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The Boxcar Children #5
Mike's Mystery
The Alden children are visiting Aunt Jane when a nearby house burns down. Their friend Mike is blamed for starting the fire! Can the Aldens help find the real criminal?
Audio CD
First published January 1, 1960
143 people are currently reading
1835 people want to read
About the author
Gertrude Chandler Warner
466 books767 followersGertrude Chandler Warner was born in Putnam, Connecticut, on April 16, 1890, to Edgar and Jane Warner. Her family included a sister, Frances, and a brother, John. From the age of five, she dreamed of becoming an author. She wrote stories for her Grandfather Carpenter, and each Christmas she gave him one of these stories as a gift. Today, Ms. Warner is best remembered as the author of THE BOXCAR CHILDREN MYSTERIES.
As a child, Gertrude enjoyed many of the things that girls enjoy today. She loved furnishing a dollhouse with handmade furniture and she liked to read. Her favorite book was ALICE IN WONDERLAND. Often on Sundays after church, Gertrude enjoyed trips to visit her grandparents' farm. Along the way, she and Frances would stop to pick the wildflowers they both loved. Gertrude's favorite flower was the violet.
Her family was a very musical one. They were able to have a family orchestra, and Gertrude enjoyed playing the cello. Her father had brought her one from New York ---a cello, a bow, a case and an instruction book. All together, he paid $14. Later, as an adult, she began playing the pipe organ and sometimes substituted for the church organist.
Due to ill health, Ms. Warner never finished high school. She left in the middle of her second year and studied with a tutor. Then, in 1918, when teachers were called to serve in World War I, the school board asked her to teach first grade. She had forty children in the morning and forty more in the afternoon. Ms. Warner wrote, "I was asked or begged to take this job because I taught Sunday School. But believe me, day school is nothing like Sunday School, and I sure learned by doing --- I taught in that same room for 32 years, retiring at 60 to have more time to write." Eventually, Ms. Warner attended Yale, where she took several teacher training courses.
Once when she was sick and had to stay home from teaching, she thought up the story about the Boxcar Children. It was inspired by her childhood dreams. As a child, she had spent hours watching the trains go by near her family's home. Sometimes she could look through the window of a caboose and see a small stove, a little table, cracked cups with no saucers, and a tin coffee pot boiling away on the stove. The sight had fascinated her and made her dream about how much fun it would be to live and keep house in a boxcar or caboose. She read the story to her classes and rewrote it many times so the words were easy to understand. Some of her pupils spoke other languages at home and were just learning English. THE BOXCAR CHILDREN gave them a fun story that was easy to read.
Ms. Warner once wrote for her fans, "Perhaps you know that the original BOXCAR CHILDREN. . . raised a storm of protest from librarians who thought the children were having too good a time without any parental control! That is exactly why children like it! Most of my own childhood exploits, such as living in a freight car, received very little cooperation from my parents."
Though the story of THE BOXCAR CHILDREN went through some changes after it was first written, the version that we are familiar with today was originally published in 1942 by Scott Foresman. Today, Albert Whitman & Company publishes this first classic story as well as the next eighteen Alden children adventures that were written by Ms. Warner.
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. After her death, Albert Whitman & Company continued to receive mail from children across the country asking for more adventures about Henry, Jessie, Violet and Benny Alden. In 1991, Albert Whitman added to THE BOXCAR CHILDREN MYSTERIES so that today's children can enjoy many more adventures about this independent and caring group of children.
Books about Gertrude: https://www.goodreads.com/characters/...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 205 reviews
September 6, 2012
We’re up to book five of Gertrude’s opus, which is Mike’s Mystery. Come with me on this magical journey.
I’m surprised to find that the Boxcar children haven’t abandoned Aunt Jane at her farmhouse and then immediately forgotten about her. Disappointingly, they are going to visit her again. Probably because now they own her home and all her land, which is bringing them in billions (hundreds) of dollars, and they need to keep an eye on their investment and make sure the old biddy isn’t spending all their money on late night QVC binges.
The moment that Sam and Maggie pick up the children in their BRAND NEW STATION WAGON, I know this is going to be a good book.
“Where’s the ancient horse that we were forcing to pull a wagon full of a dozen people even though he could barely walk?” the kids demand.
“Who cares?” Sam the ranch hand asks. “We have a sweet new station wagon!” then he revs the engine and they Tokyo Drift into town.
A new town that the children own. And imagine who lives in said town? Mike Wood! The brat that appeared in Surprise Island for about two pages, probably solely to set the stage for this book. He takes Benny and Co. to his house, where we learn that they’re so poor everyone has to work, even the dog probably. Mrs. Wood sure does like making pies but she never has time, due to her job as a washerwoman. I’m going to be generous and assume that today’s her day off, and that’s why she is just pulling 4 pies out of the oven. I think that’s kinder than calling her a LIAR.
Mike shows the children the daily newspaper—yes the mine town has it’s own newspaper—because his brother’s picture is on the front page, standing in front of the mine. He also mentions (hilariously, to my thinking), that a picture of the mine is “almost always” on the front page. Boy! I bet that’s an exciting newspaper! Let’s take a look in at the newsroom:
“Hey, Roger, any big news today?”
