that she grills them with pure willpower.
The train guy, Al (who’s job as far as I can tell is just to babysit the Aldens) tells them that the train will stop in the morning at Beaver Lake. Beaver Lake has real live beavers AND a crazy old man that lives nearby solely to protect said beavers from lawless poachers. AND crazy old man’s name is Old Beaver. It’s pretty much the best thing ever.
Al and the Aldens troop down to the Beaver Lake in the morning and the beavers put on quite a show, doing just about every exciting beaver-type thing that I’ve ever heard of, which is remarkable, and not just because beavers are primarily nocturnal.
On the way back to the train the group runs into Old Beaver, which obviously I saw coming, because you can’t mention that there’s a guy named Old Beaver and then NOT have him appear. Benny introduces himself by pretty much telling the poor guy his life story, ‘and we are also traveling in a big caboose that has the number 777 on it!’ Benny only awkwardly throws in the number on the caboose, creating a sentence that no human would ever naturally use in conversation, so that we can see the strong negative reaction this garners from Old Beaver. How mysterious!
The train stops next in Pinedale, where all the workman stop to point and laugh at the big caboose. Fed up, Benny asks them the story behind 777. ’Well,’ says the workman, ‘it used to be a circus caboose!’ Oh, finally! That makes sense then. So the men are laughing, I assume, because circuses are funny? Or something?
One of the workman is wearing a tiny hat and large shoes, and despite seeming to be clinically depressed, also inexplicably looks and sounds hilarious. This is of course because he used to be a clown, as Benny quickly intuits. Because once a clown, always a clown–you will never again be able to dress like a normal person. The stationmaster confirms this–not only was he a clown, but he traveled with the circus to which the caboose once belonged! And his name–it’s Cho-Cho. My god, I almost can’t even go on. If that isn’t bad enough, he used to be married to a trapeze artist named–I shit you not–Chi-Chi.
Chi-Chi and Cho-Cho.
I mean, with names like those being in the circus and marrying each other is pretty much your only option.
Chi-Chi was apparently the descendent of a long line of internationally famous European trapeze artists. Ok, totally believable. A king had given Chi-Chi’s mother a diamond necklace, which she then passed down to Chi-Chi. Then Chi-Chi was killed in a tragic (and probably incredibly traumatizing to hundreds of children who were just looking to enjoy a day at the circus) high wire accident. Only Violet and Jessie express emotion at the gruesome tale of Chi-Chi falling and breaking her neck. Benny just wants to know where the talking horse is now.
Oh, sorry. Because if being a clown with a ridiculous name, and having a wife with an even more ridiculous name who is trapeze royalty and owns a necklace worth millions of dollars WASN’T ENOUGH FOR YOU, Cho-Cho also had a talking horse. A horse of a rare, never before seen color (spoiler–it’s a palomino–which is not that uncommon), that could count and answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions. He had to sell the horse to a rich family because he inexplicably became poor immediately after Chi-Chi died. ’Why didn’t he just sell the necklace and keep the horse,’ Grandfather adroitly asks.
Well, obviously because the necklace is lost. MYSTERY ALERT MYSTERY ALERT. Chi-Chi didn’t trust her OWN HUSBAND enough to tell him where she kept it hidden (no one thinks that is strange by the way– maybe Cho-Cho had a gambling problem). The stationmaster has reached the end of his knowledge on the matter, but he encourages the children to go pester poor Cho-Cho with questions about his dead wife and his loss of his best friend/horse, and his descent into crippling poverty. ‘It’ll do him good,’ the stationmaster assures them.
Never ones to miss an opportunity to badger strangers with intensely personal questions, the Aldens pounce on Cho-Cho. He tells them that he believes his former friend, the Thin Man, stole the necklace. This idea was cemented in his mind when the Thin Man disappeared the next day. And to tie this all together, Old Beaver was the Thin Man’s best friend, and that is why he was so pissed off when hearing about the caboose.
