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By:
Betsy Bird,
on 4/13/2015
Blog:
A Fuse #8 Production
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The weather! She has warmed here in NYC! The crocuses and daffodils and purple flowers that I can never identify are blooming in my front yard. The birds are singing and there are buds on the trees. Tis spring spring spring! To celebrate, we begin today with a poetic celebration of baseball (a very spring thing) written by none other than my father. You may have known that my mother was talented in this manner. So too mon pere. Enjoy!
- News That Did Not Make a Sufficient Splash in America: How is it that we are not ALL aware that over in Bologna the small Brooklyn publisher Enchanted Lion Books won the prize for Best Children’s Publisher of the Year in the U.S. category? I do not recall seeing this in my PW Children’s Bookshelf (though perhaps I missed it) nor on my tweets. Come on, people! Big time honor here and it couldn’t have gone to a nicer company. Well done!
- There are few things the British like more than rereleasing new Harry Potter covers. They just revealed the new Jim Kay cover and while it does resemble some of the European covers I’ve seen, I think it is the very first time I’ve ever seen a hog associated in any way with Hogwarts.
Harry’s hair is actually messy! And here is a nice interview with the artist in question.
- I say this in all sincerity: The Bay Area Children’s Theatre may be the coolest theater of all time. Yes, I love the New Victory Theatre in here NYC and my heart will always have a soft spot for Children’s Theatre Company of Minneapolis, but check out this upcoming season. It was Rickshaw Girl that drilled it all home for me. Rickshaw Girl! That would work brilliantly on the stage.
- This one’s interesting. There’s an extension (I think they’re called extensions, though I’m a little hazy on that point) that once installed on your computer allows you to browse Amazon.com and see the availability of the items there in your local library. The applications, should they get out, could be enormous. Using an online retailer to search your local library (which could be useful if your library’s search engine is archaic). Curious how people feel about this one. It’s called Library Extension.
- We’ve seen books written by children reach various levels of popularity over the years. Swordbird, Eragon, She Was Nice to Mice, etc. And we’ve seen celebrity children’s books flood our shelves whether we want them or not. Now the two have come together with an upcoming release and it’s . . . um . . . well, it’s kind of the ULTIMATE celebrity child author of all time. This I’ll pass on, though.
- What kinds of children’s books would you like to see? Where are your pet personal gaps? Marc Aronson begins the conversation.
I don’t usually show tweets that amuse me, but this one had me laughing aloud in public for days.
The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner, the first book in the series, has come to life in the animated film, “The Boxcar Children,” with voice actors Joey King, Mackenzie Foy, Zachary Gordon, and Jaden Sand. Directors include Daniel Chuba and Mark A. Z. Dippé. It’s now on sale wherever DVDs are sold!
Susan Elizabeth Phillips, a New York Times Bestselling author of over twenty novels, writes about how reading The Boxcar Children as a young girl helped shape her love of reading for pleasure:
The Boxcar Children is the book that changed my life. An exaggeration? Nope. Cross my heart. I was seven years old and in second grade. Learning to read had been a terrible struggle for me, and my seven-year-old brain could not comprehend reading for pleasure. And then Mrs. Martin began reading The Boxcar Children to the class at the end of each school day.
I was enraptured with the story from the first page, and to this day, I remember the sick feeling in my stomach when the school bell rang, and Mrs. Martin closed the book—the story UNFINISHED. Then, the agonizing wait through the next day for the magical moment—would it ever arrive?—when she would open the book again.
After that introduction, how could I not beg my mother—not that it took much begging—to take me to the library to get Surprise Island. And then The Yellow House Mystery. My lifelong love of reading had begun.
Phillips’ newest book Heroes Are My Weakness is on sale everywhere that books are sold beginning on August 26th. You can visit her website; follow her on Twitter, and like her Facebook page.
