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A review by devannm
Mystery Ranch by Gertrude Chandler Warner
2.0
Ok I try not to give low ratings to children's books because I usually figure that any complaints I might have would not really be an issue if I was a younger reader, and I loved this series when I was a child but this one was just really not good.
I mean first of all the whole 'missing or estranged relatives' plotline is getting REALLY OLD now so I hope we are heading more into the stuff that I remember soon, but also there is not really any mystery here at all ...or I guess there maybe is but the kids do not in any way 'solve' it. They just kind of hang around with their grumpy aunt for awhile and then some random dude shows up to explain that he's solved the entire plot while they were once again cooking really weird food. I'm so glad I didn't grow up in the 40's or 50's ...for many reasons really but also everything they eat sounds awful.
Anyway then the aunt literally signs over her entire ranch to them, as if they weren't already filthy rich enough. It's obviously nothing that I thought about as a child but I wonder what the wealth distribution was like during this time period because reading it from a 21st century American standpoint it's kind of sickening how easy these kids have it [not that kids shouldn't have it easy, I just mean it's very uncommon today].
Also ...its uranium just not as dangerous as I thought it was or did they just not know it was dangerous at this time? Because she's literally got a uranium fireplace and they're just walking around in fields of it touching it and stuff and I'm like ???? That's bad right ???? I don't know, the whole thing was just bizarre, even by Boxcar Children standards.
I mean first of all the whole 'missing or estranged relatives' plotline is getting REALLY OLD now so I hope we are heading more into the stuff that I remember soon, but also there is not really any mystery here at all ...or I guess there maybe is but the kids do not in any way 'solve' it. They just kind of hang around with their grumpy aunt for awhile and then some random dude shows up to explain that he's solved the entire plot while they were once again cooking really weird food. I'm so glad I didn't grow up in the 40's or 50's ...for many reasons really but also everything they eat sounds awful.
Anyway then the aunt literally signs over her entire ranch to them, as if they weren't already filthy rich enough. It's obviously nothing that I thought about as a child but I wonder what the wealth distribution was like during this time period because reading it from a 21st century American standpoint it's kind of sickening how easy these kids have it [not that kids shouldn't have it easy, I just mean it's very uncommon today].
Also ...its uranium just not as dangerous as I thought it was or did they just not know it was dangerous at this time? Because she's literally got a uranium fireplace and they're just walking around in fields of it touching it and stuff and I'm like ???? That's bad right ???? I don't know, the whole thing was just bizarre, even by Boxcar Children standards.