“Well George, I heard they found some more uranium down at the ole uranium mine.”
“That sounds like front-page news to me!”
“Let’s drink at lunch.”
There is some heavy foreshadowing here when Mike becomes all quiet and thinky looking at the picture.
“Ehh. That short man in the picture sure looks familiar. I’ve definitely seen him somewhere before, but he doesn’t live here.”
Hey Mike. Maybe you saw him the day the picture was taken, seeing as how you were there and everything.
Luckily for us, Mike can only concentrate on one topic for five seconds or less due to the chip implanted in his brain at infancy, and controlled remotely by the Puppetmaster Grandfather, so it’s no surprise that he loses interest immediately.
The children all go out to explore the town, where they’re surprised to learn that everyone knows who they are, mainly due to the pictures Aunt Jane has distributed everywhere. The book says in the newspaper, but how could they possibly fit in photos of the Aldens AND the mine?! Something had to end up on the cutting room floor. I prefer to think there are life-size posters of the Alden quartet plastered all over the town, emblazoned with threatening, vaguely ‘big-brother’ type messages, like “We own you,” or “You do not exist.”
Jessie buys hats and generally a fun time is had by all, but Gertrude cheerily ends the chapter by letting us know that Mike “didn’t know then that tomorrow would be so exciting.”
Turn the page.
EXCITING BECAUSE MIKE’S HOUSE BURNS DOWN.
Wow Gertrude. You’re a sick, sick woman. This is your idea of excitement? Destroying an already destitute family’s home and all their possessions. You’re dead inside Gertie. Cold and dead.
Predictably, all the kids (including Mike, because he’s dumb) are thrilled about the house burning down. What an adventure! And the fun just doesn’t stop! Mr. Carter, Grandfather’s lackey (and Jessie’s future husband I suspect–well, until she becomes frozen at fifteen forever) is there as well. Henry makes a joke about Mr. Carter always showing up at times of trouble and he smiles with a ‘twinkle in his eye’ and ominously agrees.
Chills.
The group of happy, homeless people head off to have breakfast at the Uranium Mine Diner, where Mike overhears a man telling his compatriots how the ‘little boy that lives in the house set the fire, just for fun.’ Everyone gets up in arms about that, defending Mike’s honor, and we learn a valuable clue: the man who started this rumor was wearing a blue hat.
The children go with Mr. Carter up to see the mine, and supposedly inform everyone to be on the lookout for a man wearing a blue hat, because that’s pretty concrete evidence. While waiting on Mr. Carter, they explore a large empty building. For some reason, inexplicable except to further the plot, the building has absolutely no purpose. I guess we are to assume that someone erroneously built an enormous building right by the mine with no plan for it all. It’s pretty fortuitous however, since the children decide it would be the perfect place for Mrs. Wood to live and make pies. Luckily she agrees, because I don’t think these kids are above forcing someone into pie-making slavery. Benny, surprise surprise, is the one to name it: Mike’s Mother’s Place. I only mention this boring detail to point out that Benny NAMES EVERYTHING. Let’s review:
1) Benny names Watch
2) Benny names Surprise Island
3) Benny names Potato Camp
4) Benny names Snowball the horse
5) Benny names Mystery Ranch
6) Benny names Yellow Sands
7) Benny names Mike’s Mother’s Place
I’m sure there are more that I’m missing. I think we will need to revisit this theme periodically.
There’s some more boring talk about pies and empty buildings, and I’m pretty sure that Mrs. Wood wipes a tear or two. Then the night watchman (he wandered in earlier, sorry I forgot to mention it, I think I fell asleep) explains that he missed the fire because he saw a man running towards the mine and he went to check it out. That being his job and all. This obvious clue sets Mike off into a frenzy, but he insists on telling Benny alone of his suspicions. Now prepare yourself for a shock.
Mike thinks that the man in the blue hat set the fire! I know, I hardly saw it coming myself. And their daring plan of action? Look for a short man, perhaps wearing a blue hat.
They’re going to crack this case wide open.
In what I thought was days later, but apparently is just a few hours (I’m pretty sure the whole book so far has only covered about 28 hours), the crew goes to turn the empty room into the iconic pie factory it’s destined to be. I’m very disappointed to find out that Mrs. Wood’s legendary pie making skills are based on her dumping cans of fruit filling into pre-made crusts. I guess in the 40’s (50’s? 60’s?) this qualified as high-level baking skills, right up there with jello molds and pigs in a blanket.
Mike, Benny, and Mr. Carter have a boring, pointless conversation about the man in the blue hat, where Mike hypothesizes that he’s the same short stranger that was in the photo with Pat in front of the mine (see ‘foreshadowing number one’). They line up the clues thusly:
1) The man is short
2) He’s a stranger
3) He owns a blue hat
4) Spotty growled at him
5) He (along with the entire town) was present at the fire
6) He looks quote unquote ‘rough’
Well, if those clues don’t add up to ‘guilty’ I don’t know what does. BUT THEN THE PLOT THICKENS. Mike thinks really, really hard, probably causing an aneurism in his tiny, prehensile brain, and remembers saying something A YEAR AGO about not liking the three men that tried to buy Aunt Jane’s ranch. Now we have MOTIVE.
