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68 reviews for:
The Yellow House Mystery: The Boxcar Children Mysteries #3
Gertrude Chandler Warner, Phyllis Newman
3.72 AVERAGE
68 reviews for:
The Yellow House Mystery: The Boxcar Children Mysteries #3
Gertrude Chandler Warner, Phyllis Newman
3.72 AVERAGE
N and I enjoyed this one! Better than the second book but not as good as the first.
adventurous
hopeful
lighthearted
mysterious
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Ok, so this where Gertrude really hits her stride and starts putting these kids through the ringer. The kids take on a cold case involving a race horse heist. The kids and a newlywed couple, who were bored just days into their marriage, accompanied the children into the forest. Where they met a bunch of lonely woodsmen in a logging camp. Then they track down a guy who is minding his own beeswax in the middle of the wilderness. It turns out that he is person who lifted three large from their grandpa years back. Anyway, the hermit is neither creepy nor addicted to meth. The ending was a little underwhelming.
I'm trying so hard to enjoy these books as I read them with my second grader. She loves them, but great literature they are not. Definitely age appropriate for her, but I wish there was a little more substance to draw me in.
Continuing my slow reread of this series and although it's definitely a super simplistic read as an adult, it's unintentionally hilarious enough to make up for it. In this third volume the kids find YET ANOTHER estranged person associated with their family [I guess points because it's not actually a relative this time]. Honestly they've gotta knock this off soon because even their mansion can only hold so many people ;)
I did find this a bit more interesting than the first two books, although it does follow the same basic premise for the most part. There is actually a lot less focus on food in this one, although it's definitely still an ongoing theme. At least they eat 'normal' food for the most part here, although there was a part where they got super excited over an ENTIRE CHICKEN IN A CAN [gross???] and the many mentions of 'dried eggs' made me shudder a bit because I don't know exactly how that works but again ...sounds really gross. It's interesting I guess from a historical perspective because it just keeps leaving me wondering if kids in the 50s were super obsessed with food or if maybe this is a personal after-effect of hers from living through the depression etc?
Another thing that is kind of a disconnect between how people probably read this in the past and how it comes across today is the family's money situation. I mean there's this kind of weird disconnect where it's like they're always trying to portray them as like 'oh we're gonna go camping and we're roughing it and we're making blanket rolls to carry our clothes but also we're going to go buy literally all new camping supplies even though we surely have some old stuff because we've been camping before'. Definitely a weird series to read as an adult but as a kid I didn't notice any of this stuff so it's an interesting thing to revisit.
I did find this a bit more interesting than the first two books, although it does follow the same basic premise for the most part. There is actually a lot less focus on food in this one, although it's definitely still an ongoing theme. At least they eat 'normal' food for the most part here, although there was a part where they got super excited over an ENTIRE CHICKEN IN A CAN [gross???] and the many mentions of 'dried eggs' made me shudder a bit because I don't know exactly how that works but again ...sounds really gross. It's interesting I guess from a historical perspective because it just keeps leaving me wondering if kids in the 50s were super obsessed with food or if maybe this is a personal after-effect of hers from living through the depression etc?
Another thing that is kind of a disconnect between how people probably read this in the past and how it comes across today is the family's money situation. I mean there's this kind of weird disconnect where it's like they're always trying to portray them as like 'oh we're gonna go camping and we're roughing it and we're making blanket rolls to carry our clothes but also we're going to go buy literally all new camping supplies even though we surely have some old stuff because we've been camping before'. Definitely a weird series to read as an adult but as a kid I didn't notice any of this stuff so it's an interesting thing to revisit.
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
Yes
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No