The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner

We just finished reading The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner yesterday.  This was the first time I’d ever read it, and I confess I picked it up because I assumed it was a mystery (based on the word mystery being appended to “Boxcar Children” in the series that grew out of it).  Since I had never read it, I thought it would be perfect for this month’s Children’s Classics Mystery Challenge.  Too, we had just finished Farmer Boy (read my thoughts here), and I was ready to read something shorter. 

Although I was a little surprised that The Boxcar Children contains very little of what I call mystery, it was a rousing success with my girls.  It is very simply written.  One thing I noticed is that Gertrude Chandler Warner used absolutely no contractions in the writing of this story.   I find it difficult to read a story without using contractions, so it seemed a little bit stilted and “Dick and Jane-ish” to me.  Of course, this didn’t bother my girls in the least–they loved this story.  In fact, Louise wants to re-check it from the library! 

When I think about it, maybe it is a mystery, still.  There are mysterious elements (i.e. unidentified noises, etc.), and it is about four children who are running away from a grandfather whom they don’t like.  There is nothing at all scary in the story, so it is a great way to introduce a few of the elements of mystery, though.  Its resolution is pleasant for everyone involved, including their maligned grandfather.  It is a very gentle story, and I would think that children even younger than mine (currently 5 1/2 and 4) would enjoy it.  In fact, in terms of simplicity (‘though not of genre or storyline) it reminds me a little of the My Father’s Dragon series (read my thoughts on this series here and here and here). 

Despite the fact that The Boxcar Children did not exactly meet my expectations, it was not a disappointment.  I can see why it’s a classic, and I’m glad to have met Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny.  I look forward to sharing more of these stories with my girls.

If you’d like to read about what other bloggers are reading for this month’s Children’s Classics Mystery Challenge, be sure to check out 5 Minutes for Books!

Trixie Belden and the Mystery Off Glen Road by Julie Campbell

I am excited to share this walk down memory lane that I took thanks to the new Children’s Classics Mystery Challenge that will be going on for the first half of this year at 5 Minutes for Books.  I randomly chose a Trixie Belden title off my shelf for this first challenge; I read many of the Trixie Belden titles as a teen, so I figured I was acquainted enough with the cast of characters to simply slip back into their world in upstate New York, and I was right.  Although twenty years or so have elapsed since I last cracked open one of these books, I picked right up as if I just left off yesterday.

The Mystery Off Glen Road is number five in the series, so it was apparently written by a real author, Julie Campbell, instead of the pseudonymous Kathryn Kenney, who was actually a team of writers from Western Publishing.  (All this according to the Trixie Belden Homepage.)  It would be interesting to read some of the later books to see if there are any differences in the writing style, etc.  I can’t imagine that the writing could be any less sophisticated, but I don’t know. 

As I mentioned in my introductory Children’s Classics Mystery Challenge post, although I read Nancy Drew, I always liked Trixie better.  This referesher course in all things Bob Whites has confirmed that sentiment–Trixie is a rough-and-tumble tomboy, but everyone loves her for it–even Jim Frayne, whom I realize now (‘though I can’t really remember thinking it way back then) that Trixie has a crush on.  I think the feelings are mutual, actually.  Isn’t it funny that I never really picked up on that as a teen?  I was naive. 

I think the funniest thing for me has been the dated words and expressions that the characters use.  “Gleeps!” is one of Trixie’s favorite exclamations.  I couldn’t help but think of Scooby-Doo each time I read one of these vintage slang terms–I could hear Velma or Daphne saying them in my head.  A large part of the plot of this particular mystery hinges on Brian Belden’s plan to buy an old jalopy for $50 from the owner of the general store.  Does anyone seriously refer to an old car as a jalopy any more?  The word is used so often in the story that I began to wish I were being paid $1 for each time I read it. 

The other thing I found amusing (and annoying) is the mode of exposition.  Carrie discusses this same issue in her Nancy Drew 1930 vs. Nancy Drew 1959 post, so it was obviously the style of such formula fiction.  Here’s a quick example of what I mean from The Mystery Off Glen Road.  Trixie reminds Honey that she and her brother Mart are “practically twins,” to which Honey replies, “That I do know.  In fact, you are twins for one whole month of the year, because your birthdays are exactly eleven months apart.”  Would two best friends actually ever have that conversation?  I think not.  It’s obvious to me that the author include that little exchange beause she knew she had readers “listening in” on the conversation.

Still, with all its shortcomings, I enjoyed the book.  I probably won’t revisit them again any time soon, but I like having the copies I have for posterity and for old time’s sake.  My copies actually belonged to my older cousin, and I enjoy seeing that fifty year old cousin’s signature on the flyleaves of these old hardbacks.  (Mine look nothing like the one pictured above, by the way.)

If you’re a fan, be sure to visit the Trixie Belden Homepage.  It contains all kinds of interesting facts and neat trivia!  Check out 5 Minutes for Books for more Children’s Classics Mystery Challenge posts, too.