Mr. Carter sadly shakes his head. “Those are bad men,” he mutters. “They tried to buy that land for a low price knowing that it had valuable uranium on it. Making savvy business deals is what is ruining this country. Except when Grandfather does it. Then it’s just called capitalism.”
Later, when the children are pitting the dogs against each other in a ruthless dog fight/race, Spotty stops and begins digging. And he digs up a blue hat and A CAN OF GASOLINE.
Now we know it was the man in the blue hat. Because after you commit arson you usually bury all the clues together, about a foot down under loose sand.
The boys inform Mr. Carter of this new, important break-through, and also warn him that the man in blue is probably going to blow up the mine too. They know because they’ve seen all the Austin Powers movies. And guess what? Mr. Carter looks behind the mine and there’s a bunch of wires. Now, the wires aren’t connected to anything, and may in fact have already been there, and might actually be currently in use doing mine-type things, but we don’t want to spoil this case asking sensible questions. Lets just assume—like Mr. Carter—that this means that everyone’s in danger. And to flush out the criminal we will have to be extra devious.
Devious like throwing a party. A party that involves pies and movies. And by movies I mean documentaries about monkeys. I wish I was kidding.
Surprisingly (or unsurprisingly I suppose), the movie party draws the degenerate out like a moth to a flame, and Spotty chases him down and catches him. Probably handcuffs him and reads him his rights too. If you think about it, Spotty really solved this mystery.
FACTS
1) Spotty growled at the man in the blue hat
2) Spotty found the blue hat and the gas can
3) Spotty caught the man in the blue hat
4) Spotty has an IQ double that of Mike and Benny combined
Mr. Carter hints at the Boxcar Children’s next adventure by telling them that they will all be together again next summer. But sadly, he will not be there, he tells Jessie with a “funny little smile.” Keep your pants on dude! Is this even legal?!
And then Benny names their adventure Mike’s Mystery (Benny Names Things Item #8).
like overly detailed Boxcar Children reviews? Find more at rampantreads.wordpress.com
I’m surprised to find that the Boxcar children haven’t abandoned Aunt Jane at her farmhouse and then immediately forgotten about her. Disappointingly, they are going to visit her again. Probably because now they own her home and all her land, which is bringing them in billions (hundreds) of dollars, and they need to keep an eye on their investment and make sure the old biddy isn’t spending all their money on late night QVC binges.
The moment that Sam and Maggie pick up the children in their BRAND NEW STATION WAGON, I know this is going to be a good book.
“Where’s the ancient horse that we were forcing to pull a wagon full of a dozen people even though he could barely walk?” the kids demand.
“Who cares?” Sam the ranch hand asks. “We have a sweet new station wagon!” then he revs the engine and they Tokyo Drift into town.
A new town that the children own. And imagine who lives in said town? Mike Wood! The brat that appeared in Surprise Island for about two pages, probably solely to set the stage for this book. He takes Benny and Co. to his house, where we learn that they’re so poor everyone has to work, even the dog probably. Mrs. Wood sure does like making pies but she never has time, due to her job as a washerwoman. I’m going to be generous and assume that today’s her day off, and that’s why she is just pulling 4 pies out of the oven. I think that’s kinder than calling her a LIAR.
Mike shows the children the daily newspaper—yes the mine town has it’s own newspaper—because his brother’s picture is on the front page, standing in front of the mine. He also mentions (hilariously, to my thinking), that a picture of the mine is “almost always” on the front page. Boy! I bet that’s an exciting newspaper! Let’s take a look in at the newsroom:
“Hey, Roger, any big news today?”
“Well George, I heard they found some more uranium down at the ole uranium mine.”
“That sounds like front-page news to me!”
“Let’s drink at lunch.”
There is some heavy foreshadowing here when Mike becomes all quiet and thinky looking at the picture.
“Ehh. That short man in the picture sure looks familiar. I’ve definitely seen him somewhere before, but he doesn’t live here.”
Hey Mike. Maybe you saw him the day the picture was taken, seeing as how you were there and everything.
Luckily for us, Mike can only concentrate on one topic for five seconds or less due to the chip implanted in his brain at infancy, and controlled remotely by the Puppetmaster Grandfather, so it’s no surprise that he loses interest immediately.
The children all go out to explore the town, where they’re surprised to learn that everyone knows who they are, mainly due to the pictures Aunt Jane has distributed everywhere. The book says in the newspaper, but how could they possibly fit in photos of the Aldens AND the mine?! Something had to end up on the cutting room floor. I prefer to think there are life-size posters of the Alden quartet plastered all over the town, emblazoned with threatening, vaguely ‘big-brother’ type messages, like “We own you,” or “You do not exist.”
Jessie buys hats and generally a fun time is had by all, but Gertrude cheerily ends the chapter by letting us know that Mike “didn’t know then that tomorrow would be so exciting.”
Turn the page.
EXCITING BECAUSE MIKE’S HOUSE BURNS DOWN.
Wow Gertrude. You’re a sick, sick woman. This is your idea of excitement? Destroying an already destitute family’s home and all their possessions. You’re dead inside Gertie. Cold and dead.