Benny can’t drop the subject of the talking horse. Where is it? Can he see it? Will Grandfather buy it for him (he doesn’t actually ask that one, but come on, it’s implied). The family is going to see the Glass Factory at the next stop, but Benny wants to see the horse. Grandfather decides that Benny is old enough to get lost in the woods and left behind...I mean go see the horse on his own, so they part ways. This seems like a terrible town to me, as the ground everywhere (even at the train station) appears to be covered in broken glass. I don’t even want to imagine what other OSHA rules are being broken over at the Glass Factory that would cause broken glass to litter the ground literally miles away from the actual factory. The rest of the family visits the factory where we learn all about how glass is made, and pick out plates (green for Henry, blue for Jessie, red for the missing Benny, and violet for Violet to complete their monochromatic worlds).
Grandfather and the older children arrive back at the train. Before Benny left he had emphasized strongly that he would come straight back and go back to sleep in his bunk bed, that they were absolutely not to wake him, or check on him, or bother him in any way. The writing makes such a point of it, that when Violet makes a move to check on Benny before the train departs, and Henry stops her, I know, with the certainty that only an extremely heavily Gertrude-style foreshadowing can give you–that there is no way that Benny is actually on the train.
Meanwhile…
Benny almost immediately becomes lost following the path through the woods to the talking horse’s house. Still, he manages to find the house, boldly marches to the front door and insists that he be shown the horse and all of its tricks. Now, this horse supposedly can nod ‘yes,’ shake his head for ‘no,’ and ‘count’ by pawing. Usually I would say, like circus horse Clever Hans, for example, the horse reads the person’s body language, and reacts accordingly. But for this to work, the questioner has to know the answer to the question they are asking, otherwise the horse won’t be able to ‘read’ the answer. Based on this logic, and the fact that Benny cannot possibly do even the simplest math problems, I’m inclined to believe the Cho-Cho’s talking horse is actually gifted with human-like intelligence, making it worth more than Chi-Chi’s diamond necklace, and a scientific wonder in animal cognition.
After harassing the poor horse with a litany of mind-numbingly simple equations, Benny realizes he should probably return to the train. Since he had such a difficult time following the path the first time, his logical solution is to just fling himself headlong into the woods in the general direction of the train station. Unsurprisingly, he becomes lost immediately, and ends up in front of a little house with a woman and boy outside. I would be slightly perturbed to find a cottage in the middle of a thick wood with no path or road going in or out–in fact it sounds like the beginning of a gruesome fairy tale, but Benny has the confidence that can only be gained by great wealth and stupidity. The boy (introduced as Charley as they are running through the woods to the train) is some kind of wilderness guru that rescues Benny after he becomes tangled in vines, and stops him from wallowing in poison ivy. They predictably have missed the train, so they just sit at the station eating apples from a tree.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t occur to the rest of the family that this is the perfect time to abandon Benny and start out on a happier, less obnoxious life. Instead, they take a cab back to get him, and meet back up with the train at another station. Rats.
Since it’s raining too hard to enjoy their favorite pastime–staring outside–they decide to look for clues about the necklace. Benny finds a postcard with the clue, “If you are a clown/ be on the lookout/ for things in a crown.” Well, first of all, this is a stupid poem, and secondly, it doesn’t help them get any closer to finding the necklace. The train’s engineer invites Benny to see him run the train. He shows Benny the ‘dead man’s pedal,’ which he keeps his foot on all the time, in case he suddenly dies. Benny secretly hopes he’ll keel over now so he can see how it works. Then he spots a tree that has fallen across the tracks. There is brief excitement (about two sentences of heart-pounding action) while they clear the tracks. Then everything gets dull again and Jessie decides to mend Benny’s mattress.
What I can’t understand is why in the world Jessie would be sewing something when we all know that Violet is a maestro with a needle and thread. Maybe Violet is feeling extra delicate at the moment. Anyway, Jessie is rearranging the mattress stuffing to make sure it will be perfect, and what does she find but the diamond necklace. What a surprise. Instead of immediately giving poor Cho-Cho a call and letting him know that his horrible life is about to get slightly better, Grandfather decides it would probably be best to take it to a jewelry store themselves. Not that he’s planning on selling it and keeping the cash for himself…hohoho. Right? I mean, I wouldn’t put it past him. Anyway, once the appraisal is complete, they go ahead and also tell everyone on the train and everyone they meet on the street that they’ve found a priceless diamond necklace. I guess since it’s not their necklace they aren’t worried about being robbed, and it is in Grandfather’s pocket, so it’s pretty safe.
