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Time Travel Tuesday: Jackson Pearce on Gertrude Chandler Warner's The Boxcar Children
When I was growing up, there was one thing I was absolutely certain about: The adults in my life were idiots. As far as I was concerned, they wanted to treat me like a toddler, when I was perfectly able to make most of my decisions completely unassisted. They were holding me back! Crushing my ambition! Putting the best snacks at the top of the pantry! I think that’s why I found the entire BOXCAR CHILDREN series so appealing. Here were these four kids that proved they could make things work on their own. After their parents die, they runaway and find jobs in a bakery, then go on to live in an abandoned boxcar. The siblings do all sorts of clever things—they use rocks behind a waterfall as a refrigerator and get jobs and even achieve what I considered to be the ultimate success: they get a dog. The series was originated in the 1920s by a schoolteacher, but after nineteen books ghost writers and mass marketing got a hold of it, so today there are over 140 books in the series.
I feel like a lot of books similar to the BOXCAR CHILDREN—the SWEET VALLEY series, the BABYSITTERS CLUB, for example—often get the cold shoulder in the world of young adult books. Sure, they’re packaged, they’re fluffy, they’re probably written in three weeks and edited in four. There’s something undeniably disposable about mass series books, and yet, there’s something about them that I think lingers with readers.
It could simply be the fact that there are six million BOXCAR CHILDREN/SWEET VALLEY/BABYSITTERS CLUB books and so, after reading Super Special Beach Edition #97, the books are bound to stick with us. But genuinely think that, at the core of these ghost-written, shelf-filling series is, undeniably, a good story. A good story about kids able and willing to make decisions normally left to adults: a staple of modern young adult lit.
Sure, the characters aren’t necessarily developed, but in a way that makes them even better—I cast myself in the role of Jessie, in BOXCAR CHILDREN, and was able to because her character was something of a blank slate personality-wise. It allowed me to envision myself taking care of my family, making tough choices, and finally putting the snacks on the top shelf exactly where I wanted them (in my hand, thank you very much). That sort of escapism might not be symbolic or heart-wrenching or canonical, but it was exactly what 2nd-grade me needed.
So, would I read THE BOXCAR CHILDREN now? Probably not. They probably wouldn’t inspire me or make me think about the tough questions. Plus, re-reading them might do that thing where I realize they weren’t quite as awesome as I remember. But would I give my own kid any mass series, no matter how mundane the problems, no matter how many ghost writers chipped in to it? Absolutely. Sometimes all you need is an escape, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
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Many thanks to Jackson Pearce for this fantastic Time Travel Tuesday guest post, and to Hodder for inviting me to take part in the Sisters Red book tour.
You can read my review of Sisters Red here.
Why not check out yesterday's stop on the blog tour at Chicklish? Just click here.
11 comments:
What a great post! I've never heard of The Boxcar Children, but I agree with what Jackson says about mass market series. They are brilliant, especially for younger readers.
Oh, I so agree with this! Thank you, Jackson Pearce! (And Lauren for hosting this great post.)
I confess to never having heard of The Boxcar Children.
I wonder if anyone else is afraid to read a childhood favourite in case it lost its magic. Intriguing...
When I was in elementary school I used to include K.A. Applegate in my bedtime prayers, because I didn't want her to die and someone else start writing the Animorphs series, like had happened to the Boxcar Children. (This didn't stop Animorphs from jumping the shark, but I tried.) I had no idea what the concept of ghostwriting was, but I knew the first nineteen Boxcar Children books were vastly superior to the ones that followed. Did that stop me from reading them? No. But I mostly reread the first ones.
Ah, those were the days...
Sounds great, sad and fun all at the same time! Like it.
I haven't read the books but can tell that being at work might be a little bit like being part of the boxcar children. Making decisions that should be left to real adults etc. Nice guest post I enjoyed it and will look out for the books. Shall we get an office dog? I want it to be called scruffy.
I think The Boxcar Children is an American only series, I guess? I grew up on them. I ADORED the series and the first two books, before it gotten into the mystery-solving aspect are two of my favourite ever books. There's an illustration at the end of the first book that I LOVE. When I was little, I wanted to live in this one illustration.
I still have my large collection of Boxcar books, so at least I can pass them onto my boys (living here in England) and maybe they'll think of themselves as Benny (like I thought of myself as Jessie!)
What a great guest post, really brought back memories.
I loved my Baby Sitter's Club
Great guest post by Jackson! Sometimes I find myself reading a YA/MG book that I like logically, but not in my heart. Like, I know it has everything going for it that a ten-year-old me would have absolutely adored. But the present me isn't bonding with it; who I am today can appreciate it for what it is, and I'd totally recommend it to the younger set, but I'm not truly in love with it as an adult. So I can see why Jackson says that although TBC appealed to her as a child, she wouldn't reread them now. I envy how she was able to make her point so articulately...I hope what I'm trying to say is coming across properly lol.
Amazing post! That's exactly how I felt when I red the Boxcar series a few years ago. I used to reenact the boxcar children's escapades in the woods in my backyard. They were so independent - it amazed the childhood me.
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