Predictably, all the kids (including Mike, because he’s dumb) are thrilled about the house burning down. What an adventure! And the fun just doesn’t stop! Mr. Carter, Grandfather’s lackey (and Jessie’s future husband I suspect–well, until she becomes frozen at fifteen forever) is there as well. Henry makes a joke about Mr. Carter always showing up at times of trouble and he smiles with a ‘twinkle in his eye’ and ominously agrees.
Chills.
The group of happy, homeless people head off to have breakfast at the Uranium Mine Diner, where Mike overhears a man telling his compatriots how the ‘little boy that lives in the house set the fire, just for fun.’ Everyone gets up in arms about that, defending Mike’s honor, and we learn a valuable clue: the man who started this rumor was wearing a blue hat.
The children go with Mr. Carter up to see the mine, and supposedly inform everyone to be on the lookout for a man wearing a blue hat, because that’s pretty concrete evidence. While waiting on Mr. Carter, they explore a large empty building. For some reason, inexplicable except to further the plot, the building has absolutely no purpose. I guess we are to assume that someone erroneously built an enormous building right by the mine with no plan for it all. It’s pretty fortuitous however, since the children decide it would be the perfect place for Mrs. Wood to live and make pies. Luckily she agrees, because I don’t think these kids are above forcing someone into pie-making slavery. Benny, surprise surprise, is the one to name it: Mike’s Mother’s Place. I only mention this boring detail to point out that Benny NAMES EVERYTHING. Let’s review:
1) Benny names Watch
2) Benny names Surprise Island
3) Benny names Potato Camp
4) Benny names Snowball the horse
5) Benny names Mystery Ranch
6) Benny names Yellow Sands
7) Benny names Mike’s Mother’s Place
I’m sure there are more that I’m missing. I think we will need to revisit this theme periodically.
There’s some more boring talk about pies and empty buildings, and I’m pretty sure that Mrs. Wood wipes a tear or two. Then the night watchman (he wandered in earlier, sorry I forgot to mention it, I think I fell asleep) explains that he missed the fire because he saw a man running towards the mine and he went to check it out. That being his job and all. This obvious clue sets Mike off into a frenzy, but he insists on telling Benny alone of his suspicions. Now prepare yourself for a shock.
Mike thinks that the man in the blue hat set the fire! I know, I hardly saw it coming myself. And their daring plan of action? Look for a short man, perhaps wearing a blue hat.
They’re going to crack this case wide open.
In what I thought was days later, but apparently is just a few hours (I’m pretty sure the whole book so far has only covered about 28 hours), the crew goes to turn the empty room into the iconic pie factory it’s destined to be. I’m very disappointed to find out that Mrs. Wood’s legendary pie making skills are based on her dumping cans of fruit filling into pre-made crusts. I guess in the 40’s (50’s? 60’s?) this qualified as high-level baking skills, right up there with jello molds and pigs in a blanket.
Mike, Benny, and Mr. Carter have a boring, pointless conversation about the man in the blue hat, where Mike hypothesizes that he’s the same short stranger that was in the photo with Pat in front of the mine (see ‘foreshadowing number one’). They line up the clues thusly:
1) The man is short
2) He’s a stranger
3) He owns a blue hat
4) Spotty growled at him
5) He (along with the entire town) was present at the fire
6) He looks quote unquote ‘rough’
Well, if those clues don’t add up to ‘guilty’ I don’t know what does. BUT THEN THE PLOT THICKENS. Mike thinks really, really hard, probably causing an aneurism in his tiny, prehensile brain, and remembers saying something A YEAR AGO about not liking the three men that tried to buy Aunt Jane’s ranch. Now we have MOTIVE.
Mr. Carter sadly shakes his head. “Those are bad men,” he mutters. “They tried to buy that land for a low price knowing that it had valuable uranium on it. Making savvy business deals is what is ruining this country. Except when Grandfather does it. Then it’s just called capitalism.”
Later, when the children are pitting the dogs against each other in a ruthless dog fight/race, Spotty stops and begins digging. And he digs up a blue hat and A CAN OF GASOLINE.
Now we know it was the man in the blue hat. Because after you commit arson you usually bury all the clues together, about a foot down under loose sand.
The boys inform Mr. Carter of this new, important break-through, and also warn him that the man in blue is probably going to blow up the mine too. They know because they’ve seen all the Austin Powers movies. And guess what? Mr. Carter looks behind the mine and there’s a bunch of wires. Now, the wires aren’t connected to anything, and may in fact have already been there, and might actually be currently in use doing mine-type things, but we don’t want to spoil this case asking sensible questions. Lets just assume—like Mr. Carter—that this means that everyone’s in danger. And to flush out the criminal we will have to be extra devious.
Devious like throwing a party. A party that involves pies and movies. And by movies I mean documentaries about monkeys. I wish I was kidding.
Surprisingly (or unsurprisingly I suppose), the movie party draws the degenerate out like a moth to a flame, and Spotty chases him down and catches him. Probably handcuffs him and reads him his rights too. If you think about it, Spotty really solved this mystery.