The ride back on the train seems to take about 2 hours. They create a radio message for the Thin Man, telling him to meet them in Pinedale. I like how they assume that when the Thin Man ran away, it would only be to the next town over–it’s not like he’d leave the state or something preposterous, just because he’s wanted by the law! Grandfather also has already gotten the talking horse on the train for the glorious reunion with Cho-Cho. Cho-Cho gets his necklace back, his magic pony, and they all have a party in the caboose where Jessie serves coca-cola mixed with orange juice as a special treat. Sounds delicious. And guess who shows up? The Thin Man. And guess his secret identity! It’s the fat postman. I know you would never have thought that, being as how one is so FAT and the name is THIN MAN so it’s such a surprise!
And everyone is happy and Gertrude squeezes in some other scenes in a hodgepodge of sentences and poor editing and then the book ends with a weird sentient thought from the train.
Gertrude doesn’t even HINT at the next adventure, which is very uncharacteristic of her, and also dumb, because next is the Houseboat Mystery which I have been looking forward to for months. MONTHS PEOPLE. You’ll see why, as the mysteries continue to be less and less grounded in any sort of reality and give up attempting to seem natural or believable in any ways.
It starts out (just like the Schoolhouse Mystery) with Benny thinking (I hope Benny thinking is not going to become a recurring theme). Benny is musing about how ridiculously eventful his life with Grandfather and his siblings has been thus far…almost ‘unbelievable,’ if you will. I think for a moment that Benny is about to wise up to the fact that his life is in fact a farce, manipulated by Grandfather’s puppetmaster ways–but just as he almost becomes sentient–he is distracted. Damn ADHD.
Grandfather breaks the news that their new adventure will be traveling the world (or a 20 mile radius) in an old fashioned caboose! He actually has rented two, so the boys and girls don’t have to mix, avoiding incestuous scandal. The real surprise here is that NO ONE mentions ‘the old boxcar’ fondly. It’s as if the children have never spent copious amounts of time inside a train car–it’s eery almost–especially remembering a few books back when they wouldn’t shut up about it. I guess all the mind-modifications have damaged their memory.
Grandfather’s ‘friend’ Mr. Carr who manages the ‘cars’ of the train (I mention this only to point out how delightful the children find this coincidence) mentions that the big caboose has a ‘history.’ Benny, with his attention deficit disorder is only half listening and thinks he says ‘mystery.’ Thanks for giving away the plot Benny.
The next morning, arriving at the train yard, there is a mailman hand-delivering letters to Mr. Carr. I’m guessing the postman is integral to the plot by all the detail lavished on him; also he is fat, which the Boxcar children always like to point out with wide-eyed wonder. AND he wants to see the inside of the biggest caboose, ‘just for a moment,’ but there isn’t a moment Mr. Postman because this is a train and trains run on tight schedules and we don’t have time for your mysterious questions!
Benny remarks that he ‘has always wanted to live in a caboose.’ I doubt this very much, not just because that’s a freaking weird thing to have ‘always wanted,’ but also, as aforementioned, THEY USED TO LIVE IN A STUPID BOXCAR! IT’S PRETTY MUCH THE EXACT SAME THING. Grandfather lies and says he always wanted to live in one too, which is a pathetic excuse to try and relate to his young grandson, with whom he shares no common interests. Benny is not yet old enough to enjoy hookers and blow.
The train turns out to be the perfect vacation for the Aldens, as it allows them to enjoy one of their favorite pastimes–sitting down and staring into space. For the next several hours (after exhausting the topic of how fat the postman is) they sit silently, watching the scenery pass by. This might have been more exciting if the scenery wasn’t just endless rows of corn, since we all know the Alden universe consists of only 10-12 actual buildings.
It wouldn’t be a true Boxcar story if there weren’t pages and pages of food descriptions, so I’m unsurprised that the engineer owns some of these corn fields, and they stop the train (was this on the train schedule?!) to pick some corn for dinner. Which they have with hamburgers, even though there is no explanation on how they cook said hamburgers in their caboose. On a train. I guess Jessie is just such a great housekeeper that she grills them with pure willpower.
