The Power Down Mystery

The Boxcar Children #153

by Gertrude Chandler Warner, Anthony VanArsdale (Illustrator)

A bad storm hits Greenfield and leaves behind a mystery! With no power or internet, the Boxcar Children will need to put the pieces together the old-fashioned way. It's been a while since the children have powered down. Can they figure out what's going on while being unplugged?

Genres: Mystery, Chapter Books, Childrens

133 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 1, 2019

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

[Kathryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

decent atmosphere and stronger mystery than some, good list of suspects and motives and the Aldens are helpful without being too intrusive or goody-goody about it. Read this just before CLUE IN THE RECYCLE BIN and there were some similarities with the jewelry aspects.

[Joseph D. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book 153 of the Boxcar Children series. A huge storm has thrown the town for a loop, but strange things are happening at the ice cream shop. As the cleanup begins, the Aldens begin to notice that there is a deeper mystery. I liked that this book talked about accountability for the criminals involved. Also, I loved the throw back to older technologies that would be needed if electricity was not available. Great read. ​

Joseph McKnight
http://www.josephmcknight.com

[K.L. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good for a later Boxcar book. The kids are visiting a friend that handily owns an ice cream shop whe the town is hit by a bad storm that knocks the power out for a few days. Throw in wooden statues of bears, a sabotaged generator, smuggled gemstones and lots of Ice Cream, and it's a good fun little mystery

[Eliana · Rating 5 out of 5]

When the Boxcar Children visit an ice cream shop, the ice cream bear statue in front of it goes missing during a big storm and the power went out. Can the Alden's solve a mystery while being unplugged?

[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.

[Wesley and Fernie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprisingly good for a newer mystery. It kind of puts the new generation of Boxcar Children into a similar situation to the original run’s version of those characters.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

I guessed everything that had happened not gonna lie probably one of my least favorite

[Charles Reed · Rating 4 out of 5]

84%

A little more intricate than the other recent entries so that's pleasant.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book more than some of the other stories in the series. I appreciated how the Boxcar Children figured out how to complete different tasks without any power.

[Marisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

I liked this mystery more than the others, and enjoyed seeing how the children navigated solving the mystery with no power.

[Genevieve Paquette · Rating 4 out of 5]

I know it's weird for an adult to read these for fun, but I loved the Boxcar Children growing up, and when I discovered that the series was still being published, I couldn't help but read them all.
It is interesting to see how they change and adapt with the times. But it can also be a little weird- the first 19 books were very much of their time, including being very low tech. The kids knew how to read a map and use a compass, or a rotary phone, etc) so it feels incongruous to have a book about coping with a power outage, you know? But I guess you just have to make the distinction between the original 19 books (which all built on each other) and the ghostwritten books, and enjoy them for what they are. And this one, like the others, made me smile.

[Leah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun story. It takes place during and after a storm, mostly after. It involves smuggling, bears, boats, shops, and ice cream. The only complaint that I have is the illustrations are as good as they used to be.