Written by: Gertrude Chandler Warner
Released: March 1, 2011 by Whitman, Albert & Company
Summary: When Mrs. MacGregor introduces the Aldens to the local recycling center, they bring home lots of great stuff, including unused notebooks and fun piñata. Mrs. MacGregor was right, you can find treasure in junk. When a series of break-ins and vandalization hits the center, the Alden kids are there to help solve the mystery!
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.
1 comment:
I have never read a Boxcar Children book. I wonder where they were when I was growing up? How did I miss such a raved about series? Hmm.
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