The train guy, Al (who’s job as far as I can tell is just to babysit the Aldens) tells them that the train will stop in the morning at Beaver Lake. Beaver Lake has real live beavers AND a crazy old man that lives nearby solely to protect said beavers from lawless poachers. AND crazy old man’s name is Old Beaver. It’s pretty much the best thing ever.
Al and the Aldens troop down to the Beaver Lake in the morning and the beavers put on quite a show, doing just about every exciting beaver-type thing that I’ve ever heard of, which is remarkable, and not just because beavers are primarily nocturnal.
On the way back to the train the group runs into Old Beaver, which obviously I saw coming, because you can’t mention that there’s a guy named Old Beaver and then NOT have him appear. Benny introduces himself by pretty much telling the poor guy his life story, ‘and we are also traveling in a big caboose that has the number 777 on it!’ Benny only awkwardly throws in the number on the caboose, creating a sentence that no human would ever naturally use in conversation, so that we can see the strong negative reaction this garners from Old Beaver. How mysterious!
The train stops next in Pinedale, where all the workman stop to point and laugh at the big caboose. Fed up, Benny asks them the story behind 777. ’Well,’ says the workman, ‘it used to be a circus caboose!’ Oh, finally! That makes sense then. So the men are laughing, I assume, because circuses are funny? Or something?
One of the workman is wearing a tiny hat and large shoes, and despite seeming to be clinically depressed, also inexplicably looks and sounds hilarious. This is of course because he used to be a clown, as Benny quickly intuits. Because once a clown, always a clown–you will never again be able to dress like a normal person. The stationmaster confirms this–not only was he a clown, but he traveled with the circus to which the caboose once belonged! And his name–it’s Cho-Cho. My god, I almost can’t even go on. If that isn’t bad enough, he used to be married to a trapeze artist named–I shit you not–Chi-Chi.
Chi-Chi and Cho-Cho.
I mean, with names like those being in the circus and marrying each other is pretty much your only option.
Chi-Chi was apparently the descendent of a long line of internationally famous European trapeze artists. Ok, totally believable. A king had given Chi-Chi’s mother a diamond necklace, which she then passed down to Chi-Chi. Then Chi-Chi was killed in a tragic (and probably incredibly traumatizing to hundreds of children who were just looking to enjoy a day at the circus) high wire accident. Only Violet and Jessie express emotion at the gruesome tale of Chi-Chi falling and breaking her neck. Benny just wants to know where the talking horse is now.
Oh, sorry. Because if being a clown with a ridiculous name, and having a wife with an even more ridiculous name who is trapeze royalty and owns a necklace worth millions of dollars WASN’T ENOUGH FOR YOU, Cho-Cho also had a talking horse. A horse of a rare, never before seen color (spoiler–it’s a palomino–which is not that uncommon), that could count and answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions. He had to sell the horse to a rich family because he inexplicably became poor immediately after Chi-Chi died. ’Why didn’t he just sell the necklace and keep the horse,’ Grandfather adroitly asks.
Well, obviously because the necklace is lost. MYSTERY ALERT MYSTERY ALERT. Chi-Chi didn’t trust her OWN HUSBAND enough to tell him where she kept it hidden (no one thinks that is strange by the way– maybe Cho-Cho had a gambling problem). The stationmaster has reached the end of his knowledge on the matter, but he encourages the children to go pester poor Cho-Cho with questions about his dead wife and his loss of his best friend/horse, and his descent into crippling poverty. ‘It’ll do him good,’ the stationmaster assures them.
Never ones to miss an opportunity to badger strangers with intensely personal questions, the Aldens pounce on Cho-Cho. He tells them that he believes his former friend, the Thin Man, stole the necklace. This idea was cemented in his mind when the Thin Man disappeared the next day. And to tie this all together, Old Beaver was the Thin Man’s best friend, and that is why he was so pissed off when hearing about the caboose.
