The Boxcar Children: Mystery Ranch

The Boxcar Children Graphic Novels: Mystery Ranch created by Gertrude Chandler Warner

Realistic Fiction

While the four boxcar children (Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny Alden) are visiting their grandpa for the summer, Grandpa James gets a letter from his sister Jane. The letter says that the neighbor who was taking care of her cannot take care of her for much longer. Since Aunt Jane is not sick (only stubborn), Jessie and Violet offer to go out to her ranch to take care of her. On the train ride there, they run into a mystery man who soon disappears. Aunt Jane starts to warm up to the girls, so they invite Henry, Benny, and Benny's dog Watch out to join them. One day Aunt Jane announces that three men came to her to ask to buy her ranch, but she refused because she wants to sign the ranch over to the Alden children. Excited, the Boxcar Children decide to explore their new ranch. They find a hut on the land and the warm remains of a campfire, so they go to the police to tell them someone has been living on their land. A few days later the mystery man returns and reveals that he was hired by Grandpa James to look for valuable minerals on the ranch- which he found! Their ranch is worth a lot of money! He tells them that the three men tried to buy Aunt Jane's ranch from her because they found the valuable minerals too and wanted to sell them. The three men are caught by the sheriff and the mystery man and won't ever be allowed on the ranch again! The Boxcar Children race back to the ranch to tell Aunt Jane what has happened, and she tells them she thinks their grandfather would be able to help them run the ranch. Grandpa James comes out to the ranch and Aunt Jane apologizes for being so mean to him over the last few years. He accepts her apology and begins work on the ranch immediately. The Boxcar Children have to go home at the end of the summer, but they will definitely be back next summer to visit Aunt Jane, Grandpa, and their ranch!

I would use this graphic novel to discuss point of view (author vs. character). The book uses bubbles when characters are speaking or thinking, but when the author chooses to explain more without using the characters it is in a box, usually in the corner of the frame. It would be very easy for the children to distinguish whether the text was coming from the point of view of the author or the character, and I think that it would be a great introduction of the topic for students.