What do you think?
Rate this book
The Boxcar Children #17
Mystery Behind the Wall
Four brave siblings were searching for a home – and found a life of adventure! Join the Boxcar Children as they investigate the mystery behind the wall in this illustrated chapter book series beloved by generations of readers.
When the Boxcar Children find a mysterious journal hidden behind the wall of the guest room, it leads them on a search for a valuable coin collection. But what happened to the journal's owner, and what is she trying to tell them?
What started as a single story about the Alden Children has delighted readers for generations and sold more than 80 million books worldwide. Featuring timeless adventures, mystery, and suspense, The Boxcar Children® series continues to inspire children to learn, question, imagine, and grow.
When the Boxcar Children find a mysterious journal hidden behind the wall of the guest room, it leads them on a search for a valuable coin collection. But what happened to the journal's owner, and what is she trying to tell them?
What started as a single story about the Alden Children has delighted readers for generations and sold more than 80 million books worldwide. Featuring timeless adventures, mystery, and suspense, The Boxcar Children® series continues to inspire children to learn, question, imagine, and grow.
128 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1973
107 people are currently reading
1039 people want to read
About the author
Gertrude Chandler Warner
548 books769 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/...
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 65 reviews
September 26, 2014
OK, let me preface my review by saying that I had no idea that The Boxcar Children was an entire series. I found this book in a pile of old books on a whim. I wanted to reread what I thought was the original story in the series that my teacher had read to me when I was in 3rd grade. I didn't notice that this was #17 in the series until I actually started reading it. It didn't live up to my memory of the original story and characters, but what does when you're an adult revisiting a childhood memory? That being said, Mystery Behind the Wall by author Gertrude Chandler Warner was a decent read, I suppose.
Benny Alden needed a friend for what was going to be a lonely summer. His grandfather hooked him up with a young friend visiting from Canada, named Rory. The boys stay in adjacent rooms and decide to make a telephone system that runs a wire between the wall separating their closets. Upon doing this they discover a journal hidden behind the wall left by a former occupant, a young girl named Stephanie. In the journal she describes a coin collection that she has hidden somewhere and has left clues on how to find it. The boys, accompanied by the other children, follow the clues that lead them to some local shops and around the old house itself. The story follows the children on their treasure hunt and how they figure each of the clues out.
My review of the book is... meh. Warner's writing is very suitable for children and is of high quality. I just couldn't really ever find anything all that interesting about the story, nor can I really point out anything that I disliked enough to be worth mentioning. It was just a very simple, somewhat unspectacular story. In fact I'm just now realizing that this review is as unspectacular as the book. No, actually it's worse. So I'll just stop there.
Benny Alden needed a friend for what was going to be a lonely summer. His grandfather hooked him up with a young friend visiting from Canada, named Rory. The boys stay in adjacent rooms and decide to make a telephone system that runs a wire between the wall separating their closets. Upon doing this they discover a journal hidden behind the wall left by a former occupant, a young girl named Stephanie. In the journal she describes a coin collection that she has hidden somewhere and has left clues on how to find it. The boys, accompanied by the other children, follow the clues that lead them to some local shops and around the old house itself. The story follows the children on their treasure hunt and how they figure each of the clues out.
My review of the book is... meh. Warner's writing is very suitable for children and is of high quality. I just couldn't really ever find anything all that interesting about the story, nor can I really point out anything that I disliked enough to be worth mentioning. It was just a very simple, somewhat unspectacular story. In fact I'm just now realizing that this review is as unspectacular as the book. No, actually it's worse. So I'll just stop there.
February 6, 2017
Great book for young readers
August 23, 2024
*Read Aloud*
My kids can't get enough of this series. We have a goal to read the first 20! We are getting close. :)
My kids can't get enough of this series. We have a goal to read the first 20! We are getting close. :)
October 26, 2020
Actual rating: 2.5 stars
The Boxcar Children has been one of my favorite series since childhood. I stopped reading it many years ago because I could never find the next books in the series and my OCD brain wouldn't allow myself to simply skip one book and move on to the next one. Thanks to the rise of e-books, I finally was able to get back into reading the series and found that I still loved the characters and the different scenarios they found themselves in. However, this book just didn't do it for me. Many of the siblings that I love weren't featured nearly enough as Benny. I also found myself wondering where Watch the dog was for the entire book. Was he on vacation? They mentioned him at the beginning but where was he? Moreover, the mystery this time was fairly predictable and boring. I still enjoyed reading this book but I just think it could have been more interesting and believable at times.
