The Hockey Mystery

The Boxcar Children #80

by Gertrude Chandler Warner

Kevin Reynolds, the Aldens' favorite hockey star, plans to build a new ice rink in Greenfield and invites Jessie to join his new girls hockey team. But equipment goes missing and Kevin's blueprints are ruined. Someone's not happy about the rink, and the Aldens are determined to figure out why!

Genres: Mystery, Childrens, Audiobook, Fiction, Middle Grade, Sports, Chapter Books

144 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2000

About the author

Gertrude 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/...

Reviews

[Mikayla · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a cute one. The mystery wasn't very... mysterious, but it was still good.

[Brent Ecenbarger · Rating 4 out of 5]

My oldest son picked out this book to listen to each week on his way to drum lessons. If I’ve read a Box-Car Children book, it’s been long enough that I didn’t remember the premise. Basically, there’s a few kids that lived in a train box car, but they got adopted by a nice old guy who brought their box car to his house so they’d feel comfortable. Now they solve mysteries and the box car has nothing to do with it? I think that’s pretty much it.

With that backdrop, one of the kids, (a girl named Jessie) joins a new girls hockey team coached by local legend returned home Kevin Reynolds. The way the book describes Reynolds, he’s a Mario Lemieux like figure (not the greatest player of all time, but in the conversation for the runner up). Besides coaching the hockey team (which has his daughter on it), Reynolds is also building a new state of the art hockey rink for the kids to play on.

The drama (or Hockey Mystery, if you will) centers on somebody trying to thwart Kevin Reynolds from building his hockey rink. Somebody steals Reynolds’ skating practice cones, then they spill ink on the one of kind blueprints of the rink, and finally some of Reynolds’ hockey memorabilia starts to go missing. There are a bunch of suspects, including a figure skating coach who hates hockey, the manager of the current ice rink, some parents who are worried about increased traffic near their house, and even Reynolds’ own daughter.

There are apparently three other Box-Car children, but none of them really matter in this story. This is Jessie’s story, with about half of the book dealing with the mystery and the other half is Jessie getting used to playing hockey. As a young hockey player, my kid really enjoyed this book. He was convinced the thief was the figure skating coach almost from the beginning. When the actual thief was revealed, I think he’d forgotten there were even other suspects. The audiobook performance was decent; it really did well with Jessie and the girls on the hockey team, but I cringed a bit when the little brother or any of the adults talked. When it was over, my son was satisfied but wasn’t exactly calling out for more Box-Car Children books.

[Alison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked this off the shelf at the library; it's very very lightweight but it involves the lovely Boxcar kids and a handsome hockey hero (he won the Stanley Cup five years in a row!) starting A GIRLS' HOCKEY TEAM so, like, of course I adored it.

[Jana · Rating 4 out of 5]

My family and I listened to this on the way home from camping. I have never read the Boxcar Children before, but have heard about them. I thought that even though it was written for youth, it was a fun mystery and well written. It was still fun to try to figure out the who did it. My almost eight year old followed along with the story and had fun telling us what was happening, so that we new he was getting it. It was a fun way to spend a long ride home.

[Joseph D. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book 80 of the Boxcar Children mysteries. This mystery was interesting because the suspects all had good motivations and the red herring was perfectly executed. I feel this was tough to balance the sports portion of the story with the mystery but it felt seamless. Another great one to enjoy. ​

Joseph McKnight
http:// www.Josephmcknight.con

[Stacy · Rating 2 out of 5]

My second grade class really enjoyed hearing this as a read aloud. I think more of them will start to read the series on their own but for me personally I didn’t think it was anything special. The kids did like all of the suspicious possibilities that kept getting dropped in.

[Cherish Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

(4☆ Would recommend)
I loved these books as a kid & I'm really enjoying reading through the series again. I liked the mystery & the suspense. I like how there is more than one possible suspect, who each have reasonable motive. Would recommend.

[Stacie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pro player teaches the girls team wants to build a new rink. He gets sabotaged and the kids are here to save the day!

[Don · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun children’s mystery about a girls hockey team. It’s definitely a classic of the Boxcar Children series.

[Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good. Had hockey in it.

[Kim Hampton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great mystery solved by the Aldens.

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

My family and I listened to this book on the way back home from our trip. I had never heard of this book before. I liked it for a children’s book but probably wouldn't have read this on my own. It was a cute story and very likable but predictable and had a cheesy ending where everyone ends up happy. It really brought out the cynic in me. But for kids I do think this would be a great series to read. There is no bad language or other stuff to make a parent worried about what their kids are picking up from the book.

[Christina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would not say this is great literature, but my young boys enjoyed the mystery format and trying to guess "whodunit". They also like the different characters in the family. The later stories of the Boxcar children feel a little more canned and simplistic, so I think I might want to stick with the earlier stories.

[Haadi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like this book since my favorite and the only sport which I watch is hockey along with having a interesting story line it just felt like this book deserved some recoganization with five stars. I have to say that this book is a lot better with them at their grandfather with them.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

great when ur little

[Deborah Harris]

AR Quiz No. 44928 EN Fiction
Accelerated Reader Quiz Information IL: LG - BL: 4.2 - AR Pts: 3.0
Accelerated Reader Quiz Type Information AR Quiz Types: RP, VP

[Y · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nothing spectacular, but it's nice to see Jessie get a chance to shine on her own sometimes.