The Clue in the Recycling Bin

The Boxcar Children #126

by Gertrude Chandler Warner (Creator), Robert Papp (Illustrator)

The Aldens volunteer at the new recycling center in Greenfield.They find interesting objects that they take home and fix up. But after the Boxcar Children learn that the center has been vandalized, there's a mystery to dig through. Why would someone want to make a mess of all the junk?

Genres: Mystery, Audiobook, Childrens, Adventure, Realistic Fiction, Ebooks, Middle Grade

128 pages, Library Binding

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Gertrude 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/...

Reviews

[Kathryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Appreciated the focus on recycling and upcycling though the villain felt a little obvious and the red herrings not as strong as in some of the other books. Also, a the adult in me felt people were a little cavalier giving veritable strangers rides in their cars or having a strange person on your porch in the middle of the night with an attempted break-in and kind of shrugging it off, so not one of my favorites of the series. Also, we’d read POWER-DOWN MYSTERY right before this and there are some similarities with the jewelry and how the mystery plays out.

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 rounded up
This one was missing something.

[Joseph D. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book 126 of the Boxcar Children. This mystery takes an unexpected twist but ends up landing fine. The central theme of looking at ways you can recycle/reuse those throwaways is good for young readers to think about, especially in our use and throw away culture. Excellent read. ​

Joseph McKnight
http://www.josephmcknight.com

[Tracy Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Green metal frogs, brightly-colored pinatas, and stolen diamonds all come together to create "The Clue in the Recycling Bin."

The Arden children are at it again, playing amateur detectives. Come enjoy this story as they learn what it means to be going green at the new local recycling center and end up finding a thief in it's midst. See how they work together to gather all the pieces of this puzzling chain of events to end a string of month-long crimes, including a diamond heist.

Children's literature is not usually a genre that I review but this turned out to be a nice little break from what I have been reading. I would like to do a lot more children's fiction since I have a 9 year old grandson who loves to read and two young granddaughters who I hope will also get in on the act in time. This story is part of a long series from this author and I am definitely going to have to look for some more!

I would highly recommend this book to anyone that is searching for a good children's fiction series. I seem to have a harder time finding good reads for young boys this age, so these seem perfect!

This book was kindly provided to me by Open Road Publishers for my honest review.

[Rebecca]

One of my favorite childhood series. I read over a hundred of them. The first 50 or so were in order; after that I read whatever book I could get my hands on :)

[Yousseif Abdellatif · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gertrude Chandler Warner makes a bold claim in The Clue in the Recycling Bin: that most career advice is outdated before it's even printed. I'd say it's about two-thirds convincing. The stories from real people who bounced between jobs felt honest, while the "five rules for success" bits felt like LinkedIn bait. Still, the chapter on negotiating got me thinking about how many times I've just taken the first offer. You won't agree with all of it, but it'll shake loose some assumptions you didn't know you had.

[Eliana · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Aldens are volunteering at a recycling center and every night the center is trashed with leaves. One night, someone tried to break into the Aldens' house and steal jewelry from the jewelry store.

[Cherish Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

(4☆ Would recommend)
I loved these books as a kid & I'm really enjoying reading through the series again. I liked the mystery & the suspense. I like how there is more than one possible suspect, who each have reasonable motive. Would recommend.

[Charles Reed · Rating 4 out of 5]

83%

Recycling is cool!

[Katherine Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can’t believe that there are over 100 Boxcar Children novels published and they’re still coming. I’m not sure why this surprises me, but it does. Maybe it’s the fact that I read these novels when I was really young and there were new ones at that point in time. Add in almost twenty years on top of that and I don’t think I could name a children’s series that’s still going strong.

A while back I re-read the first Boxcar Children novel and was taken aback by the time warp. Reading this novel, I was surprised at how modern it was. Sure, a book needs to adapt from decade to decade in order to stay current but with this novel, even though that’s present, it was nice to see the juxtaposition of the modern with the older roots.

The thing that I love about this series is that no matter what time it’s set in, it’s still timeless and it teaches good life lessons. Manners aside, this one is focusing on recycling and being good to the earth. Sure, for today’s youth (a lot of them anyways) this is never going to be the type of novel that they’re going to go for (though they could probably benefit from reading these novels). No, today it’s all about wimpy kids and weird anime things. But those are the times. Oh how they change.

Personally, I wouldn’t go out of my way to buy this novel but I do appreciate the opportunity to read it. It’s a nice break from other novels since it takes no time at all to actually read and it’s fun to relive my childhood novels. But Benny annoys the living sense out of me and the only character of the four main ones that I can stand for long is Violet. I’m giving this book a 5.5/10.



My thanks to netGalley and everyone who made it possible for me to read this novel.

[Elizabeth "Eli" Olmedo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Veteran mystery solvers Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny Alden are back in the Boxcar Children series latest book, The Clue in the Recycling Bin. Growing up, I couldn’t get enough of the boxcar children. They gave me my first taste of mystery (a genre I’ve been hooked to ever since). When I saw this newest installment, I just had to read it. I wanted to see if they were as good as I remembered. They are better! Granted the mysteries are easier for me to solve now, but I notice so much more than I did. For example, its values. Through the Aldens, young readers are taught respect, hard work, responsibility, and much more.

The valuable lessons in the series are as ageless as its four main characters — that somehow haven’t aged a bit from that first book that came out long before I was even born! The Clue in the Recycling Bin maintains that legacy. This novel explores the importance of recycling and protecting the environment by using fewer natural resources.

Even as an adult, I am still a big fan of this series. Parents can comfortably give these books to their children and know they are in good hands. I strongly recommend The Clue in the Recycling Bin to all young (or young at heart) mystery readers out there. Happy reading!

Review copy provided by publisher.

[Lynn · Rating 2 out of 5]

For grades 2-5. I'm not a fan of the series but its a good early chapter book and I like the fact it incorporates recycling into the story.

[Stacie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Recycling is important, y'all. The kids figure this out when they help.





And of course there is a mystery, duh. This one sparkles!