Benny can’t drop the subject of the talking horse. Where is it? Can he see it? Will Grandfather buy it for him (he doesn’t actually ask that one, but come on, it’s implied). The family is going to see the Glass Factory at the next stop, but Benny wants to see the horse. Grandfather decides that Benny is old enough to get lost in the woods and left behind...I mean go see the horse on his own, so they part ways. This seems like a terrible town to me, as the ground everywhere (even at the train station) appears to be covered in broken glass. I don’t even want to imagine what other OSHA rules are being broken over at the Glass Factory that would cause broken glass to litter the ground literally miles away from the actual factory. The rest of the family visits the factory where we learn all about how glass is made, and pick out plates (green for Henry, blue for Jessie, red for the missing Benny, and violet for Violet to complete their monochromatic worlds).
Grandfather and the older children arrive back at the train. Before Benny left he had emphasized strongly that he would come straight back and go back to sleep in his bunk bed, that they were absolutely not to wake him, or check on him, or bother him in any way. The writing makes such a point of it, that when Violet makes a move to check on Benny before the train departs, and Henry stops her, I know, with the certainty that only an extremely heavily Gertrude-style foreshadowing can give you–that there is no way that Benny is actually on the train.
Meanwhile…
Benny almost immediately becomes lost following the path through the woods to the talking horse’s house. Still, he manages to find the house, boldly marches to the front door and insists that he be shown the horse and all of its tricks. Now, this horse supposedly can nod ‘yes,’ shake his head for ‘no,’ and ‘count’ by pawing. Usually I would say, like circus horse Clever Hans, for example, the horse reads the person’s body language, and reacts accordingly. But for this to work, the questioner has to know the answer to the question they are asking, otherwise the horse won’t be able to ‘read’ the answer. Based on this logic, and the fact that Benny cannot possibly do even the simplest math problems, I’m inclined to believe the Cho-Cho’s talking horse is actually gifted with human-like intelligence, making it worth more than Chi-Chi’s diamond necklace, and a scientific wonder in animal cognition.
After harassing the poor horse with a litany of mind-numbingly simple equations, Benny realizes he should probably return to the train. Since he had such a difficult time following the path the first time, his logical solution is to just fling himself headlong into the woods in the general direction of the train station. Unsurprisingly, he becomes lost immediately, and ends up in front of a little house with a woman and boy outside. I would be slightly perturbed to find a cottage in the middle of a thick wood with no path or road going in or out–in fact it sounds like the beginning of a gruesome fairy tale, but Benny has the confidence that can only be gained by great wealth and stupidity. The boy (introduced as Charley as they are running through the woods to the train) is some kind of wilderness guru that rescues Benny after he becomes tangled in vines, and stops him from wallowing in poison ivy. They predictably have missed the train, so they just sit at the station eating apples from a tree.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t occur to the rest of the family that this is the perfect time to abandon Benny and start out on a happier, less obnoxious life. Instead, they take a cab back to get him, and meet back up with the train at another station. Rats.
Since it’s raining too hard to enjoy their favorite pastime–staring outside–they decide to look for clues about the necklace. Benny finds a postcard with the clue, “If you are a clown/ be on the lookout/ for things in a crown.” Well, first of all, this is a stupid poem, and secondly, it doesn’t help them get any closer to finding the necklace. The train’s engineer invites Benny to see him run the train. He shows Benny the ‘dead man’s pedal,’ which he keeps his foot on all the time, in case he suddenly dies. Benny secretly hopes he’ll keel over now so he can see how it works. Then he spots a tree that has fallen across the tracks. There is brief excitement (about two sentences of heart-pounding action) while they clear the tracks. Then everything gets dull again and Jessie decides to mend Benny’s mattress.
What I can’t understand is why in the world Jessie would be sewing something when we all know that Violet is a maestro with a needle and thread. Maybe Violet is feeling extra delicate at the moment. Anyway, Jessie is rearranging the mattress stuffing to make sure it will be perfect, and what does she find but the diamond necklace. What a surprise. Instead of immediately giving poor Cho-Cho a call and letting him know that his horrible life is about to get slightly better, Grandfather decides it would probably be best to take it to a jewelry store themselves. Not that he’s planning on selling it and keeping the cash for himself…hohoho. Right? I mean, I wouldn’t put it past him. Anyway, once the appraisal is complete, they go ahead and also tell everyone on the train and everyone they meet on the street that they’ve found a priceless diamond necklace. I guess since it’s not their necklace they aren’t worried about being robbed, and it is in Grandfather’s pocket, so it’s pretty safe.
