The Boxcar Children Mysteries: Books One through Twelve (124 page)

T
HE
M
YSTERY OF THE
S
ECRET
M
ESSAGE

T
HE
F
IREHOUSE
M
YSTERY

T
HE
M
YSTERY IN
S
AN
F
RANCISCO

T
HE
N
IAGARA
F
ALLS
M
YSTERY

T
HE
M
YSTERY AT THE
A
LAMO

T
HE
O
UTER
S
PACE
M
YSTERY

T
HE
S
OCCER
M
YSTERY

T
HE
M
YSTERY IN THE
O
LD
A
TTIC

T
HE
G
ROWLING
B
EAR
M
YSTERY

T
HE
M
YSTERY OF THE
L
AKE
M
ONSTER

T
HE
M
YSTERY AT
P
EACOCK
H
ALL

T
HE
W
INDY
C
ITY
M
YSTERY

T
HE
B
LACK
P
EARL
M
YSTERY

T
HE
C
EREAL
B
OX
M
YSTERY

T
HE
P
ANTHER
M
YSTERY

T
HE
M
YSTERY OF THE
Q
UEEN’S
J
EWELS

T
HE
S
TOLEN
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WORD
M
YSTERY

T
HE
B
ASKETBALL
M
YSTERY

T
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OVIE
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TAR
M
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T
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YSTERY OF THE
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IRATE’S
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AP

T
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HOST
T
OWN
M
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T
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YSTERY OF THE
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LACK
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AVEN

T
HE
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YSTERY IN THE
M
ALL

T
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M
YSTERY IN
N
EW
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ORK

T
HE
G
YMNASTICS
M
YSTERY

T
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P
OISON
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ROG
M
YSTERY

T
HE
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YSTERY OF THE
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AFE

T
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OME
R
UN
M
YSTERY

T
HE
G
REAT
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ICYCLE
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ACE
M
YSTERY

T
HE
M
YSTERY OF THE
W
ILD
P
ONIES

T
HE
M
YSTERY IN THE
C
OMPUTER
G
AME

T
HE
M
YSTERY AT THE
C
ROOKED
H
OUSE

T
HE
H
OCKEY
M
YSTERY

T
HE
M
YSTERY OF THE
M
IDNIGHT
D
OG

T
HE
M
YSTERY OF THE
S
CREECH
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WL

T
HE
S
UMMER
C
AMP
M
YSTERY

T
HE
C
OPYCAT
M
YSTERY

T
HE
H
AUNTED
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LOCK
T
OWER
M
YSTERY

T
HE
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YSTERY OF THE
T
IGER
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YE

T
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D
ISAPPEARING
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TAIRCASE
M
YSTERY

T
HE
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YSTERY ON
B
LIZZARD
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OUNTAIN

T
HE
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YSTERY OF THE
S
PIDER
’S C
LUE

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C
ANDY
F
ACTORY
M
YSTERY

T
HE
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YSTERY OF THE
M
UMMY’S
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URSE

T
HE
M
YSTERY OF THE
S
TAR
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UBY

T
HE
S
TUFFED
B
EAR
M
YSTERY

T
HE
M
YSTERY OF
A
LLIGATOR
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WAMP

T
HE
M
YSTERY AT
S
KELETON
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OINT

T
HE
T
ATTLETALE
M
YSTERY

T
HE
C
OMIC
B
OOK
M
YSTERY

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HE
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REAT
S
HARK
M
YSTERY

T
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CE
C
REAM
M
YSTERY

T
HE
M
IDNIGHT
M
YSTERY

T
HE
M
YSTERY IN THE
F
ORTUNE
C
OOKIE

T
HE
B
LACK
W
IDOW
S
PIDER
M
YSTERY

T
HE
R
ADIO
M
YSTERY

T
HE
M
YSTERY OF THE
R
UNAWAY
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HOST

T
HE
F
INDERS
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EEPERS
M
YSTERY

T
HE
M
YSTERY OF THE
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AUNTED
B
OXCAR