FACTS
1) Spotty growled at the man in the blue hat
2) Spotty found the blue hat and the gas can
3) Spotty caught the man in the blue hat
4) Spotty has an IQ double that of Mike and Benny combined
Mr. Carter hints at the Boxcar Children’s next adventure by telling them that they will all be together again next summer. But sadly, he will not be there, he tells Jessie with a “funny little smile.” Keep your pants on dude! Is this even legal?!
And then Benny names their adventure Mike’s Mystery (Benny Names Things Item #8).
like overly detailed Boxcar Children reviews? Find more at rampantreads.wordpress.com
June 2, 2021
This one felt a bit more stilted to me. It felt like there were a lot of random scenes thrown in there to fill time.
I did like Mike and Benny learning not to argue. *thumbs up*
I did like Mike and Benny learning not to argue. *thumbs up*
August 30, 2021
Read this to the kids I nanny today. They liked it a lot. I never realized how insufferable the Alden children were (except Violet, I adore Violet). Why are they so mean to Mike all the time? Leave the boy alone...
Anyway, my childhood is ruined, I apparently don't like the Boxcar Children anymore xD
Anyway, my childhood is ruined, I apparently don't like the Boxcar Children anymore xD
October 31, 2019
Another great mini-adventure!
March 19, 2017
Mike didn't do it
September 3, 2012
Reason for Reading: Next in the series. I am collecting the first original 19 books of this series.
Mike's Mystery could probably be said to have the first full blown mystery for the children to solve. All the previous books "mystery" was simply finding out the identity of mysterious strangers but this time we have a crime: arson, a witness: Mike's dog, and a couple of clues: a blue hat and a picture in a newspaper. We get a sense of real detecting going on for the children now. Mike's Mystery is also the first time that a book in this series is dependant on another in the series. This one is a direct sequel to book #4, Mystery Ranch, and will be enjoyed much better having read them in order. Also, one of the main characters returns from book #2, Surprise Island, and again this benefits readers who have read the books in order, otherwise many references to previous exploits will by lost upon them. The series is shaping up at this point into an ongoing adhesive collection, rather than just individual stories.
This story is typical fare for the series, much better than the last book and fun to see a proper mystery unravelling for the children this time. Exactly one year has passed since the last events happened and the Aldens return to the Mystery Ranch to find many changes have been made over the school year. A large cast of characters this time, though the majority of them have already been met in the past books so nobody new to really get to know. Benny and his friend Mike shine as the major characters in this book, even though everything is still much a group effort for the Alden children, focus is allowed to drift more often towards the littlest brother. A satisfying entry in the series.
Mike's Mystery could probably be said to have the first full blown mystery for the children to solve. All the previous books "mystery" was simply finding out the identity of mysterious strangers but this time we have a crime: arson, a witness: Mike's dog, and a couple of clues: a blue hat and a picture in a newspaper. We get a sense of real detecting going on for the children now. Mike's Mystery is also the first time that a book in this series is dependant on another in the series. This one is a direct sequel to book #4, Mystery Ranch, and will be enjoyed much better having read them in order. Also, one of the main characters returns from book #2, Surprise Island, and again this benefits readers who have read the books in order, otherwise many references to previous exploits will by lost upon them. The series is shaping up at this point into an ongoing adhesive collection, rather than just individual stories.
This story is typical fare for the series, much better than the last book and fun to see a proper mystery unravelling for the children this time. Exactly one year has passed since the last events happened and the Aldens return to the Mystery Ranch to find many changes have been made over the school year. A large cast of characters this time, though the majority of them have already been met in the past books so nobody new to really get to know. Benny and his friend Mike shine as the major characters in this book, even though everything is still much a group effort for the Alden children, focus is allowed to drift more often towards the littlest brother. A satisfying entry in the series.
April 30, 2019
Continuing to reread all the books in this series since I was absolutely obsessed with them as a kid. I find it interesting that I seem to have no memory at all of these earlier stories, probably because they aren't really that good and all seem to revolve around the children finding lost relatives or visiting relatives or OWNING A TOWN because apparently that's a thing now. These are weird books to read as an adult because on the one hand they are just super simplistic chapter books where kids go on adventures and solve 'mysteries' that are usually not that mysterious at this point, but on the other hand the way the author tries to portray these millionaire children and their millionaire grandfather as like ~quaint and hard working~ is just wild to me. Also I love how they call hotdogs 'a weird lunch' when in one of the books they literally just ate giant plates of peas for lunch and mixed eggs into milk and drank it. A hotdog is pretty normal in comparison to some of the weird crap they eat. Continuing to rate 3 stars based mostly on childhood nostalgia. If you haven't read these books as a kid I don't think you will get much out of them as an adult.
January 26, 2019
I liked this book but I don’t think it’s the best of all Boxcar Children. I generally love the Boxcar Children books but I think this one needed a more detailed and overall more focused. But I still enjoyed this book.
March 5, 2022
Cute story, fun little adventure.
January 24, 2019
Great book, it’s not as good as the other Boxcar Children books, but it’s still great. I think once thing to take into consideration is that it is targeted to like 7-9 year olds. It’s really great for them. For preteens and teens, not so much. It’s simple and doesn’t go into much details but that’s how they should be in my opinion. This series is great, definitely awesome from 7-9 year olds!
