The Boxcar Children

The Boxcar Children tells the story of four orphaned children, Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny. They create a home for themselves in an abandoned boxcar in the forest. They eventually meet their grandfather, who is a wealthy and kind man (although the children had believed him to be cruel). The children decide to live with the grandfather, who moves the beloved boxcar to his backyard so the children can use it as a playhouse.

The Boxcar Series Through the Years

• 1890: Gertrude Chandler Warner, author of The Boxcar Children, is born in Putnam, Connecticut
• 1918: Gertrude Chandler Warner steps in to teach first grade when many male teachers are called to service during World War I
• 1942: Gertrude Chandler Warner publishes The Boxcar with Scott Foresman; it is illustrated by L. Kate Deal
• 1949: The second Boxcar title, Surprise Island, is published; Gertrude Chandler Warner would go on to write a total of nineteen titles
• 1950s: Publisher Scott Foresman continues to use The Boxcar Children as part of his educational curriculum
• 1960s: Albert Whitman & Company becomes the sole publisher of all editions of The Boxcar Children
• 1976: Benny Uncovers a Mystery, the last title Gertrude Chandler Warner wrote, is published
• 1979: Gertrude Chandler Warner dies
• 1980s: The Boxcar Children series remains in print in hardcover
• 1989: Partnership with Scholastic brings The Boxcar Children series into paperback and shared with millions of children through Scholastic’s Book Fair and Book Club flyers in schools
• 1993: The first Boxcar Children Special published; there are a total of twenty-one
• 1997: A biography, Gertrude Chandler Warner and The Boxcar Children by Mary Ellen Ellsworth and illustrated by Marie DeJohn, is published
• 2004: The Mystery of the Haunted Boxcar, the one hundredth Boxcar Children book, is published
• 2004: The Gertrude Chandler Warner Boxcar Children Museum opens in Putnam, Connecticut
• 2012: A prequel, The Boxcar Children Beginning: The Aldens of Fair Meadow Farm by Newbery Award-winning author Patricia MacLachlan, is published
• 2014: The Boxcar Children, an animated movie, is released into select theaters and available for purchase and download nationwide
• 2016: The first five Boxcar Children books are available in Spanish for the first time, starting with Los chicos del vagón de carga

About the Author

Gertrude Chandler Warner was born in Putnam, Connecticut, on April 16, 1890, to Edgar and Jane Warner. Her family included a sister, Frances, and a brother, John. From the age of five, she dreamed of becoming an author. She wrote stories for her Grandfather Carpenter, and each Christmas she gave him one of these stories as a gift. Today, Ms. Warner is best remembered as the author of The Boxcar Children Mysteries.