Boxcar Children Series - OK to have gaps or read out of order

[shawthorne44]

I am a lover of audiobooks.  I love love love audiobooks.   I am overjoyed that DD is enjoying listening the first Boxcar Children Collection#1 (books 1-3) on CD.     Read-alouds are done at bedtime and when my voice gets tired, we turn out the lights and snuggle while listening.   Since this is going so well, I want to stick with the series until it is firmly entrenched in her mind that audiobooks are good.  

 

Problem is, I can't find book#4 on the shelf at any library nearby.   There is one library, not very convenient, that has 17 CD collections (three books each).   I am very excited about that.   But on the shelf the next books they have is book#8, and collection #13 (books 37-39).   

 

So, will it be a problem to read things out of order?   Or will it be confusing?

[Tanaqui]

Most of those books are ghostwritten extruded book products*. There's no real continuity - the children change ages randomly (like in one book the oldest will be 13, in the next the oldest will be 11) and previous events are rarely alluded to. You can therefore read them in any order you please.

 

* Which isn't to say they don't have value! I enjoyed quite a number of extruded book product series as a child! But they're not great literature by any means, and the writers didn't really care. It shows.

[BatmansWife]

The only one you should read in order would be book 1, so that you know what's going on.  The rest can be read in any order.  Of course, as you get along in the series they get older.   

 

My 12 year old daughter and I think the best Boxcar Children books are books 1 -19 that were written by the original writer.  You may find the books change after that, because they had different authors.  Even though they say Gertrude Chandler Warner, they are not.  My daughter would consider herself a Boxcar Children expert (LOL), she's read book 1 probably 10 times.  She definitely noticed a change in writing later on in the series, after book 19.  

[Tanaqui]

 My daughter would consider herself a Boxcar Children expert (LOL), she's read book 1 probably 10 times.

 

Which edition has she read? The original, or the rewrite?

 

[BatmansWife]

Which edition has she read? The original, or the rewrite?

 

She's read all of the original, and quite a few after book 19.  But, she doesn't like those very much.  She adores the original 1 - 19.  There is one book, not in the original, that she still talks about (and not favorably).  One of the girls (I can't remember who she said) was standing by a water pump and someone came up from behind her and threw a bag over her head and attempted to kidnap her.  She told me the original writer would never have written something so scary.  That was a turning point for her and that's about when she stopped reading the ones not written by GCW.  

 

ETA: and, I guess to be more accurate, I would say she's a Boxcar Children Book 1 expert.  She could probably recite the whole story by heart.  

Edited July 12, 2016 by BatmansWife

[Tanaqui]

She's read all of the original, and quite a few after book 19.

 

The question I was asking is "which version of the first book did she read?" There are two versions of book 1. The older version has more complex language but also more adult commentary - for example, the father is explicitly described as a drunk, which is how he dies. That version is actually on Project Gutenberg.

 

I sometimes find it's interesting to compare fan reactions from those who read the earlier book (usually because grandma or whoever gave them a copy that was handed down) and those who didn't.

[BatmansWife]

The question I was asking is "which version of the first book did she read?" There are two versions of book 1. The older version has more complex language but also more adult commentary - for example, the father is explicitly described as a drunk, which is how he dies. That version is actually on Project Gutenberg.

 

I sometimes find it's interesting to compare fan reactions from those who read the earlier book (usually because grandma or whoever gave them a copy that was handed down) and those who didn't.

 

So I guess she didn't read the "original" then.  It's this:

 

 

[BatmansWife]

She's also read some that look like this:

 

 

 

 

[shawthorne44]

I am glad we read the revised one, DD just turned 6.    Although did the original explain the estrangement between the grandfather and the parents?   I thought that was a pretty huge gap.   

BatmansWife, could you ask your daughter if she remembers anything about the title of the book_to_avoid?  

[BatmansWife]

I am glad we read the revised one, DD just turned 6.    Although did the original explain the estrangement between the grandfather and the parents?   I thought that was a pretty huge gap.   

 

BatmansWife, could you ask your daughter if she remembers anything about the title of the book_to_avoid?  

 

I asked her and she said she thought it was The Deserted Library.  I looked it up on Amazon and sure enough, that's the one (book 21).  Part of a review said this:

 

* An intruder breaks into the home that these four children are staying alone while they are sleeping. They wake to find an upholstered chair "ripped to shreds" with a knife. "'To think an intruder was in the house while we were sleeping!' She shivered, hating to think how near a stranger had been."

* While Jessie is out filling the water pitcher in the evening "...a cloth bag was thrown over hear head, blotting out sight and air. Her arms were pinned to her side." "She struggled for breath and air." "'Do you understand me?' the prowler growled menacingly."

