Journey on a Runaway Train by Gertrude Chandler Warner, Anthony VanArsdale

Remember the Boxcar Children?  Gertrude Chandler Warner wrote a great many books starring these children.  I think I read the whole series when I was young.  I at least read every one I could find.  When I saw this new mini-series, I had to revisit them and see how they have held up over the years.

Albert Whitman & Company and Edelweiss allowed me to read this book for review (thank you).  It will be published February 1st.

All the same characters are in this series, along with their dog.  The story begins at home when a funny looking man gives them a flyer about a business who buys antiques.  Their grandfather decides to sell the old trunk up in the attic.  It will give them more space, they don't use it anymore and a little extra money might be nice.  When they go to clean it out, they find a turtle fetish that had not been in there before.  They don't know it, but that's going to send them off to an adventure in New Mexico!

It seems their grandfather has arranged for them to make this trip on a private train and take the turtle and other artifacts back to the people they were stolen from.  In this case, the turtle is going to the Acoma Pueblo otherwise known as Sky City.  But someone else wants that turtle so it's not going to be an easy journey.

This a well-written modernized story of the Boxcar Children and somehow it's lost part of its charm to me.  With everything updated, it has a different flavor.  However, the world keeps changing and a new batch of children won't find a thing wrong with them.  I'm just a dinosaur who likes to read books.

If your child has never read about the boxcar children, this might be a good place to start.  They are written for young readers and aren't too long.  It might be a reunion for old friends with some and that's a good thing, too.