A review by sarah_reading_party
The Boxcar Children Beginning: The Aldens of Fair Meadow Farm by Patricia MacLachlan

4.0

3.5 stars, rounded up. This was a sweet prequel, written by another author years after the original author's death, that seeks to explain the backstory of the Boxcar children. How did they wind up as orphans? Why were they scared of their grandfather? How did they become so closeknit? What was their life like before the boxcar? This book does answer some of these questions, in a roundabout way. My seven year old son was satisfied... but as an adult, I was not. I felt that their parents' death was too abrupt, and I found it hard to believe - that even in the early 1940s (1942 I think) that the police and adult neighbors would just let the kids be on their own after such a sudden loss.

I've heard that the original first Boxcar Children book was harsher than the current first book, so I'd love to find an original copy of that too.

All in all, this is good but not great...depends on your perspective I suppose (and probably your age).