I didn’t read this (or review it) with the intent to participate in 5M4B’s Children’s Classics Mystery Challenge. But if the shoe fits…
I don’t remember ever reading on of the Boxcar Children books that was only “created by” Gertrude Chandler Warner rather than written by Gertrude Chandler Warner. But I must have read at least one, because I developed a deeply rooted suspicion of “created bys” and avoided them at all costs through my mid-elementary years. My main beef with the “created bys” was that they returned the four Alden children to their original ages rather than continuing to have them grow in age as they had in the “originals.”
Reading The Haunted Cabin Mystery confirmed my childhood antipathy toward “created bys”. The children abruptly return to being 6, 10, 12, and 14 after 19 books in which they’d aged at least 2-4 years (since Henry is in college in book 19.) This shift, and the uncharacteristic first chapter “recap” of book 1, was jarring to me–but not as worrisome to me as a mature reader than some more subtle elements in the story.
Like the other stories, this one centers around the four children solving a mystery in a relatively independent fashion–while still under the benevolent watchful eye of a concerned adult. Except that this story introduces a new element of secrecy and disobedience. In Warner’s “originals”, the children were always quite transparent with their older caregiver, sharing each new discovery as it occurred. Secrets in the originals were about what they were going to have for lunch or a special surprise gift they were planning–never about the mystery. Here, the children keep the mystery entirely a secret–ostensibly to avoid worrying the older man they were staying with.
In the original series, the children are energetic but obedient, following both the letter and the spirit of the law. In The Haunted Cabin Mystery, the children are expressly told not to go outside after dark–a rule that they routinely broke in solving their mystery. Despite this flagrant disobedience, the children are never punished or made to feel sorry for their behavior (even just in their own consciences.) In fact, the children were commended for solving the mystery with no mention whatsoever made of their disobedience or deception in doing so.
As a youngster, I probably wouldn’t have caught onto this. It was subtle, not intrusive. It wasn’t like the children were disrespecting their caregiver to his face. They were just ignoring his directives. But it’s the subtlety of this disrespect that most concerns me as an older reader. When “badness” is flagrant and straightforward, it’s easy to condemn it. The reader can easily see that they should not emulate the characters in that aspect of their actions. The reader is forced to read with his filter on when “badness” is clearly seen. But when something is billed as wholesome, the story can slip in bits of compromise to an unsuspecting reader. Without even realizing it, children can begin to think that there is no need to be obedient and no consequences for disobedience. They can begin to think that concealing the truth is a better policy than telling the truth. After all, the Boxcar children did and it all turned out for the best.
My opinion of the “created by” is hereby reinforced. I am highly in favor of the original nineteen Boxcar children books. But I can’t place my mark of approval on the subsequent additions to the series. Not only are they more clunky stylistically than the originals (admittedly, the series was never about literary style)–but I fear that they leave the moral high ground and embrace a relativistic approach to morality. I cannot recommend the “created bys”.
Rating: 0 stars
Category: Children’s fiction
Synopsis: The four Alden children go to stay with a retired sea captain and discover a mystery surrounding the cabin he lives in.
Recommendation: Tolerable story, intolerable moral relativity. I cannot recommend this book.