Never having read any of The Boxcar Children series as a kid, a friend recently gave me a copy of an ebook comprising the first 12 volumes to see what I missed out on. As a boy, I had been a fan of Enid Blyton's books, which were largely set in Britain, so I was curious to see how something similar from the US would read. I had also read that The Boxcar Children series is still very popular among kids despite having started in the 1940s.As the book was first published 70 years ago, I was expecting it to be somewhat old-fashioned and sexist. To some degree this is true. The four orphaned children mimic the typical white middle-class family with the older boy and girl taking on parental roles towards the younger girl and boy according to a largely traditional sexual division of labour. Henry, the older boy, goes into town to do odd jobs so that he can earn money to buy food and other needed items, such as a tablecloth, for himself and his siblings. Jessie, the older girl, stays at home to mind the younger kids (at one point cutting Benny's hair) and acts as a housekeeper, washing clothes and cooking meals. Similarly, Henry makes a cart for Benny while Violet is thrilled to hem the new tablecloth and Jessie makes a broom. However, the girls are also resourceful in locating an old dump from which cracked, but serviceable, crockery and a cooking kettle could be salvaged. They also make, with the help of little Benny, a stone-lined fire-pit over which the kettle could be suspended from a wire strung between two trees. Jessie also made a ladle from a tin cup fastened to a stick and used charcoal to write words on sheets of wrapping paper so that Benny could start learning to read. But the kids also work together to build a small dam across a stream and instead of Henry using his age and gender to dictate what the group should do, he often asks Jessie for her advice. It is probably because he is the eldest that Henry is always the one to light the fire, and it is his strength (as the oldest and biggest child) that is sometimes needed to lift heavier rocks.The book subtley teaches some practical wisdom - to always drink water from a water pump or fountain as opposed to a brook, that things can be recycled, to use boiling water to rinse off crockery found in a dump instead of just washing it in cold water, to use sand as a scouring agent, how to manage time (Jessie washing everyone's stockings while the others built the dam), using pine needles as bedding, locating a hearth away from anything that might catch fire (and having a container of water to hand in case something did catch light), and so on.The children are also respectful of other people's property, with for example Henry asking permission to take stunted vegetables thinned out from a vegetable patch or bent nails from a garage rather than presuming to take them even though they would've been discarded anyway. The overall impression I have of reading the book is that the kids are very practical and independent (except, not unreasonably, when it comes to illness). They seem to belong to a can-do generation unlike many of today's children whom, I feel, are more dependent and infantilised. Many schools in the US apparently ban kids of even high school age from possessing or using a pointed pair of scissors because it could hurt somebody. Likewise pen-knives are forbidden. And how many kids today could make a broom, hem a cloth or make a cart without the help of parents or other adults? Books like The Boxcar Children therefore serve as useful and accessible repositories of practical knowledge and advice that kids today and in the future can learn and that will hopefully encourage them to explore, make, repair, and innovate in ways that endless hours of computer games and cartoons on TV will not.A couple of things that made me go 'hmmm' include the kids not hearing thunder as they slept outside in a wood (is that even possible?), or the description of the kids after a day spent cherry-picking as being 'better than most workers, because [they] are so happy' (so most workers should go about their work gleefully in order to be considered 'good'?). Henry also seems to be a bit dense later in the story in not recognising a man he had only seen a day or two before - but this is probably to add a little tension to the narrative and to get any kids reading the book a bit frustrated over how long Henry was taking to figure it out. Apart from these minor quibbles, this is a book I would recommend to any child old enough to read it - and maybe for those adults who want to catch up with aspects of their childhood that they missed.
I read this book as a child and oh, did I ever cherish it. I'm a detail-oriented person, and this book speaks to the super organized control freak in me. Warner weaves so many details into the lives of the Boxcar children that, as a young'un, I found myself mentally picturing their home in exquisite detail. Over a decade since I last read it, I still remember the milk kept cool by the waterfall, or the kids carrying the cherries back to the boxcar between them. These details are the strength of the book - for the little girl or boy who liked playing house and inventing routines, this book is perfect escapism.The book is by no means perfect - the children are saccharine, never fight and they don't seem to have much in the way of distinct personalities beyond their age-directed roles in the family unit. Also, as the series goes on, I was always confused as to why they inexplicably began solving mysteries, since this first book has nothing to do with anything like that. The book really does romanticize homelessness tremendously as well. Nothing bad ever befalls the children, they never go hungry or have any serious problems in meeting all their basic needs. Still, because of how much I loved this book, I can't help giving it a better rating than it probably deserves, if only to reflect how much dang fun it was for me to read and re-read as a child.
What do You think about The Boxcar Children (1989)?
I loved these books as a child. I just re-read this one again, now as an adult. In reading many of the comments made here, I realize that most of you may not know this book was published in 1942, right after the Great Depression. This is a book about children who start off with nothing, but managed to survive and even thrive on their own resourcefulness. This was probably a very powerful book in 1942 and it is still relevant, perhaps even more so, today. I love that these children are respectful, support each other, work hard, and never lose faith that things will somehow be alright. How many children today would be so thrilled to find cracked dishes in a dump and be grateful to have them?
—Leslie
I adored this series as a child, and remember this first story especially fondly. I recently came across a few of the earliest stories and wanted to re-read this one to see how it holds up.Between this and A Little Princess, I was influenced at a very young age to think about all the wonderful things I got to have in my life which I really didn't need. I live a fairly minimalist lifestyle now, and I attribute the beginnings to playing "one-room house" as a child.I can't in good conscience give this book the full five stars, if only because the children really are too perfect. I don't have much of a problem with the gender roles in this book—as I didn't when I read it as a child—because that's how things worked more than half a century ago. If this had been written recently? Whole different ball game. Which actually makes me want to read a couple of the more recent ones, just to see if the characterizations have changed enough to not be annoying.
—Gritshelme
The boxcar children is about 4 kides named Henry. Jessie, violet, and Benny. There parents both died so the cildren run away so there grandfather dosen't find them. The think that there grandfather is old, and mean. the go to the bakery and as they look at the display window when the backers wife comes and lookes at them with a verry bad look she hates kids. As the walked in they bought a lofe of bread and Henery asked if they could sleep ther at night if they helped do the dishes in the morning. When they went to bed. Henry and Jessie herd the backer and his wife the older 3 we will kepp the will be good help but Benny we will tack him to the kids home. so they ran away found a box car they moved in and that night they sleept on pine needals. In the morning Henery wen't to town to work for money. Wile he was gon the 3 went to the dump and found weels a pink cup for benny and spoons and dishes. Henry came back he told them about Dr.moore and how nice he was one day when he was working he asked if he could help pick the cerrys in the cerry orcherd he said you can bring enybody to help. after a few dayes Violet got sick Mr.moore had Mr.Alden come over and meat the kids without telling them that that was there grandfather, once they got to know Mr.Alden he told them that he was there grandfather. He took the kids to show them his house and then the kids showed him there boxcar . they moved in and after a copple days they missed the boxcar so Mr.Alden sent the kids to Mr.Morres for the day. When the kids came back the boxcar was there.
—Kelsey