#99 The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner (1942)
19 points
If there is a shining example of a book considered a classic in spite of the fact that it has garnered no awards, my vote would go for Warner’s ultimate kids-living-on-their-own story. When I was a child I spent a frightening amount of time writing stories about independent children who were orphaned by various horrible means. Looking back, I suspect that my influence at the time had to be Ms. Warner. Yet you will not find her books mentioned in Louise Seaman Bechtel’s Books in Search of Children, Anita Silvey’s Children’s Books and Their Creators or even The Essential Guide to Children’s Books and Their Creators. Minders of Make-Believe by Leonard Marcus makes no mention of it nor does Gertrude Chandler Warner have an entry in the 1971 edition of The Who’s Who of Children’s Literature, compiled and edited by Brian Doyle. Finally, pick up a copy of your New York Times Parent’s Guide to the Best Books for Children by Eden Ross Lipson. Nope. Not there either. Heck, nobody even sent me a quote of the reason they liked this book.
The reasons for this are manifold but one problem may be the fact that you are dealing with the titular book in what would later become a series. Many is the library system that carries the Boxcar Children series but not that many kids know that the series had a single book begin it all that acted as a starting point.
The plot as described by Wikipedia says: “Originally published in 1924 by Rand McNally and reissued in 1942, the novel The Boxcar Children, tells the story of four orphaned children, Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny. They get permission to stay overnight at a bakery but run away when they hear the baker’s wife say she will keep the older three and send the youngest, Benny, to an orphanage. They create a home for themselves in an abandoned boxcar in the forest. They fear their legal guardian, their grandfather, believing him to be cruel. They enjoy their freedom, but need to seek help when Violet becomes ill. They eventually meet their grandfather, James Alden, who is a kind and wealthy man. The children agree to live with him. James moves the beloved boxcar to his backyard so the children can use it as a playhouse. In the subsequent books, the children encounter many adventures and mysteries in their neighborhood or at the locations they visit with their grandfather.”
Who defends it? Well me, for one. I have vivid memories of the book, having had it read to me in school. Cleaning the silverware. Hiding from the authorities. It was simultaneously gripping and comforting all at once. Add to that the fact that it’s not every book that lasts from 1924 onwards.
Lest you forget, a prequel to the series as written by Patricia MacLachlan called The Boxcar Children Beginning is due out this coming September.
- You can learn more about Ms. Warner here.
- And you can download an activity guide here.
In terms of covers, it seems fitting to show a special 60th anniversary edition that was released
7 Comments on Top 100 Children’s Novels Poll #99: The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner, last added: 5/15/2012
by Anastasia Suen
Whenever I visit schools the children always ask, “Where do you get your ideas?” It’s one of my most frequently asked questions. They always seem surprised when I say that ideas are everywhere. I find ideas at home, in school, and in books, magazines, and newspapers. I also find them on the television and the internet. There is always something interesting that can be used in a story. So what did I use in this story? The clues are on the cover….
I love how the cover of my first Boxcar Children Mystery tells the story at a glance. You see the four Aldens working together. It’s a classic Boxcar Children moment! That’s why I loved these books as a child. The Aldens don’t sit around worrying – they make things happen! What are they up to this time? The title is our first clue…this book is called The Zombie Project.
Zombies?
Why did I choose a zombie for this book? Zombies are scary, but not too scary. After all they walk slowly, so you can get away…usually! It’s the chance that you might not escape that makes it interesting. Furthermore, zombies are dead, but they’re not. They’re “undead.” Zombies used to be people like us, but now they’re trapped between life and death because of voodoo or some sort of nasty virus. So they look like us, but not quite. Instead, they’re all gory and disgusting, making them the perfect bad guy for a mystery. If you look closely at the cover, you can see the zombie walking past the river.
Things that go bump in the night
You can see a cabin in the woods on the book cover, too. It’s right behind the zombie. I’ve never seen a zombie up close, thank goodness, but I do know about camping and staying in cabins in the woods. It’s so nice to get away from the lights of the city and see all the stars at night. Oh, but those noises…those strange noises in the woods…they can keep you awake at night. Who is really out there?
Our family has had some interesting experiences camping in the woods. One night in the middle of a thunderstorm, we heard a loud cracking sound. It was a massive lightning strike, one that shut off the cabin’s power for hours. As Snoopy would say, “It was a dark and stormy night.”