December 22, 2020
Having survived for a few days in a boxcar campsite and having realized a friend was a relative in previous books in the series, the Boxcar Children are ready for a more serious mystery-solving and - naturally - arson and bomb threats come to the fore in this story. Fortunately the culprit is pretty inept, and the kids help get him caught. My 5yo enjoyed the read-aloud with me.
November 11, 2020
Talk I feel like the kids are slowly growing up. But don't seem to grow up as fast as I would expect in books like these. Which is an away kind of nice. I enjoyed this book expressly because they got to be a little more thrilling than just some basic mysteries.
July 17, 2025
Both of my kids gave this one a big 5 stars! My son said that he really enjoyed that this mystery felt more dangerous than in previous books. My daughter agreed but add, “it was also kinda cute at some parts”. She volunteered no reason for this but is sticking to it.
December 28, 2020
Not very good but cool....
July 30, 2023
This one involves tons of pies, lots of talk about whose dog is best, and arson.
March 4, 2024
It was really good I really enjoyed it. I highly recommend it.
January 2, 2024
One of the more interesting and exciting mysteries in the series. Mike is annoying.
March 6, 2024
Fast paced young fiction, and do not need to read in order.
March 23, 2021
It was a great experience for a family member who has always been friendly + curious.
October 31, 2025
Kyle's rating
May 2, 2016
A house fire? Near all that uranium they've been mining? Probably releasing it in powdered form accidentally because god knows no one in this weird ass town would know a safety procedure if it slapped them on the ass. They're fucking lucky the whole town didn't go up in flames.
Mike, being an idiot, is somehow excited by the idea that his house and all his possessions are gone, never once thinking about the strain it will put on his poverty-stricken single mother. His mother who probably dreams about dumping him down one of the mine shafts and leaving the state to go open a pie shop.
Alas, Mike's mother, he is alive and well and still quite irritating.
Mike, being an idiot, is somehow excited by the idea that his house and all his possessions are gone, never once thinking about the strain it will put on his poverty-stricken single mother. His mother who probably dreams about dumping him down one of the mine shafts and leaving the state to go open a pie shop.
Alas, Mike's mother, he is alive and well and still quite irritating.
April 6, 2015
Seemingly more mysterious than the previous books. The first Boxcar Children book really trying to be a mystery. But it is about the children and their resourcefulness and independence more than about solving the mystery, like all the books in the series.
November 3, 2015
Mike annoys the snot out of me. He is whiny and aggravating. I suppose he is a typical kid, with his horrible grammar and thinking that his dog can beat everyone else's dog. Everything he did grated on my nerves, so this book was so-so for me.
June 9, 2017
The kids are back again at the ranch, where they meet up with Mike and John Carter to solve a mystery.
Want to read
January 2, 2021Clear prose and grest punctuation. Boring story, but easy, which is what I was going for.
November 9, 2020
3.5
Actually involves a mystery; very scary with a fire by a uranium mine (also scary).
Actually involves a mystery; very scary with a fire by a uranium mine (also scary).
August 11, 2018
I found some of these books when cleaning out the basement and couldn't help setting them aside to re-read. Boy oh boy, a trip down nostalgia lane! This one is one of the OG set written by the actual author, before the ghostwriters took over and a time machine send the kids to a Benjamin Button situation so that poor college age Henry regresses back to high school... forever....
But before the science fiction horror of the ghostwritten franchise, there was this book, featuring Mike Wood, the little brat from Surprise Island. I don't know why only Benny gets a recurring friend character who pops up throughout the series; don't you get the vibe that Violet/Jessie/Henry's friends would be less punchable? (HE'S SIX YEARS OLD, HEDGEHOG! you say, appalled. NO! THESE KIDS ARE ACTUALLY FORTY THANKS TO THE TIME PARADOX. HE'S FAIR GAME. ALSO HE'S ANNOYING.) In a stone cold brutal move typical of Gertrude Chandler Warner's Dickensian mind, Mike's father is dead—Mike mentions this once and then immediately changes the topic, and no one talks about it ever again—and Mrs. Wood is a single mom trying to make it as a washerwoman.
I never noticed the awkward class difference here before, the Woods have fucking NOTHING, especially once Mike's house burns the fuck down, but ho shit do the Aldens waste no time in benevolently running this lady's life, by way of giving her a pie shop. In the uranium mining town that has sprung up overnight and that the kids basically own, because they own the ranch. These kids own a fucking ranch!! The mining company owns everything in this town in the ass-end of nowhere! Is she buying the materials for her pies with company scrip? She's just trying to make a living, but I bet like everyone else in town, she and Pat and Mike are doomed to be locked into a cycle of debt from the mining company. I OPENED THIS BOOK FOR TWENTY MINUTES OF NOSTALGIA READING, I DIDN'T EXPECT TO BE HIT IN THE FACE WITH HORRIFIC ECONOMIC REALITY
I like to think that the remaining miners who haven't died of uranium exposure band together forty years later and file a class-action lawsuit against the remaining Aldens. But then maybe Mr. Carter, Grandfather Alden's employee and part-time FBI agent, would take them out?