The Boxcar Children has been one of my favorite series since childhood. I stopped reading it many years ago because I could never find the next books in the series and my OCD brain wouldn't allow myself to simply skip one book and move on to the next one. Thanks to the rise of e-books, I finally was able to get back into reading the series and found that I still loved the characters and the different scenarios they found themselves in. However, this book just didn't do it for me. Many of the siblings that I love weren't featured nearly enough as Benny. I also found myself wondering where Watch the dog was for the entire book. Was he on vacation? They mentioned him at the beginning but where was he? Moreover, the mystery this time was fairly predictable and boring. I still enjoyed reading this book but I just think it could have been more interesting and believable at times.
February 28, 2016
Of COURSE they found a secret 40 year old scavenger hunt in their own house and all the clues led to the actual treasure that was still there and some of the people were still alive and hadn't moved and helped them.
I'm glad as a child my suspension of disbelief bought into this. Still, it's sweet. ;0)
I'm glad as a child my suspension of disbelief bought into this. Still, it's sweet. ;0)
March 6, 2025
I'd have loved this when I was a kid! Very fun story.
January 1, 2026
A random kid appears on the scene in order for Benny to be able to cut a hole in his closet wall. The kids find clues that lead them to an old coin collection. 2.5/5
June 27, 2008
As with my coat hall closet search for Narnia spurred by reading The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe I repeatedly felt the bedroom wall for a "mystery" like that encountered by the Alden children. Alas! It was not to be. Nevertheless, this volume was a particular favorite as it evoked much trepidation causing me to burrow further beneath the bed covers, swallowing the book whole in less than a day.
December 15, 2021
This has always been one of my favorites of the series simply because of the fun of a treasure hunt around the house. It was fantastic!
August 9, 2025
Cute
Doesn't everyone wish for excitement over summer holidays? And finding hiding spots in the walls would be such fun to use or find!
Doesn't everyone wish for excitement over summer holidays? And finding hiding spots in the walls would be such fun to use or find!
January 19, 2024
one of my favorites!
July 15, 2025
In Mystery Behind the Wall, the Alden children are back for another summer adventure; this time from the comfort of their home. Benny, feeling a bit lonely without school or playmates, is thrilled when Rory, a boy from Canada, comes to visit. What starts as a simple summer of fun turns into a full-fledged mystery involving a false wall, hidden clues, and a long-lost coin collection.
The story kicks off with the boys stumbling across a hidden compartment in their closet, which leads them to a mysterious blue cloth and, later, a diary belonging to a woman named Stephanie Shaw. From there, the children are thrown into a series of classic Boxcar-style clue hunts, complete with coded messages, attic searches, and a trail that leads to a pair of helpful sisters, Rachel and Jenny Wren.
The pacing is gentle and full of cozy charm, with the children solving each puzzle through teamwork, curiosity, and clever thinking. Fans of the series will appreciate the familiar mix of old-fashioned sleuthing and wholesome values. While the mystery isn’t as high-stakes or thrilling as other installments, the layered clues and the ultimate discovery, a priceless coin collection hidden behind a photograph, are satisfying enough to keep young readers engaged.
However, the story can feel a bit slow at times. Much of the action centers around finding notes and interpreting simple riddles, which may not grip readers who prefer faster-moving mysteries. The resolution, though heartwarming with the arrival of Andrew (an old friend of Stephanie Shaw’s), feels a bit abrupt.
Still, Mystery Behind the Wall delivers what The Boxcar Children is known for: good-natured mystery, sibling teamwork, and a satisfying, if predictable, ending. It’s a solid read for fans of the series or young readers who enjoy treasure hunts and stories that unfold one quiet clue at a time.