Another night we heard a noise outside the cabin and when we looked out the window, it was a bear! A young bear was wandering around knocking over trash cans looking for something to eat. There was nothing to eat in our trash can, so it moved on.
Fishing
On the book cover you can also see Henry holding a fishing pole and a bucket. The Aldens aren’t just fishing for clues; they’re fishing in the water. This is something that our family always does whenever we go camping in the woods. Fishing is a must.
My father taught me to fish when I was Benny’s age. I learned how to fish in the river, just like the Alden children do in this book. When my children were young, we taught them how to fish, too. It can be hard to sit there quietly and wait, but when you feel that tug on your pole, ah, sweet reward.
A campfire
There’s nothing like eating a freshly caught fish cooked over a campfire. Yum! Cooking over an open flame makes the food so tasty. Later, as the fire dwindles down, it’s time for campfire stories. The sun has set, so the woods all around you are dark…and then someone tells a scary story. It’s a campfire tradition.
It is by the campfire that Henry, Jessie, Violet and Benny find out more about the Legend of the Winding River Zombie. They know the story isn’t true, it can’t be. Everyone knows that zombies aren’t real.
by Susan Grigsby
Susan Grigsby, author of In the Garden with Dr. Carver, spent the weekend at the Museum of Transportation in St. Louis. She had a wonderful (and windy) experience sharing her enthusiasm for George Washington Carver with the kids.
This past weekend, the Museum of Transportation in St. Louis, MO hosted their second annual Train your Brain – Read! event. In addition to all of their regular attractions, the sprawling grounds filled for two days with entertainment for all ages, including car shows and craft tents. All of the children’s activities were connected to books, including (by a wonderful coincidence) The Boxcar Children series.
This was the first big outdoor festival of this nature that I’d been invited to and it was great fun. In the Garden with Dr. Carver is my first children’s book and I learned a lot by participating in this festival. My new Author Visit motto is “Lean into the Wind!” So, here’s some of what I learned:
The weekend prior to the festival, it snowed four inches. The weekend of the festival, it was 91 degrees and the winds gusted to 44 miles per hour. We could have moved inside, but that would have meant giving up a highly visible spot at the entrance gate. The tent had to come down, but thanks to the assistance of a wonderful museum employee named Jamie, we stayed outside and not a single crayon or paper escaped. We used lots of rocks, dried beans (in the crayon cups), ribbon, and some very snazzy party table weights that Jamie found hiding in a museum closet. Lesson learned: be flexible and creative, and gracefully give up on your hair staying anywhere near where you’d like it to be. Bonus: Kids love a table full of rocks and snazzy glittery party weights!
Find a connection to the festival you’re attending. When we first met, the museum director noticed the Jesup Wagon in the book. So, we decided to feature Dr. Carver’s moveable school. I made a huge poster which we lassoed down and it drew people that might otherwise not have stopped by. The photos covered the transportation modes of the moveable school over several decades and the old photos caused many to stop and talk about their memories of those times. ![]()
Newbery Award winner Patricia MacLachlan (pictured, via) has signed up with Albert Whitman & Company to write a prequel for Gertrude Chandler Warner‘s popular kidlit series, The Boxcar Children.
The not-yet-titled project will be released in September 2012 for the 70-year anniversary of the book’s debut. An eBook version will be published simultaneously from Open Road Integrated Media.
MacLane gave this quote in the press release: “Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny are kind to one another and embody the true sense of family. They are resourceful and positive. I find them both true children and true heroes at the same time. It occurs to me that perhaps their parents were the same. I’m looking forward to exploring that idea and more.”
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
Maybe you’ve just read about our plans to publish a Boxcar Children prequel written by Patricia MacLachlan. It goes without saying that we’re excited—after all, the world of that very first book is so enchanting that we’re looking forward to having Patricia return to that world and explore how it all began for the fictional Alden children.