This book brings up a lot of questions, like a.) I don't think the FBI works like that, b.) who is Grandfather Alden, that he has an FBI agent on retainer?? Where does his fortune come from again? Why are these books not out of copyright so I could pay someone to write the Gritty Reboot where these children are all future mob bosses?!!??! Jessie is a future Ramsay Bolton. She's so good with dogs....
But before the science fiction horror of the ghostwritten franchise, there was this book, featuring Mike Wood, the little brat from Surprise Island. I don't know why only Benny gets a recurring friend character who pops up throughout the series; don't you get the vibe that Violet/Jessie/Henry's friends would be less punchable? (HE'S SIX YEARS OLD, HEDGEHOG! you say, appalled. NO! THESE KIDS ARE ACTUALLY FORTY THANKS TO THE TIME PARADOX. HE'S FAIR GAME. ALSO HE'S ANNOYING.) In a stone cold brutal move typical of Gertrude Chandler Warner's Dickensian mind, Mike's father is dead—Mike mentions this once and then immediately changes the topic, and no one talks about it ever again—and Mrs. Wood is a single mom trying to make it as a washerwoman.
I never noticed the awkward class difference here before, the Woods have fucking NOTHING, especially once Mike's house burns the fuck down, but ho shit do the Aldens waste no time in benevolently running this lady's life, by way of giving her a pie shop. In the uranium mining town that has sprung up overnight and that the kids basically own, because they own the ranch. These kids own a fucking ranch!! The mining company owns everything in this town in the ass-end of nowhere! Is she buying the materials for her pies with company scrip? She's just trying to make a living, but I bet like everyone else in town, she and Pat and Mike are doomed to be locked into a cycle of debt from the mining company. I OPENED THIS BOOK FOR TWENTY MINUTES OF NOSTALGIA READING, I DIDN'T EXPECT TO BE HIT IN THE FACE WITH HORRIFIC ECONOMIC REALITY
I like to think that the remaining miners who haven't died of uranium exposure band together forty years later and file a class-action lawsuit against the remaining Aldens. But then maybe Mr. Carter, Grandfather Alden's employee and part-time FBI agent, would take them out?
This book brings up a lot of questions, like a.) I don't think the FBI works like that, b.) who is Grandfather Alden, that he has an FBI agent on retainer?? Where does his fortune come from again? Why are these books not out of copyright so I could pay someone to write the Gritty Reboot where these children are all future mob bosses?!!??! Jessie is a future Ramsay Bolton. She's so good with dogs....
December 2, 2024
Tomes 2 à 5
Mlle Alice, pouvez-vous nous raconter votre rencontre avec L'île Mystère ?
"Après avoir lu et vraiment aimé le premier tome, j'avais mis les suivants sur ma petite wishlist d'anniversaire et j'ai eu la chance de les recevoir le jour J. Aussitôt déballés, aussitôt dévorés."
Dites-nous en un peu plus sur son histoire...
"Le grand-père des enfants, connaissant leur goût de l'aventure, leur propose de passer sans lui leur été sur une île, dans une grange, mais le lieu pourrait bien renfermer quelques secrets..."
Mais que s'est-il exactement passé entre vous ?
"C'est toujours aussi joyeusement positif que le premier, les heureuses coïncidences s'enchaînent et la malveillance n'existe pas dans l'univers des enfants Boxcar, une vraie petite bulle préservée de joie. Je ne pourrais pas lire que des livres de ce genre, aussi déconnectés de la réalité, mais il faut admettre que de temps en temps, ça fait vraiment du bien. On aborde ici quelques nouveaux sujets qui retiendront notre attention et remueront nos émotions, en revanche, du côté du mystère, le schéma est très similaire au premier roman, dans le second et dans le troisième tome. Pour le moment, ça me fait plus sourire qu'autre chose mais il ne faudrait pas que cela devienne trop récurrent parce que ça finirait vite par me lasser je pense. Dans le tome quatre, heureusement, l'intrigue se diversifie un peu tout en restant touchante et dans le cinquième, les enfants mènent l'enquête. Et les décors, eux, sont variés et j'ai particulièrement aimé partir à l'aventure en canoë sur les lacs du Maine dans le Mystère de la Maison Jaune. Bref, un régal."
Et comment cela s'est-il fini ?
"Bien ! Il ne pourrait pas en être autrement, et j'ai d'ores et déjà très envie de tous les retrouver dans de nouvelles péripéties, les petits comme les grands. Ça tombe bien, il existe plus de 160 tomes à ce jour (mais 'seulement' 19 dans la série d'origine)."
http://booksaremywonderland.hautetfor...
Mlle Alice, pouvez-vous nous raconter votre rencontre avec L'île Mystère ?
"Après avoir lu et vraiment aimé le premier tome, j'avais mis les suivants sur ma petite wishlist d'anniversaire et j'ai eu la chance de les recevoir le jour J. Aussitôt déballés, aussitôt dévorés."
Dites-nous en un peu plus sur son histoire...
"Le grand-père des enfants, connaissant leur goût de l'aventure, leur propose de passer sans lui leur été sur une île, dans une grange, mais le lieu pourrait bien renfermer quelques secrets..."
Mais que s'est-il exactement passé entre vous ?