Children’s Classics Mystery Challenge

I don’t know what it is, but I just cannot get the new 5 Minutes for Books schedule to sink into my brain.  Granted, I should’ve known the second Tuesday of the month has always been the Children’s Classics challenge, and with the new year we just have a new genre stipulation added to the old challenge (for six months, anyway), but this one slipped by me.  Next month, Lord willing, I will be prepared!

Instead this month I’m going to make some plans.  I loved mysteries as a young teenager and beyond, and I’ve sort of fallen out of the habit of reading them.  I think part of the problem is that now that I’m an adult, I don’t want to read anything that might even have the remote potential to give me a nightmare or make me stay awake thinking, so I generally avoid them.  (That’s not to say I never read them; I just try to be very choosy.)  However, there are several authors from my youth that I’d like to revisit, and this challenge provides the perfect chance!

While other pre-teen girls were devouring Nancy Drew, I was devouring Trixie Belden.  That’s not to say I didn’t read Nancy; I did.  I just felt more kinship with Trixie, I think, because she didn’t seem nearly as perfect and put-together.  I also liked the gaggle of kids she was always with.  Their adventures in upstate New York always sounded like so much fun to me. I led a fairly boy-less existence until I was in college (and then, really, until I met my true love, Steady Eddie!), so the fact that Trixie and Honey were great chums with a bunch of boys was intriguing to me.  I have several Trixie Belden titles on my shelf, so I’m sure I’ll pull one of those and re-read it for old time’s sake.

Another series I hope to delve into through this challenge is The Boxcar Children mysteries by Gertrude Chandler Warner. Somehow I missed these books all together, although I do have a distinct memory of having a fifth grade teacher for the half of a year I was at one particular school who loved these books.  I’m curious about them, so I hope to satisfy that curiosity in the next few months.

The author I’m most excited about re-reading, though, is Phyllis A. Whitney.  With seventy-six books to her credit, Whitney is no stranger to most avid readers of suspense novels.  However, it might come as a surprise that she wrote some twenty juvenile mysteries.  If my memory serves me correctly, I don’t think I discovered her until I was out of high school and working as a public library aide, and while I definitely consider myself a late bloomer, these books didn’t seem too juvenile to me at the time.  I’m not even sure if any of these books are available at my local libraries, so I might have to do a little ILL-sleuthing myself (or PaperbackSwapping!) to find them.  I’m looking forward to it!

Next month, I plan to be prepared!  To read other, more prepared bloggers’ reviews, though, click over to the Children’s Classics Mystery Challenge at 5 Minutes for Books!

A Girl of the Limberlost by Gene Stratton-Porter

First off, let me confess something: I picked up A Girl of the Limberlost thinking I had read it (and loved it) as a child, per the instructions for this month’s Children’s Classics bookclub at 5 Minutes for Books.
However, I was only about a quarter of the way into the book and realized that I was blissfully unfamiliar with the plot.  Oh.  I must’ve only read its prequel, Freckles, at the recommendation of a book-loving cousin and then stopped without learning the extent of Freckles’ influence in the subsequent book, A Girl of the Limberlost.  No matter–I think I enjoyed it every bit as much now as I possibly could’ve enjoyed it as a child. 

(Actually, I don’t think I’d even classify this book as children’s literature, although it is certainly tame enough by today’s standards for the youngest of readers who might be interested, even with its dysfunctional families, romance, and broken engagements.  However, because of the age of the protagonist, Elnora Comstock, and the phase of her life this book is about, I think it’s better described as young adult literature.)

A brief synopsis:  Elnora Comstock, the sixteen year old daughter of a neglectful (and at times, abusive) mother, lives at the edge of Indiana’s Limberlost swamp, where she lives daily in the woods and the surrounding environs, learning the ways of all wild creatures, both flora and fauna.  The story opens with Elnora going to the nearest town, Onabasha, to attend high school for the first time.  Elnora is the stereotypical country girl, laughed at by her peers because of her naivete and her wardrobe.  However, Elnora rises to the occasion through the help and love of her neighbors who have acted as her surrogate parents in the absence of her deceased father and her grief-stricken, half-crazed mother.  What transpires after this is the story of a beautiful, extraordinary girl developing into the woman she was always meant to be.  Along the way, many lives are affected by her maturity, her ability to love, and her love for and understanding of the natural world. Anyone who loves Anne of Green Gables or Little Women or any others of a host of literature written around the turn of the twentieth century will also love this book; it is similar in many ways to its sisters:  an unspoiled country girl, through her hard work, character, and lessons hard won through suffering, wins the hearts of all she meets, even those who determined to hate her.

