Rating: My bookshelf
Reading level: Early Elementary
The Yellow House Mystery continues the saga of the four adventurous children and their adult-cousin Joe. They go on a canoeing adventure in the woods and meet bears, Native Americans, friendly small-town folks, and a hermit. I like how the children make do with what they have, try to help people, and work together to solve problems. I have this book in my home, despite these minor concerns:
- They refer to Native Americans as “Indians” again. I had a conversation with my son about why we might prefer to avoid using “Indian” for Native Americans. This website was helpful as it says it is always best to ask an indigenous American what term they prefer.
- Benny runs away from the family to go see the hermit without them. He wanted to impress them but he doesn’t really think about safety, etc.
- Gambling. The story follows the mystery of what happened to a man whose brother struggles with gambling and is tangled up with a bad crowd. The story is respectfully done, but it does expose readers the meniton of gambling (without going into much detail at all).
Other than these issues, as with my review of the previous two books in the series, I like the Boxcar Children and am pleased with the way they find fun and adventure even in what others might consider mundane or boring. I like how they entertain themselves with projects and with other good clean, healthy fun.
Here are links to my reviews of other Boxcar Children books:
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