"C'est toujours aussi joyeusement positif que le premier, les heureuses coïncidences s'enchaînent et la malveillance n'existe pas dans l'univers des enfants Boxcar, une vraie petite bulle préservée de joie. Je ne pourrais pas lire que des livres de ce genre, aussi déconnectés de la réalité, mais il faut admettre que de temps en temps, ça fait vraiment du bien. On aborde ici quelques nouveaux sujets qui retiendront notre attention et remueront nos émotions, en revanche, du côté du mystère, le schéma est très similaire au premier roman, dans le second et dans le troisième tome. Pour le moment, ça me fait plus sourire qu'autre chose mais il ne faudrait pas que cela devienne trop récurrent parce que ça finirait vite par me lasser je pense. Dans le tome quatre, heureusement, l'intrigue se diversifie un peu tout en restant touchante et dans le cinquième, les enfants mènent l'enquête. Et les décors, eux, sont variés et j'ai particulièrement aimé partir à l'aventure en canoë sur les lacs du Maine dans le Mystère de la Maison Jaune. Bref, un régal."
Et comment cela s'est-il fini ?
"Bien ! Il ne pourrait pas en être autrement, et j'ai d'ores et déjà très envie de tous les retrouver dans de nouvelles péripéties, les petits comme les grands. Ça tombe bien, il existe plus de 160 tomes à ce jour (mais 'seulement' 19 dans la série d'origine)."
http://booksaremywonderland.hautetfor...
August 11, 2019
Boxcar Children books are a cut above other children's literature, but I didn't like this book as much as the last one. There was a lot of general unpleasantness and it might be a bit emotionally rough for young children. Or do today's coddled children need to be gently exposed to negative realities through books like this? I'm going back and forth in my mind.
It takes place in the same setting as the last book - Aunt Jane's home & the new Uranium mine. It does not have a unique new setting and characters, which are usually present in books of the BC series.
It also was a bit rough (emotionally) by modern standards - Mike Wood, Benny's trouble making friend, turns up in Yellow Sands. His father apparently died. He is living with an uncle working in the uranium mines, who has taken in the remaining Woods family. Everyone has to work to make ends meet and they are having significant financial struggles. During the course of the story, their home burns and they lose all their remaining possessions with the exception of clothes.
It is interesting that the ultra-rich Aldens never consider giving the Wood family money. They do, however, help create a new & better job for the mother and bankroll her new business. The importance of having work to do, even if you are already rich, is stressed. Published in 1960, this could reflect older sensibilities about charity (giving fish vs. teaching people to fish). It is not a bad message.
Odd questions & comments:
- I did find it odd that Mike's mother was left alone by the mine and not told of the possible danger.
- How did Mike's mom buy new dishes? Was it is "company store" where things were purchased on credit?
- The entire story happens in two days!
It takes place in the same setting as the last book - Aunt Jane's home & the new Uranium mine. It does not have a unique new setting and characters, which are usually present in books of the BC series.
It also was a bit rough (emotionally) by modern standards - Mike Wood, Benny's trouble making friend, turns up in Yellow Sands. His father apparently died. He is living with an uncle working in the uranium mines, who has taken in the remaining Woods family. Everyone has to work to make ends meet and they are having significant financial struggles. During the course of the story, their home burns and they lose all their remaining possessions with the exception of clothes.
It is interesting that the ultra-rich Aldens never consider giving the Wood family money. They do, however, help create a new & better job for the mother and bankroll her new business. The importance of having work to do, even if you are already rich, is stressed. Published in 1960, this could reflect older sensibilities about charity (giving fish vs. teaching people to fish). It is not a bad message.
Odd questions & comments:
- I did find it odd that Mike's mother was left alone by the mine and not told of the possible danger.
- How did Mike's mom buy new dishes? Was it is "company store" where things were purchased on credit?
- The entire story happens in two days!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Read
January 15, 2020In this book, Mike's Mystery by Gertrude chandler Warner, the Alden children go on a summer trip out west they go to the Mystery Ranch. The Ranch belonged to the four Alden children it had changed since last summer because uranium had been found. They ran into their friend Mike, a friend Surprise Island. They found out his house burned down.
The Woods knew their house was on fire because of their dog Spotty. The rumor was that Mike started the fire. Benny told everyone it was the man with a blue hat. The children went with Mr. Carter to the mine. At the mine they see the man with the blue hat. Mrs. wood came and used the extra room to make pies.
The children went to the store to buy stuff for Mrs. Wood. The store keeper told them not to buy dishes because her friends already did. The neighbors gave her everything she already needed to have her own business. In the newspaper, they saw the man with the blue hat. They thought he was working for the FBI.
Who will the man in the blue hat really be?
The Woods knew their house was on fire because of their dog Spotty. The rumor was that Mike started the fire. Benny told everyone it was the man with a blue hat. The children went with Mr. Carter to the mine. At the mine they see the man with the blue hat. Mrs. wood came and used the extra room to make pies.
The children went to the store to buy stuff for Mrs. Wood. The store keeper told them not to buy dishes because her friends already did. The neighbors gave her everything she already needed to have her own business. In the newspaper, they saw the man with the blue hat. They thought he was working for the FBI.
Who will the man in the blue hat really be?
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