A deluxe Boxcar bookcase that contains 12 titles - The Boxcar Children® Mysteries #1 through #12. Also included are Boxcar activities and poster and accordion bookmark with title checklist. The bookcase can expands to hold up to 32 books.
jl37
Posted June 25, 2011
the author was my first grade teacher in Putnam ct. If we were good in class she would read a chapter to us {as she was writing it, to get our reaction] at the end of the class day. Back then we were always,well mostly well behaved.This was a great way to get our attention. We all looked forward to the reading and loved the book. My three children, 5 grandchildren enjoyed it also.
7 out of 7 people found this review helpful.
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Posted April 10, 2013
I purchased this set for my five-year-old, who absolutely fell in love with the first Boxcar Children mystery. As a book-loving mom, this was one of those "moments"--I distinctly remember reading the first book sometime in first grade and being thrilled that my first grade class's "reading nook" was actually a real boxcar, complete with a tree stump! So when I saw this set, I had to pick it up. Truthfully, the "bookshelf" is not much to write home about--a cardboard box decorated to look like a boxcar--but is cute. Included are "spacers" that replicate the boxcar theme, and can be taken out to include more books. It also comes with a nice little poster with the original (I think?) cover art for the first book. I love that the set includes only the original books, but be aware: this set includes ONLY the first 12 of Gertrude Chandler Warner's original 19 mysteries--and that omission is one of the few reasons this set doesn't get five stars from me. My thought is, if you are going to include ROOM TO EXPAND, why not simply offer the original set in its entirety? This way, those of us who want only the original series (myself included--I'm not a fan of the "continuation" of the series since they were not written by Chandler and are merely "based on" the original series) have a complete set. And for those parents who are thrilled to see their kids into a wholesome series, they can continue purchasing the subsequent books. The choice to include only the first 12 books seems unnecessarily arbitrary and very silly. So that's one small gripe. Another is simply a personal preference thing--I am NOT a fan of the new cover artwork. Clearly, the publishers were trying to modernize the look to attract new readers...but face it, this series was written over 60 years ago--putting Jessie and Violet in pants is not going to change the time period, and if anything is just confusing. I would have preferred that the original cover art be preserved--but again, that's just my personal approach--it's a series from the 40's, let's not try to make it "hip" and "cool"--let's appreciate it for the wonderful series it is! As for the books themselves--they are great. The 4 Alden kids (Jessie, Henry, Violet, and Benny) do spend a lot of time "laughing" and "smiling" in some very strange places (in fact, that was a little joke in my family when I was growing up--a joke that my father remembers to this day, 25-plus years later)...but overall, each mystery is well-written, interesting, and takes us readers to some very unusual places, ranging from a lighthouse to an old schoolhouse to a mountaintop with a mystery hidden inside it. The self-reliance of the kids is a great contrast to today's often over-parented kids (and as one of those parents I love that my daughter and I can talk about the differences in parenting styles between then and now!), and the values promoted by the books are 100% positive: cheerfulness, family, resourcefulness, friendship, learning, and a healthy sense of curiosity. What's not to love? The books make me smile to think about them, and I'm sure that Jessie, Henry, Violet, and Benny Alden would be smiling--I mean laughing!--right along with me. :)
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Posted December 28, 2012
The Boxcar Children books were a part of my childhood. I gave this set to a Children's Home for their enjoyment.
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Posted January 5, 2011
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Posted December 15, 2010
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Posted March 9, 2011
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Posted November 26, 2010
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Posted May 31, 2011
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Posted November 23, 2010
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Posted November 11, 2010
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Posted November 27, 2010
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Posted February 4, 2011
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Posted November 6, 2012
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Posted March 1, 2013
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Overview
A deluxe Boxcar bookcase that contains 12 titles - The Boxcar Children® Mysteries #1 through #12. Also included are Boxcar activities and poster and accordion bookmark with title checklist. The bookcase can expands to hold up to 32 books.