ikuo1000's review against another edition
4.0
Even though I still have more Boxcar Children books to read (I plan to read all 19 of the original series), I actually feel a bit sad knowing that this is the last book of the series written by Gertrude Chandler Warner.
I haven't read all the books in the series yet, but this book differs from many of the others in that not all of the children are present for the mystery. Some of the earlier books do focus more on Benny, but Henry and the girls were at least always around. In this book, Benny is almost as big as Henry (as depicted in the illustrations), and he and Henry are the main characters. Though it was nice to see Henry in a front-and-center role again, Violet and Jessie basically only showed up in the beginning and end of the book.
The mystery itself was a good one, I thought. Maybe even one of my favorites, though that might be because of the nostalgia I felt for the old-fashioned department store that delivered small items to its customers. Basically, some strange things happen at the store, and everyone wonders who is behind it all.
I also liked that this book included a wider range of emotions than most others in this series. Usually, the family is happy and friendly and everyone likes them. But in this book, Henry and Benny find that other people actually resent them for the advantages they enjoy by being the grandchildren of the wealthy and powerful James Alden. Henry and Benny even find themselves feeling angry and indignant!
Anyway, I do wonder if the author knew this would be her last book of the series... I was hoping to find some kind of closure to wrap up the series - What does Henry do when he graduates from college? Does Jessie marry Mr. Carter? - but was disappointed in that regard.
I haven't read all the books in the series yet, but this book differs from many of the others in that not all of the children are present for the mystery. Some of the earlier books do focus more on Benny, but Henry and the girls were at least always around. In this book, Benny is almost as big as Henry (as depicted in the illustrations), and he and Henry are the main characters. Though it was nice to see Henry in a front-and-center role again, Violet and Jessie basically only showed up in the beginning and end of the book.
The mystery itself was a good one, I thought. Maybe even one of my favorites, though that might be because of the nostalgia I felt for the old-fashioned department store that delivered small items to its customers. Basically, some strange things happen at the store, and everyone wonders who is behind it all.
I also liked that this book included a wider range of emotions than most others in this series. Usually, the family is happy and friendly and everyone likes them. But in this book, Henry and Benny find that other people actually resent them for the advantages they enjoy by being the grandchildren of the wealthy and powerful James Alden. Henry and Benny even find themselves feeling angry and indignant!
Anyway, I do wonder if the author knew this would be her last book of the series... I was hoping to find some kind of closure to wrap up the series - What does Henry do when he graduates from college? Does Jessie marry Mr. Carter? - but was disappointed in that regard.
elevetha's review against another edition
2.0
The Boxcar Children = most read series between the ages of 6 and 9 for me. I think of these fondly. Every child should read this series.
octavia_cade's review against another edition
2.0
This is a decent little story, and if a little bit bland is at least not as off-putting as some of the other books in this series. It helps immensely that the solution to the mystery, obvious as it is, does not involve Grandfather Alden hoovering up more resources in his attempts to control every business in the land. Instead, the four grandkids are using the summer to get jobs of their own, and I much prefer stories like this, where they're doing for themselves, rather than being given fancy vacations every other week - the very first Boxcar story was all about self-reliance and making do and I miss that. That being said, it's becoming clearer and clearer that the only Boxcar child Warner has any real interest is Benny, which is a bit of a shame as he's the one I like least. The girls - including my favourite, Violet - barely get a look-in, despite the fact that they were the most proactive, both getting more interesting jobs and getting them first, before the boys even thought of job-hunting.
As I (very vaguely) understand it, very soon the Warner books stop and the rest of the series is written by other authors? I'd be interested to see if that leads to a more equitable division of protagonists...
As I (very vaguely) understand it, very soon the Warner books stop and the rest of the series is written by other authors? I'd be interested to see if that leads to a more equitable division of protagonists...
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 :)
storiesforhisglory's review against another edition
5.0
Excellent
I love how these stories are all about how treating people with kindness can create enormous benefits, and that hard work is something to look forward to doing.
I love how these stories are all about how treating people with kindness can create enormous benefits, and that hard work is something to look forward to doing.
jpv0's review against another edition
4.0
And so it ends--at least the original 19 books written by [a:Gertrude Chandler Warner|10665|Gertrude Chandler Warner|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1206731348p2/10665.jpg], which is where I'll be stopping for the time being.
And it's a rather strange story. Benny gets it in his head that he absolutely needs a summer job--so he ropes Henry into going with him... and the both of them end up working at the same place? With a mystery in the works to boot? Sure. It works.
The mystery this time around was a reverse shoplifter and mysterious woman hanging around--who was much less mysterious if you're expecting it, but my children at least were surprised. And it was worth reading at least to see the idea that sometimes people don't like them because of their family name. When it's not entirely uncommon to have Grandfather buy their way into or out of a mystery, it was something worth seeing.
It was kind of a bummer to barely get any of Violet and Jessie, but so it goes. I do wonder if Warner knew this would be her last one. So it goes.
Onwards to a new series for the children! Perhaps one day we'll return and try some of the later Boxcar Children mysteries.
And it's a rather strange story. Benny gets it in his head that he absolutely needs a summer job--so he ropes Henry into going with him... and the both of them end up working at the same place? With a mystery in the works to boot? Sure. It works.
The mystery this time around was a reverse shoplifter and mysterious woman hanging around--who was much less mysterious if you're expecting it, but my children at least were surprised. And it was worth reading at least to see the idea that sometimes people don't like them because of their family name. When it's not entirely uncommon to have Grandfather buy their way into or out of a mystery, it was something worth seeing.
It was kind of a bummer to barely get any of Violet and Jessie, but so it goes. I do wonder if Warner knew this would be her last one. So it goes.
Onwards to a new series for the children! Perhaps one day we'll return and try some of the later Boxcar Children mysteries.
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