The ride back on the train seems to take about 2 hours. They create a radio message for the Thin Man, telling him to meet them in Pinedale. I like how they assume that when the Thin Man ran away, it would only be to the next town over–it’s not like he’d leave the state or something preposterous, just because he’s wanted by the law! Grandfather also has already gotten the talking horse on the train for the glorious reunion with Cho-Cho. Cho-Cho gets his necklace back, his magic pony, and they all have a party in the caboose where Jessie serves coca-cola mixed with orange juice as a special treat. Sounds delicious. And guess who shows up? The Thin Man. And guess his secret identity! It’s the fat postman. I know you would never have thought that, being as how one is so FAT and the name is THIN MAN so it’s such a surprise!
And everyone is happy and Gertrude squeezes in some other scenes in a hodgepodge of sentences and poor editing and then the book ends with a weird sentient thought from the train.
Gertrude doesn’t even HINT at the next adventure, which is very uncharacteristic of her, and also dumb, because next is the Houseboat Mystery which I have been looking forward to for months. MONTHS PEOPLE. You’ll see why, as the mysteries continue to be less and less grounded in any sort of reality and give up attempting to seem natural or believable in any ways.
June 6, 2025
Read for a summer reading challenge 🙃The Boxcar Children are still an enjoyable read, 30 years later. Quick listen, except all of the train sounds are a little distressing while driving 😆
March 24, 2021
Caboose mystery by Gertrude Warner
The boxcar children #11
Another cute boxcar children story. This story picks up right after the last book. Benny is thinking that before the last trip grandpa had a surprise for the kids. He was hoping its not to late to do the surprise.
Grandpa surprised the children with a week long trip riding in an old fashioned caboose. Per usual for the boxcar children they find an interesting mystery and of course helping people along the way.
Raiting; 3 star 🌟
The boxcar children #11
Another cute boxcar children story. This story picks up right after the last book. Benny is thinking that before the last trip grandpa had a surprise for the kids. He was hoping its not to late to do the surprise.
Grandpa surprised the children with a week long trip riding in an old fashioned caboose. Per usual for the boxcar children they find an interesting mystery and of course helping people along the way.
Raiting; 3 star 🌟
May 3, 2017
fast fun.
August 16, 2025
Another fun installment of this series. I'm really enjoying revisiting these books.
September 16, 2022
this book hits but jessie deserves jail time for that orange juice + coke combo
May 24, 2015
The Aldens live in a Caboose on the back of a train for a week. They find a mystery, meet new people and use their enormous fortune to help everyone.
The moral of the story: Life is great when you're rich.
Yea I know I'm bitter and jaded by the trials of adult life.
The moral of the story: Life is great when you're rich.
Yea I know I'm bitter and jaded by the trials of adult life.
December 6, 2021
I enjoyed this one, not a particular favorite though. It felt a bit flat.
January 8, 2009
I read this a long time ago, *when I was 9 or 10* and I HATED Benny so much, I could have KEELLLLLED him. I don't know why, but he was so stupid in this book. *Got so annoyed* LOL!!! I don't think the original author wrote this one though, and it was listed at the #19 in that series. *PUFF* .....Okay, I THINK this is the one where Benny is annoying...*Isn't sure* All I know is that it had a train, and involved diamonds.
March 18, 2018
I liked this book because I like mystery and adventure. I also liked it because there was a talking horse that got reunited with his clown, Cho Cho.
July 8, 2019
More and more these stories seem to be about Benny, with the rest of the family there as backdrop. He's marginally less annoying than usual in this one though, so that's something. Anyway, in this latest instalment, the most spoilt children in the world go on a caboose trip. It's a callback of sorts to the Boxcar, which was infinitely more charming, but this one has a clown, a talking horse, and a missing diamond necklace, hidden in said caboose. And all I can think is that the police who searched the caboose looking for said necklace must have been the laziest detectives ever, because not only did they miss the postcard tacked up on a wall (which gave the clue to the location of the necklace), they also missed the necklace itself, which was hidden in the most obvious place ever. Still, I suppose you need an idiot plot if you want to make Benny look clever...
