rockshaw22's review against another edition
I have very good memories of these books from childhood. I don’t know that they translate very well to today’s kids. A bit of a throwback for me
octavia_cade's review
mysterious
fast-paced
3.0
I don't know if this is my favourite Boxcar mystery, but if it isn't, it's very close to it. I think it may be the closest in spirit to the original novel, anyway. The kids are volunteers at a local animal shelter, and the two elder ones have part time jobs (one helps in a shop, the other has a paper route), and they're constantly making things from the resources they have - cobbling together a cat cage out of an old fruit box and some wire screening, for instance. They are therefore far more appealing to read about than the entitled brat versions of themselves that, in a previous book, begged their grandad to buy them a lighthouse so they could spend a few weeks of summer there.
Similarly, going back to basics has also made them much more pleasant in that they're less nosy. It's still a mystery, they still take an interest in people's lives, but it's as if they're genuinely trying to help rather than intruding because they're bored and have no manners. As I said: ten times more appealing! And I'm predisposed to like this mystery anyway, as lost pets keep turning up in advance of an animal shelter being shut down, and so of course the kids want to help, and their determination to help look after the animals is well done and sympathetic.
Similarly, going back to basics has also made them much more pleasant in that they're less nosy. It's still a mystery, they still take an interest in people's lives, but it's as if they're genuinely trying to help rather than intruding because they're bored and have no manners. As I said: ten times more appealing! And I'm predisposed to like this mystery anyway, as lost pets keep turning up in advance of an animal shelter being shut down, and so of course the kids want to help, and their determination to help look after the animals is well done and sympathetic.
readingwithrebeccanicole's review against another edition
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 :)
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