The story kicks off with the boys stumbling across a hidden compartment in their closet, which leads them to a mysterious blue cloth and, later, a diary belonging to a woman named Stephanie Shaw. From there, the children are thrown into a series of classic Boxcar-style clue hunts, complete with coded messages, attic searches, and a trail that leads to a pair of helpful sisters, Rachel and Jenny Wren.
The pacing is gentle and full of cozy charm, with the children solving each puzzle through teamwork, curiosity, and clever thinking. Fans of the series will appreciate the familiar mix of old-fashioned sleuthing and wholesome values. While the mystery isn’t as high-stakes or thrilling as other installments, the layered clues and the ultimate discovery, a priceless coin collection hidden behind a photograph, are satisfying enough to keep young readers engaged.
However, the story can feel a bit slow at times. Much of the action centers around finding notes and interpreting simple riddles, which may not grip readers who prefer faster-moving mysteries. The resolution, though heartwarming with the arrival of Andrew (an old friend of Stephanie Shaw’s), feels a bit abrupt.
Still, Mystery Behind the Wall delivers what The Boxcar Children is known for: good-natured mystery, sibling teamwork, and a satisfying, if predictable, ending. It’s a solid read for fans of the series or young readers who enjoy treasure hunts and stories that unfold one quiet clue at a time.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 1, 2024
I actually think this one is my favorite in the series so far! I really, really enjoyed it! The storyline involves a scavenger hunt, which is always exciting. It's fun to play along and try to crack the riddles as the story progresses. It was also quite educational (at least the last 2 chapters). It was quite interesting.
Things to be aware of in "Mystery Behind The Wall:"
Additional Notes:
-The children start to make a hole in the wall without first asking permission. They do say, "he won't mind" (meaning their Grandfather), but they do not ask until mid-construction. Later, they decide to expand the hole and, again, do not ask permission. They again state that their Grandfather won't mind. When they expand the hole, the housekeeper (Mrs. McGregor) says to Henry that she hopes they are not doing anything they shouldn't. "No, he isn't," answered Henry. "I've watched the boys. They are just going to make a larger hole between their rooms through the closet wall. It's all right." Did Henry just assume it was alright or did he confirm with Grandfather before the boys enlarge their hole in his wall?
Things to be aware of in "Mystery Behind The Wall:"
Additional Notes:
-The children start to make a hole in the wall without first asking permission. They do say, "he won't mind" (meaning their Grandfather), but they do not ask until mid-construction. Later, they decide to expand the hole and, again, do not ask permission. They again state that their Grandfather won't mind. When they expand the hole, the housekeeper (Mrs. McGregor) says to Henry that she hopes they are not doing anything they shouldn't. "No, he isn't," answered Henry. "I've watched the boys. They are just going to make a larger hole between their rooms through the closet wall. It's all right." Did Henry just assume it was alright or did he confirm with Grandfather before the boys enlarge their hole in his wall?
October 1, 2020
There are some stories that I will just always, always find appealing, and stories about treasure hunts are one of them. The kids, knocking a hole between two wardrobes so that they can play at passing messages through, find in the space between the wardrobes an old journal left behind by a ten year old girl who used to live in their house. She hid her coin collection and set up a series of cryptic little notes as a game between her and her dad, but the family moved house and the treasure was never found. Well, cue the Boxcar Children tracking their way through haberdashery and dollhouse and grandfather clocks, trying to puzzle out this little trail that was thought to have long gone cold. Not a great deal happens, but it's a fun little adventure and makes me want to go on a treasure hunt myself.
February 12, 2022
I found it pretty dull. It's a lot like The Tree House Mystery with finding something hidden in the house and making it into a mystery. This time, the kids befriend a lonely boy from Canada (we are actually forewarned that he will not speak like the Aldens do and it may be difficult to understand him!? He doesn't even seem to be French-Canadian and the most startling thing is he calls Grandfather "Granda" -- gasp!) and they try to find some old coins. We have some clues to follow but it's a pretty dull mystery. Also, there's a bit of a tragic backstory that some sensitive readers might not like (though the storytelling is so mundane that I really didn't feel any sadness about it).