May 2, 2020
That was cute.
Taking a train ride across the country is on my list of things to try one day and in a caboose would be even more interesting.
One of the best in a while.
A few random thoughts:
Come on. It doesn't all have to be about how crazy much money and power you have...
Of course he's going to miss the train now. It's insane to me that they didn't just check no matter how much he said he'd nap.
That just feels weird.
Taking a train ride across the country is on my list of things to try one day and in a caboose would be even more interesting.
One of the best in a while.
A few random thoughts:
Grandfather began, "You see I have a friend who owns a railroad."
Come on. It doesn't all have to be about how crazy much money and power you have...
"Don't be late, either," Grandfather called again. "The train won't wait for you, you know."
Of course he's going to miss the train now. It's insane to me that they didn't just check no matter how much he said he'd nap.
Mr. Alden looked at the sign. "Oh, I know all about that store," he said. "It is famous. We can trust them to tell us the truth."
That just feels weird.
March 5, 2025
This was a very delightful book. The four Alden children - Henry - Jessie - Violet and Benny - go on a train ride in two cabooses with their grandfather. The girls sleep in the smaller caboose - and the boys and their grandfather sleep in the larger caboose -on bunk beds with leather mattresses.
The caboose had formerly been the caboose for a circus and has the letters 7 7 7 on its side. The train journey is only a few days - but there are stops so that they can visit other small communities and buy food. There is a small stove on the train so that they can cook their meals.
The conductor and the engineer stay in a third caboose- which is attached to the large caboose.
And of course there is a mystery - which the children solve - to many people's satisfaction.
I especially liked the talking horse.
All in all a delightful book.
The caboose had formerly been the caboose for a circus and has the letters 7 7 7 on its side. The train journey is only a few days - but there are stops so that they can visit other small communities and buy food. There is a small stove on the train so that they can cook their meals.
The conductor and the engineer stay in a third caboose- which is attached to the large caboose.
And of course there is a mystery - which the children solve - to many people's satisfaction.
I especially liked the talking horse.
All in all a delightful book.
July 18, 2017
I love being able to read a happy mystery. Everyone ends up happy. It is saccharine sweet happy, but sometimes I want that.
And I get a good laugh out of it. Benny running off by himself 2 miles to see a horse. That wouldn't happen today. And Jessie being the consummate homemaker. Yeah, I get that message too. But I enjoy a look back to see how far we have come and maybe Jessie just really likes the cooking and sewing.
And I get a good laugh out of it. Benny running off by himself 2 miles to see a horse. That wouldn't happen today. And Jessie being the consummate homemaker. Yeah, I get that message too. But I enjoy a look back to see how far we have come and maybe Jessie just really likes the cooking and sewing.
March 4, 2018
The Alden family take a vacation on a Caboose. Soon they discover that the Caboose used to be used by the circus and three is an expensive treasure removed to be hidden within it. The owner of the treasure has long since died but her husband is still alive. No one has been able to find the treasure despite extensive searching. The Alden family find the treasure and return it to the owner.
Big much of a mystery but a nice read.
Big much of a mystery but a nice read.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 23, 2022
The Aldens and Grandfather are spending the summer on a train - living in two cabooses attached to the train. One is numbered 777, which apparently has a mystery attached. Of course they solve it and everyone is happy. I am SO tired of Benny and the way they all praise him constantly - telling him what a smart boy he is when he says something obvious. The story was more interesting than the last one, though!
October 17, 2022
I introduced The Boxcar Children via audio book to my almost 9 year old this morning as we traveled to the next town over to see a orthodontist and he absolutely LOVED this book. He is currently listening to another within the series in his room on his tablet and I can see me purchasing the physical books to add to our ever growing home library!
It was so nice to "re read" this book after so many years as this series was the first I ever read and made me fall in love with reading ❤
It was so nice to "re read" this book after so many years as this series was the first I ever read and made me fall in love with reading ❤
May 28, 2024
Really enjoyable story!!
I really liked that they let Benny do his own thing and make his own mistakes.
I didn’t like that the mystery seemed very coincidental - more so than other Boxcar Children books.
