The Boxcar Children tells the story of four orphaned children, Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny. It's an idealized, heartwarming tale that looks at kids who never argue, work together without complaint, and find joy in even life's smallest treasures. Included is the desk at which a 9-year-old Warner wrote her first story titled Golliwog at the Zoo. In fact, one of his favorite questions is Whens lunch? because hes usually hungry! At age fourteen, Henry is the oldest in the Alden family. Plots are simple but engaging. This series of children's novels byGertrude Chandler Warnerseems innocuous or even charming on the surface. There, Henry gets to know about a Free-for-all race. Less than a few hours after Snapchat rolled out its My AI chatbot to all users last week, Lyndsi Lee, a mother from East Prairie, Missouri, told her 13-year-old daughter to stay away from the feature. Left without parents in a manner that the books frustratingly never reveal, Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny Alden live in a mannereven after theyre adopted by their grandfatherthats both entertaining for young readers but that also shows a remarkable amount of self-reliance and respect for family values. Henry ends up winning the Free-for-all Race and shaking his grandfathers hand as he accepts the prize. At the end of the novel, the children are very glad and make the boxcar as their clubhouse and happily live. Zachary Gordon, Joey King, Mackenzie Foy, and Jadon Sand voiced Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny respectively. The executive producer was Maureen Sargent Gorman. James Henry Alden: is the wealthy and kind grandfather of the Alden children, allowing them a lot of freedom and always offering them advice. Even in the first book, little Benny doesnt cry or talk about wanting his parents or missing them. Gertrude Chandler Warner died in 1979 at the age of 89 after a full life as a teacher, author, and volunteer for the American Red Cross and other charitable organizations. The childrens glazed-over existence is not only accepted, but pretty much celebrated. The Boxcar Children are building a tree house with the kids next door when they realize that the house next door has a window that they never noticed before. Every book on this site, whether it's in a series or not, is listed under the Books by Decade section. Violet, ten, helps take care of Benny, five, the baby of the group. The first books in the series were written by Gertrude Chandler Warner, but the series continued far after her death with new books written by other authors. Patricia MacLachlan wrote a prequel to the series called The Boxcar Children Beginnings to explain the childrens lives before the series began, and one of the later additions to the series, #149 The Day of the Day Mystery, briefly mentions the childrens parents dying in a car accident. Researchers have studied how much of our personality is set from childhood, but what youre like isnt who you are. Shes a little on the shy side, but because shes quiet, shes a careful observer. Her favorite color is violet or purple and she often wears one of those colors. The Boxcar Children books feature the Alden children Henry, Jessie, and Violet. Which stories have you both read and seen that stay true to the intention and heart of the book? To help them fully adjust, he moves their boxcar to one of his gardens so they can play in it whenever they like. Yes, the reality of what that life would actually be is horrible, but romanticized in fictionand especially in fiction meant for children and young adultsthat kind of independence is tantalizing. As a special surprise for the children, he even brings their old boxcar to his property so they can continue to use it as a playhouse. Change). Considerably slower and more deliberate than most 21st-century children's fare,The Boxcar Children takes hold of and carries the viewer into the lovely world of Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny. [11] She is buried in Grove Street Cemetery, Putnam, Connecticut. A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Newton Peck. More than a hundred books followed the iconic original, most devoted to the Boxcar kids as mystery solvers. She is often responsible for cooking. Harry Belafonte's Spouses: Remembering the Legend's Family Life - People For the 1942 version, the story line and personalities of the main characters remained largely unchanged, but Warner abbreviated the text for younger readers, scrubbing it down to the simplicity of a fablethe vocabulary of the second edition was deliberately limited to six hundred words. 'The Boxcar Children' Was A Lot Darker Than You Might Remember - Ranker A baker and his wife spend their free hours searching for the children. The Boxcar Children investigate the thefts of statues around a spooky house filled with skeletons. [8], Warner's life was chronicled in the biography Gertrude Chandler Warner and the Boxcar Children[9] by Mary Ellen Ellsworth, illustrated by Marie DeJohn, which tells the story of Warner's childhood living across the street from the railroad tracks, her bouts with poor health, her teaching career, her earliest attempts at writing, and her inspiration for The Boxcar Children. Besides that there's motion scary. But seeing the world through the eyes of a precocious and bumbling 6-year-old with a vocabulary that includes a liberal sprinkling of the words ho-hum, well, it can get a bit tiring. Henry and Jessie are in the place of authority over their siblings, and Benny, who is 5, and Violet, who is 10, treat Henry and Jessie with respect. In subsequent books, Watch's bed is in Jessie's bedroom. Not wishing to live with their hard-hearted grandfather, whom they have never met because of his disapproval of their parents' marriage, the children strike out on their own following their parents' death. The children are generally hard-workers, something that their grandfather takes pride in and encourages. Dr. Moore gifts Henry a hammer and Henry also takes a few nails from the doctor. In her later life, before she died at age 89, Warner became a volunteer for the American Red Cross, a Cancer Society and other charitable organizations to help kids and adults in need from suffering. While Henry finds work doing chores for Dr. Moore and his mother, Mrs. Moore, Jessie, Violet, and Benny find dishes and other necessities in the town dump. Rather, what the heck happened to Ma and Pa Alden? document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); The purpose of this site is to discuss/reminisce about old children's books. 2K views, 27 likes, 7 loves, 18 comments, 0 shares, Facebook Watch Videos from Dbstvstlucia: DBS MORNING SHOW & OBITUARIES 25TH APRIL 2023 APRIL 2023 No.