* The intruder had been in the library the children were working to clean up. Phases like " stabbed the bigger books with his scissors or a knife!" "...to slash these books."

 

My daughter wanted to clarify that she wasn't scared reading this book...it just didn't appeal to her.  She likes the writing and the mysteries of the first 19 books so much better.  She didn't get too far after book 19 because she just didn't like it anymore.  

 

ETA: I just finished reading the rest of what this reviewer said...and I had to chuckle.  This is pretty much exactly what my daughter also just told me like 5 minutes ago....she said that something that really started to annoy here was that they always mentioned about when they were in the boxcar ("remember when we lived in the boxcar and ___").  She said that got so annoying.  The reviewer quoted above said pretty much the same thing: "In addition, since the Ms. Warner penned books, the author always makes it a point to remind the reader that the parents of these children died, they are orphans, they lived alone in a boxcar because they didn't want their grandfather, who they thought was mean, to find them. Ms. Warner didn't feel the need to remind her readers of this and focused on the fun of finding adventure and solving mysteries."

Edited July 12, 2016 by BatmansWife

[Hobbes]

We read these avidly as kids, but the ones after the original series aren't nearly as good. The order didn't matter at all.

[shawthorne44]

I guess there is a reason this library has only one book on the shelf in audio until book# 37.   

[RootAnn]

I believe we did the original (old,old,old) as a read aloud when eldest was just shy of 7. Somewhere in book 2, she took it and finished it herself and I didn't have to read them aloud anymore. They were what got her reading fluently.

 

She had all the kids doing "pretend we're orphans" for several months after getting into the later books.

 

Eta: forgot to answer the question. Any order after #1 is fine. Sometimes it helps to know the character backgrounds from a previous book, but they always introduce the non-regulars.

 

I have two audio book fiends. I credit them for dd#2's fantastic vocabulary since she didn't start reading fluently until almost 10 but still scored higher on the reading comprehension and vocab sections on the ITBS than her reading-loving sister.

Edited July 13, 2016 by RootAnn

[pitterpatter]

Do you have access to Hoopla Digital through your library? They have about 130 Boxcar Children audiobooks that you can stream on your favorite device. DD who is nine now loves the series and has listened (and re-listened) to all that Hoopla has. Each book can stand alone. The author fills in the backstory every book (with nearly the same words). If there is a reference to an event in a previous book, she takes a couple of sentences to explain it. 

[shawthorne44]

Hoopla is a good lead.   Unfortunately none of my libraries use that.  Overdrive has several but only in the e-book.  

[MerryAtHope]

I agree that 1-19 are much better! (We actually have many beyond #19, as my dd loved the series and can't part with it! However, she did say the first 19 were the best, and as someone else pointed out, after 19 the kids' ages bounce around a lot more). She too read and re-read these books, and played Box Car Children often.

Edited July 13, 2016 by MerryAtHope

[shawthorne44]

DD's Godfather lives in the city with Hoopla.   I might see if he has a library card.  

 

I might check-out the graphic novel version of one of the ones we've read.  She seems to like graphic novels.  She can read, but she likes pictures.  

 

We are listening to 3 chapters an evening and it is so adorable how she grabs my arm at the end of every chapter to signal she wants to listen more.  

[shawthorne44]

Do you have access to Hoopla Digital through your library? They have about 130 Boxcar Children audiobooks that you can stream on your favorite device. DD who is nine now loves the series and has listened (and re-listened) to all that Hoopla has. Each book can stand alone. The author fills in the backstory every book (with nearly the same words). If there is a reference to an event in a previous book, she takes a couple of sentences to explain it. 

 

I like to give you a double-thanks for mentioning Hoopla.  You mentioning it, led to my checking it out and realizing town two away was on the Hoopla library list.  That town wasn't quite on Hoopla yet.  But, they did have many of the books on CD's.  So, I was able to drive down and get some of theirs.  Many were checked out, but I got one of the later ones.  Annoying thing on that one was that a cousin just suddenly appeared.   If the author feeling the need to remind us that the kids lived in a boxcar, shouldn't they have mentioned who this cousin is?   Anyway, now the wait is over!   I have access to Hoopla and a bunch of boxcar stories AND a whole bunch of Great Courses.  Wooohooo!   Free access to streaming Great Courses!   

 

Every couple of days I'd try to borrow something from Hoopla.  It would say, "You have reached your limit of NO titles".  Then last night it worked.  

[Hunter]

The first time I was reading book one, I had different editions on two different devices and when I switched back and forth got really confused and found out there were two editions.

 

The first book makes more sense when compared to the rewrite. Yes, the rewrite is more PC, but it doesn't make as much sense.