Things to be aware of in “Caboose Mystery”
Additional Notes:
- Many mentions of a “very heavy man” (also called “big.”) Later, a character says, “wasn’t he enormous?”
I really liked that they let Benny do his own thing and make his own mistakes.
I didn’t like that the mystery seemed very coincidental - more so than other Boxcar Children books.
Things to be aware of in “Caboose Mystery”
Additional Notes:
- Many mentions of a “very heavy man” (also called “big.”) Later, a character says, “wasn’t he enormous?”
May 18, 2017
Caboose Mystery There is so much going on in this book. I had forgotten all of it except for the glass factory (yes, I forgot about the clowns and the talking horse and the missing child and the diamond necklace). But I remember liking this one a lot as a kid. Probably because there’s so much going on. It felt really exciting.
April 21, 2021
Well, I definetely didn't see that coming! At first, I had no idea! You're going to just have to find out what I mean when you read this book. The book chapters are short and the words are easy to understand for young readers who are starting to read chapter books. I definitely recommend this book to younger readers.
July 24, 2021
my favorite part was when they got on the caboose and they watched benny as he left to see the talking horse and my other favorite part was when benny got lost he cut his knee and he almost put his hand on ivy poison and then a boy named charlie helped him and then he had to wait at the glass factory to wait for the train to come
November 6, 2021
I know these mysteries are cheesy but they’re kids book and that’s the point.
That being said … the mattress? Really? And NO ONE (including the police) never thought to check it?! Lame …
Minus that it was adorable. I loved the trip on a caboose adventure. It didn’t even need the necklace mystery for me.
That being said … the mattress? Really? And NO ONE (including the police) never thought to check it?! Lame …
Minus that it was adorable. I loved the trip on a caboose adventure. It didn’t even need the necklace mystery for me.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 15, 2021
The boxcar children are at it again and as you guessed it this time they are aboard a train. These short books get better each installment. Still a little cheesy but aside from that enjoyable reads. I would recommend this book of you just want to get a taste of the Alden family adventures.
Joseph McKnight
http://www.josephmcknight.com
Joseph McKnight
http://www.josephmcknight.com
October 25, 2023
I took a liking to this book because they were traveling via train. Something I’ve yet to do myself. Of course, it probably wouldn’t be the same as back then. Even though I don’t know where exactly they traveled through, it sounded like something you’d want to experience at least once.
The mystery took a while for me since there was some jargon I wasn’t familiar with while others just flew over my head.
The mystery took a while for me since there was some jargon I wasn’t familiar with while others just flew over my head.
January 13, 2024
Overall a cute mystery featuring the Alden children. I did find it super cringy when their grandfather told Benny (who's 6-8 years old) that he was "old enough" to go by himself on some trail through the woods to go see a horse at some farm none of them have ever been to before (nor have any of them met anyone who lives there). How does that go? Spoiler alert, not good.
February 29, 2024
It took us way too long to get through this. I think we might be done trying to read anymore of The Boxcar Children books because my son has stopped asking me to read a chapter a night. Once we got to Chapter 8 and figured out where the diamond necklace was hidden, I decided we'd better keep going or we'd never finish reading it!
January 26, 2018
I really liked this book and the mystery in the story really twisted my mind into thinking what would happen next. I also would have never thought that the two caboose used to be used by clowns and I really liked what they did with the talking horse.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 11, 2020
In this one, the Aldens take a vacation on a freight train in a furnished caboose. In a somewhat confusing turn of events, a lost necklace is recovered, a trained horse returned to his no-longer-impoverished owner, and a 9 year old child is given a weapon.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 7, 2024
(4☆ Would recommend)
I loved these books as a kid & I'm really enjoying reading through the series again. I liked how the mystery had a detailed backstory. And I really enjoyed how such a sad backstory ended in a happy way.
I loved these books as a kid & I'm really enjoying reading through the series again. I liked how the mystery had a detailed backstory. And I really enjoyed how such a sad backstory ended in a happy way.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 14, 2025
The Alden kids upgrade to a caboose! There’s a missing diamond! And a retired clown with secrets! And a talking horse! And a new punch recipe with OJ and Coke! This summer, the mystery is leaving the station! Choo choo!
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