The Boxcar Children Graphic Novel 

by Gertrude Chandler Warner adapted by Meika Hashimoto 2026 / 176 pages Rating: GOOD/Great/Give

The Boxcar Children first appeared back in 1924, about Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny, four siblings on their own. Their parents have died, and their only living relative is a curmudgeonly old grandfather who doesn’t even like them. Or so they think. The foursome have run away together, and spend each new day trying to keep one step ahead of their grandfather, and trying to figure out a new way to stay fed and keep dry. Then, when Jessie finds an old abandoned train boxcar in the woods, it seems the perfect place to set down roots. Especially when oldest brother Henry finds steady part-time work in the town nearby. This is a survival adventure with the happiest of endings when their grandpa finally tracks them down and he turns out to be not the least bit grumpy.

Now this 100-year-old story has gotten the graphic novel treatment, with big bright pictures and enough pages to allow for the inclusion of all the original’s high points. It’s a really well-crafted package, and may inspire kids to pick up the original to read the story in more depth.

Cautions

There are no cautions for this comic.

I will note that author Gertrude Chandler Warner went on to write 18 sequels, and after her death, the series actually picked up speed, with well over 200 Boxcar books published to date. While the series is quite safe – I’m basing that on the dozen or so I’ve read to my daughters – God is never mentioned. Now, one story that overlooks God is one thing, but 200 books that do the same is a problem. So if this comic inspires your kids to check out the original, that’s great, but don’t let them get stuck reading nothing but Boxcar books. Just like our daughters shouldn’t be watching one Hallmark movie after another because of this franchise’s unrealistic understanding of romance, we don’t want our kids reading one Boxcar book after another, ingesting an unrealistic view of the world that acts as if God is not.

Conclusion

This isn’t the first time the Boxcar books have been given a graphic novel adaptation. From 2009 to 2011, 18 of the earlier titles were adapted into short 32-page hardcover comics. They were okay, and probably popular in school libraries, but the short size meant that the stories were truncated, and in a few of them (The Yellow House Mystery, The Pizza Mystery, and The Castle Mystery) the abridgments left the story downright disjointed.

In contrast, this 170-page adaptation has the room to leave the story largely intact. That’s roughly the same page count as the original novel! Of course, with only about 25 words per page in the graphic novel, compared to 100+ words a page in the original, some cuts happened. But that only means that if your kid loved it, they should be sure to check out the full-length book.

I’d recommend this for kids in Grade 1 and 2 – it would be a great addition to any school library. A second graphic novel, Shipwrecked!, scheduled for 2027, and I look forward to checking it out too.