It’s also exciting to explore where it all began in real life, too. Which is why we picked Putnam, Connecticut, the hometown of Gertrude Chandler Warner, as a place to meet Patricia earlier this week. Josalyn and Michelle have visited Putnam and the Gertrude Chandler Warner Museum (housed in a boxcar!) in the past year, but this was my very first visit.
I flew into Providence, Rhode Island, on Monday morning and drove woodsy two-lane highways all the way to Putnam. The museum doesn’t have a formal address, but I followed the GPS directions to a nearby business and was able to spot the boxcar —right across the tracks from the old railroad station!
Only one set of tracks runs by the boxcar now. When Gertrude Chandler Warner was a young girl, there were at least six tracks here. She lived just up the street and used to stand on a ridge a few hundred yards from this spot and watch the trains go by.
After taking artsy pictures of the boxcar I wandered around town a bit and then met up with the director and the founder of the museum, Barbara and Fred. They took me on a tour of places where Gertrude lived, taught school, and went to church. One of my favorite spots was her grandfather’s house.
Gertrude wrote her first stories for Grandfather Carpenter, who lived a few miles outside of town. I’ve always imagined Grandfather Alden’s house looking like this.
That night we had dinner at The Courthouse Restaurant (in the building where Gertrude’s father served as a judge!), and in the morning I drove back over to the Boxcar to meet Patricia for the first time. Although the museum doesn’t open for the season until May, Barbara and Fred let me explore the inside, full of photos, memorabilia, and displays inspired by the book.
0 Comments on Adventures in Boxcar Land as of 1/1/1900
0 Comments on Adventures in Boxcar Land as of 1/1/1900
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In addition to ghostwriting The Pumpkin Head Mystery and The Vampire Mystery for The Boxcar Children series, Theresa Golding is the author of including such books as
0 Comments on AWC Podcast Series: Ghostwriting and a Pumpkin Head as of 1/1/1900
Stacia Deutsch and Rhody Cohon are the #1 New York Times best-selling co-authors of more than thirty children’s books. In addition to their award winning creative chapter book series entitled, BLAST TO THE PAST (Simon and Schuster), Stacia and Rhody have also published non-fiction texts, a young adult romantic comedy calledIN THE STARS (Simon and Schuster), and HOT PURSUIT, a civil rights story (Kar-Ben/Lerner). Their works have won them the Teacher’s Choice Award, the Arizona Glyph, and a SCRIBE award. Stacia and Rhody have also written several licensed properties, including NANCY DREW AND THE CLUE CREW (Simon and Schuster) and THE BOXCAR CHILDREN (Albert Whitman). They have also written junior movie tie in novels for summer blockbuster films, including BATMAN, THE DARK KNIGHT(HarperCollins) and CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS (Simon and Schuster). Stacia Deutsch, an ordained rabbi, lives in Irvine, California with her three children. Rhody Cohon, a college math teacher, lives with her three children in Tucson, Arizona. They talk on the phone a hundred times a day.
0 Comments on AWC Podcast Series: Ghostwriting The Boxcar Children as of 1/1/1900
0 Comments on Ask Gertrude Chandler Warner: How old are those Alden kids, anyway? as of 1/1/1900
Ooh, thanks for the heads-up for the Mitali play! How awesome is that!?
Meanwhile, I would have to pass on the Victoria story as well… things you write when you’re ten generally only your mother loves.
Hooray for a play of Rickshaw Girl!
Your post title is something I kept singing when we were on vacation and the weather was gorgeous. The teen was a bit taken aback by the conclusion – I need to play him some Tom Lehrer.
I’m so glad you got the reference. I was half worried someone would berate me for propagating beer on a children’s literature blog.
“My heart with be quickening with each drop of strychnine . . . .”
Thanks so much for the shout-out, Betsy! We are so excited to be commissioning the stage adaptation of Mitali Perkins’ Rickshaw Girl! It’s such an amazing story with important themes, plus a glimpse into a different culture, and we hope our production will introduce the book to many children and parents who may have never heard of it. We’re also partnering with the Berkeley Public Library to help get the word out about our season, and they were super-excited about Rickshaw Girl in particular!