Adventures in Mysteries!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Author: Gertrude Chandler Warner

Published: Rand McNally and Albert Whitman & Company

Copyright:  1942

Pages: Varies with book series

Category: Children Literature/ Mysteries

I chose these books because when I was in  fifth grade, I began reading this series, and I wanted to be an independent reader. I just fell in love with them. I wondered in their world and wanted to be a part of their adventures. I loved the fact that each book had its own mystery. The series is about four Alden siblings that are orphans. Jessie, Henry, Violet, and Benny all lived in a boxcar in the woods they found during a storm. They used their resources to help them survive and soon bring home a dog they named Watch. Soon the children found out by Dr. Moore that their grandfather had a $5,000 reward out for them, because they ran away from home. They finally got to meet James Henry Alden, and he is not the cruel grandfather they thought he was. After moving in the house with their grandfather,got the boxcar and placed it in the backyard. The series has over 125 mysteries, and they vary from book to book and place to place. In order to see what happens after the first book, you will have to read the series.

The illustrations are done in penciled black and white throughout all the series. The text is very simple. I love that the pictures always came at the right moments and the showed expression. The medium was done on paper and done with great detail.

I would recommend this series to third grade and up. With this book series there is so much a teacher could do with any lesson plan.  I would use this in my classroom as a sequence of events activity to see if students could remember what went next in the story.  I would even use it as a read aloud for my independent readers. Lastly, I would use the boxcar as part of a science lesson on trains. Candlewick Press Award Winning Independent Publisher of Children, Newbery Medal Awards, and Teachers Top 100 Children Books are to name a few of the awards.