T
HE
C
LUE IN THE
C
ORN
M
AZE

T
HE
G
HOST OF THE
C
HATTERING
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ONES

T
HE
S
WORD OF THE
S
ILVER
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NIGHT

T
HE
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AME
S
TORE
M
YSTERY

T
HE
M
YSTERY OF THE
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RPHAN
T
RAIN

T
HE
V
ANISHING
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ASSENGER

T
HE
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IANT
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O
-Y
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M
YSTERY

T
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C
REATURE IN
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GOPOGO
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AKE

T
HE
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OCK ’N’
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OLL
M
YSTERY

T
HE
S
ECRET OF THE
M
ASK

T
HE
S
EATTLE
P
UZZLE

T
HE
G
HOST IN THE
F
IRST
R
OW

T
HE
B
OX
T
HAT
W
ATCH
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OUND

A H
ORSE
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AMED
D
RAGON

T
HE
G
REAT
D
ETECTIVE
R
ACE

T
HE
G
HOST AT THE
D
RIVE
-I
N
M
OVIE

T
HE
M
YSTERY OF THE
T
RAVELING
T
OMATOES

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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

copyright © 1967 by Albert Whitman & Company

ISBN: 978-1-4532-0803-8

This 2010 edition distributed by Open Road Integrated Media
180 Varick Street
New York, NY 10014
www.openroadmedia.com

Gertrude Chandler Warner (1890—1979) was an American author of children’s books, most notably the first nineteen titles of the Boxcar Children mystery series, as well as four books for adults.

Born on April 16, 1890, Warner was raised in Putnam, Connecticut, in a house built by her grandfather, John Carpenter, at 42 South Main Street, across the street from a railroad station. Her sister, Frances, was two years older than her, and her brother, John, was two years younger. Their parents, Edgar Warner and Jane Elizabeth Carpenter Warner, were extremely active within the Putnam community as a lawyer/judge and head of the town school committee, respectively. Although she was afflicted with severe sore throats and other childhood illnesses, Warner attended the Fifth District School House with her siblings. When she was halfway through her sophomore year of high school, her ailments got the better of her and she had to withdraw. Instead of formal schooling, she studied at home with a tutor and with her mother, although she never graduated.

Warner’s first job was for a Sunday school newspaper published in the nearby town of Danielson, which paid her a dollar for every five hundred words she wrote. Having written stories since she was nine years old, mostly for her family, she longed to write a book and have it published. Her dream came true in 1916 with the publication of The House of Delight, a children’s book about her childhood dollhouse and its residents, Mr. and Mrs. Delight. Shortly after, both Warner and her sister began publishing stories and essays in magazines such as the Atlantic Monthly, Ladies’ Home Journal, House Beautiful, and Harper’s.

In 1918, as the United States became involved in World War I, the resulting dearth of educators led Warner to begin what would become a thirty-two year career teaching first and third grade at the Israel Putnam School. At first, she assisted another teacher for a few hours each day, but when that teacher died of influenza during the pandemic of 1918—19, Warner took over. She had forty children in her morning class and another forty in the afternoon, and her salary was raised five times—from four hundred to one thousand dollars—during her first year of teaching. Meanwhile, she continued to write, composing a nature series for Little Folks magazine, and, in 1918, a Boston publisher collected her many articles about stars and constellations for a children’s astronomy book, Star Stories for Little Folks.

When Warner suffered a bout of bronchitis that kept her from teaching for several months, she began to write the story that would become The Boxcar Children. It was about the Alden children—four orphans who live in a boxcar—and it was inspired by the Putnam Railroad Station across the street from Warner’s childhood home. The Boxcar Children, published in 1942, would become the first installment of her beloved mystery series and establish her as a writer of children’s books. In 1949 she published the second Boxcar book, Surprise Island. The following year, when she turned sixty, Warner finally retired from teaching and devoted herself to writing full-time, publishing books for both children and adults. She wrote nineteen Boxcar books in all, including The Yellow House Mystery (1953), Mystery Ranch (1958), The Woodshed Mystery (1962), and Benny Uncovers a Mystery (1976), which would be her last.