However, the real star of this story is the Limberlost, thanks to Gene Stratton-Porter’s beautifully descriptive writing.  I can’t help but want to find a place untouched by man (where might that be, I wonder?), buy a plot of land, and raise my children there.   (I know this isn’t possible, and furthermore, might not actaully produce a girl like Elnora Comstock, but a mother can dream, can’t she?)  Phillip Ammon, Elnora’s would-be suitor, sums it up quite well in his speech to Elnora:

I understand what you mean by self-expression.  I know something of what you have to express.  The world never so wanted your message as it does now. It is hungry for the things you know.  I can see easily how your position came to you.  What you have to give is taught in no college, and I am not sure but you would spoil yourself if you tried to run your mind through a set groove with hundreds of others.  I never thought I should say such a thing to anyone, but I do say to you, and I honestly believe it:  give up the college idea.  Your mind does not need that sort of development, it is far past it.  Stick close to your work in the woods.  You are growing infinitely greater on it than the best college student I ever knew, that there is no comparison.

This is a lovely, lovely book.  I’m pretty sure this will make my Best Books of 2009 list.  It has whetted my appetite for more Gene Stratton-Porter because I enjoy both her style and her message so much. 

As a side note, I included two different book covers here because the copy I own of the book resembles the first one, and I wish it resembled the second.    My five year stint as a public library aide when I was an undergraduate college student netted me lots of good books, and this is one of them.  However, the pages are so brittle, they are literally falling apart.  I think I missed a few important phrases (with writing like this, every word counts to me) because of this, so I’d love to add a newer copy of this book (or even better, an old copy in good condition) to my home library.

One more rabbit trail:  A Girl of the Limberlost cannot help but remind me (and others) of Anna Botsford Comstock’s Handbook of Nature Studydue to the obvious name similarity, but also because of the emphasis on nature and education.  Do any of my fellow bibliophiles know if there is a connection?

The redemptive power of love shines brightly in A Girl of the Limberlost, and for that I give it a Highly, Highly Recommended.

Read more about Gene Stratton-Porter here, and for more Children’s Classics, be sure to visit 5 Minutes for Books!

Children’s Classics–My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George

My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George is one book I’m glad I took the time to read!  Life has been very hectic around here, and when I realized on Saturday that the Children’s Classics bookclub over at 5 Minutes for Books was coming up shortly, I panicked (a little).  I mean, I think I’m the one who suggested this month’s theme of adventure!  (You can correct me if I’m wrong, girls.  )  I was in the middle of two books at the time, one of which was an overdue interlibrary loan book that racks up overdue charges at the rate of fifty cents a day!   I began to scan the shelves at home, all the while thinking that I could just write up a glowing review of  The Cayor Hatchet from memory.  However, I spied the Newbery honor-winning story of Sam Gribley and his falcon, Frightful, and, thinking it is a story that I surely should’ve read by now, I designated it as my weekend book-of-choice. 

This is a great little book.  Published in 1959, it has a real innocence about it that I love.  My more modern (and motherly) sensibilities are a little shaken by the idea that Sam runs away and no one finds him for several months.  Wow!  However, I can appreciate his yearning to get out of the noise and chaos of New York City (not that I’ve ever lived there, but I can imagine).  Sam seems a little wise beyond his years because he knows so much about living in the wild (and this before the days of all those television programs that show men eating all sorts of digusting interesting things!).  However, Jean Craighead George did manage to retain an innocency about Sam, all the same. When I had read enough into the book to learn that Sam is actually an (old?) teenager, I was surprised, nonetheless.  His knowledge of the wild makes him seem old, but his innocence about life makes him seem younger than that.  I think I saw him as a twelve year old. 

I love that George wrote this book to read as excerpts from Sam’s journal, scratched down on bark.  I also loved his drawings of plants, animals, the tools he makes, etc.   Reading this book makes me want to get out into nature and really listen even more; I know I have a deficit of nature in my life.  I’m sorry that I missed this book as a child–I think this book would really fuel a childish imagination.  However, I’m glad I found it when I did.  I look forward to reading this one to my girls in a few years.  The only thing I didn’t much like about My Side of the Mountain is the ending, but I know there are a couple of sequels, so there is hope for redemption. 

This is actually my first experience with Jean Craighead George’s books.  No, I’ve never read Julie of the Wolves.  Can you believe it?  Looking over Jean Craighead George’s website, I can see that she is a very prolific writer, and I look forward to reading more of her works.

Children’s Classics–Book Trips

It’s time for another Children’s Classics carnival over at 5 Minutes for Books, and while I wish I could say that I have a lovely post prepared for this, one of my very favorite carnivals, I don’t.  Oh, I have plenty of good fodder, but I’ve been short on time.  That, and I’ve been blogging my way through Narnia this week, so my mind is definitely on a different world besides the one I actually reside in.  I could’ve written about our fabulous two week long honeymoon, one week of which we spent on PEI, Canada, simply because I loved and adored all things Anne.  Or I could’ve written about the time that Steady Eddie indulged my wanderlust on yet another trip and took a half day detour to visit DeSmet, SD, home of the Ingalls family during their Little Town on the Prairie phase.  I’ll have to save those reminiscences (and pictures, none of which are digital and many of which are in scrapbooks) for another day.  I will, however, point you to this post of mine in which I share a field trip that was much closer to home, and I will also direct you back to 5 Minutes for Books for other field trip posts!