July 12, 2020
It’s a cute little book. Benny’s friends all wondered off for the summer so Mrs. McGregor invites Canadian son of a friend Rory over for the summer.
One thing leads to another and a telegraph between the boys’ rooms leads to the mystery of a missing coin collection. Along the way, they learn more about the mystery of the house, find a fun old local store, and of course eventually solve the mystery.
It all goes to show that you can even find a mystery stuck at home[^ish]—great news in the age of coronavirus.
[^ish]: Although having a giant old house like Grandfather dies likely doesn’t hurt. :)
One thing leads to another and a telegraph between the boys’ rooms leads to the mystery of a missing coin collection. Along the way, they learn more about the mystery of the house, find a fun old local store, and of course eventually solve the mystery.
It all goes to show that you can even find a mystery stuck at home[^ish]—great news in the age of coronavirus.
[^ish]: Although having a giant old house like Grandfather dies likely doesn’t hurt. :)
August 27, 2022
This was a bit more interesting than the last couple I've read. The Aldens invite a boy from Canada to visit to keep Benny from being lonesome (it's ALWAYS that darn Benny!) When the two boys are sawing a hole in their shared closet walls to set up a "telegraph" between their rooms, they find a journal from a previous resident in the space between the walls. This sets the whole family off on a hunt for clues, leads them to a fabric/yarn store downtown, and a sort of scavenger hunt for missing valuables.
May 12, 2018
I got this book as an out of date book from our school library and decided to read it with my child. It was written in 1973, and I guess I didn't realize how much more lax our speaking has become. The conversations sounded so much more formal 40ish years ago.
Cute little "mystery" about some hidden coins that the kids have to go on a scavenger hunt to find.
Cute little "mystery" about some hidden coins that the kids have to go on a scavenger hunt to find.
November 3, 2020
I reread this because I remembered enjoying the series as a kid to see if I would read them to my kids. I don't think I will, and this is probably a dumb things to be put off by, but her enforcement of traditional gender roles bothered me. "A girl wouldn't see that badly." "A boy won't like roses." It just put me off.
June 3, 2023
A classic from the original author when not everything worked out. The Aldens find clues from their house's previous owner to a coin collection she hid as a small child. The story has a bittersweet ending I won't ruin for anyone who hasn't read it yet, but it shows the more mature themes of some older children's literature.
October 22, 2020
I loved this book!
I loved this book because there is so much adventure! It leaves your kids begging for more. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for an awesome and creative book.
I loved this book because there is so much adventure! It leaves your kids begging for more. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for an awesome and creative book.
February 18, 2022
Boxcar Children #17 this was not my favorite. There was nothing wrong just cannot get that excited over the subject matter. This was not in my top 10 but was fine and I would still recommend it to those young readers out there.
Joseph McKnight
http://www.josephmcknight.com
Joseph McKnight
http://www.josephmcknight.com
May 11, 2023
The 17th Boxcar Book I've read and easily one of my favorites!
An exciting discovery with clues. What a delight it would be to find something like this in your own walls.
We've been inspired to work on a coin collection this Summer.
An exciting discovery with clues. What a delight it would be to find something like this in your own walls.
We've been inspired to work on a coin collection this Summer.
September 12, 2024
(5☆ Would recommend & would read again)
I loved these books as a kid & I'm really enjoying reading through the series again. This was such a great mystery with a fantastic back story. The storyline in this book is fantastic.
I loved these books as a kid & I'm really enjoying reading through the series again. This was such a great mystery with a fantastic back story. The storyline in this book is fantastic.
November 5, 2016
When a friend comes to visit the kids learn the secrets of Grandpa's house and find riddles to a treasure.
February 28, 2018
my favorite character was Benny cause he loves to eat like me
nothing surprised me
i would not change the ending
nothing surprised me
i would not change the ending
June 24, 2019
Hailey read this aloud to me. She really liked it; I thought it was fine.
July 27, 2020
Definitely a more authentic mystery. I don’t remember really reading this one very much as a kid, but it was good.
May 3, 2023
3 3/4 stars.
May 25, 2023
Wow. Nothing happened. Still soothing in a boring way.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 65 reviews