The Boxcar Children Graphic Novel (The Boxcar Children Graphic Novels) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0807528676 ISBN 13: 9780807528679

Publisher: Albert Whitman & Company, 2009

Synopsis

Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny Alden are brothers and sisters―and they’re orphans! The only way they can stay together is to make it on their own. One night, during a storm, the children find an old red boxcar that keeps them warm and safe. They decide to make it their home.

About this title

About the Author

Gertrude Chandler Warner was born in 1890 in Putnam, Connecticut, where she taught school and wrote The Boxcar Children because she had often imagined how delightful it would be to live in a caboose or freight car. Encouraged by the book's success, she went on to write eighteen more stories about the Alden children.

From Booklist

Warner’s Boxcar Children was published in 1942 to mixed reviews. Parents were alarmed that the novel’s child heroes, the Alden siblings, got on so well without adult intervention. Children, however, felt empowered and enthusiastically applauded the young survivalists and their numerous further adventures. Denton, whose credits include work for the Cartoon Network, and Dubisch, best known for his fantasy comic artwork, have put together graphic-novel versions of some of the stories. In this first book, the orphaned Aldens set up housekeeping in an old boxcar, making the most of their particular strengths, until their grandfather takes them in. The story, though easy to read and follow, is presented in a surprisingly lackluster manner. The artwork, however, is more energetic, and the format works in the series’ favor, lending a contemporary feel even though the cars and clothes are vintage. The question remains, though, whether these modest pluses are enough to entice readers to continue to read the whole series (or find the original books). Grades 3-4. --Stephanie Zvirin

About this edition

• Publisher: Albert Whitman & Company
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0807528676
• ISBN 13: 9780807528679
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Mike Dubisch