My children are a bit old for this lovely new Early Reader Set, but we opted to review it anyway.
Why?
Because my nine year old likes to whiz through adventure- and mystery-based easy readers in balance with the more difficult reading materials he is working on in his lessons and my twelve year old, who struggles with reading and liked listening to the original Boxcar Children series, thought she might use these early readers to work on independent fluency.
For our review, we received hardcover copies of the first four books in the Boxcar Children Early Reader Set:
- The Boxcar Children
- Surprise Island
- Mystery Ranch
- The Yellow House Mystery
Each of these books is just under 40 pages long, contains plenty of full-color illustrations modeled on the artwork from the 2014 Boxcar Children animated film, and is written with large font text with double spaced sentences. This all works to help developing readers transition from picture books to chapter books with relative ease and confidence!
The series, which follows the orphans Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny Alden along with their dog Watch, has a simplified flavor of the original chapter books and uses concise sentences, straightforward dialogue and colorful illustrations to help young readers.
The easy reader series is geared towards children ages 5-7 or grade levels K-2, but can be enjoyed by older children, too.
The series, which follows the orphans Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny Alden along with their dog Watch, has a simplified flavor of the original chapter books and uses concise sentences, straightforward dialogue and colorful illustrations to help young readers.
The easy reader series is geared towards children ages 5-7 or grade levels K-2, but can be enjoyed by older children, too.
My nine year old had this to say about the books:
They are easy readers with large print, not very many sentences on each page, and cartoonish illustrations. I would say they are good for children under age nine or ten.
I liked them. I was able to read all four books on my own in one sitting. They were good, entertaining stories.
The Boxcar Children is my favorite one. It is about some homeless children who don't want to go live their grandpa, because they think he is evil. So, they live in a train boxcar and find a dog. Then, they get a job and meet their grandpa without knowing he's their grandpa. In the end, they learn he's their grandpa, are happy that he is kind, and end up staying with him.
In Surprise Island, the kids' grandpa takes them to an island and leaves them in a little house. They have a lot of adventures playing, making stuff... Then, they meet a guy named Joe and find out he's grandpa's nephew. They also find artifacts. In the end, Grandpa comes to celebrate one of the kids' birthdays and they have a party and reunion.
In Mystery Ranch, the kids go to their aunt's ranch, because she is lonely, and they cheer her up. On the way to the ranch, they see a mystery man on the train. Later, they find a ton of weird rocks and a little hut, so they go to the police station. The mystery man goes into the police station, too, to say he wants to buy the rocks. The aunt then explains some things, get a company to dig up the rocks and sell them. So, she gets to keep her ranch and she is given a dog so she won't be lonely.
In The Yellow House Mystery, the kids go to an island with their grandpa, find a house, and want to explore it. They do, and find a mysterious note to someone from Bill. Then, they go where the note tells them to go, and it is a rough adventure. Eventually, they get to the house and have a really rainy night. Then, they meet their grandfather's old friend, Bill. They get money from a box they find and everyone helps paint the yellow house.
I would recommend these books to kids ten and under as fun reads.
The Boxcar Children Time to Read Level 2 series is a set of four hardcover easy reader books based on the the chapter books by Gertrude Chandler Warner.
I read them as reading practice. They were easy. The stories are simple, so they did not make that much impact on me. They were fun, but not as good as the chapter books.
The Yellow House Mystery was my favorite because it was a mystery.
I think they would be good for people from ages 6-8 to read independently or with help. Older kids like me might like them as quick books to read through.
There are many illustrations and large print, plus plenty of white space. So that makes it easy to read. The characters are not that developed because they are easy readers, but there are clear storylines.
As a homeschool parent and tutor, I am glad to have these books in our collection. They have made for fun, easy reads for my children and will be great to have on hand with some of my tutoring students.
Reasons you might like them, too, include:
- Children who have seen the 2014 Boxcar Children movies that have recently been released on DVD can be enticed into reading by the tie-in artwork in the books series.
- Emergent readers can enjoy an easy introduction to the beloved Boxcar Children characters and stories.
- Kids who love series can enjoy the six books currently available and the two more that are planned to come out this year.
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