Kansas – Jestress's Forgotten Books and Stories

Boxcar Children

#105 The Mystery of the Orphan Train by Gertrude Chandler Warner, 2005.

Grandfather Alden is going on a business trip to Kansas, and he’s taking his grandchildren with him. They’re going to be staying at an old Victorian house that a friend of grandfather’s, Kate, has turned into a bed and breakfast. The house has been in their family for years, and one of its claims to fame is that a famous photographer, Ethan Cape, once stayed there and photographed her grandmother, Sally Crawford. Ethan Cape was known for his photographs of famous people, like royalty and movie stars, and nobody knew why he made it a point to visit this house in Kansas and photograph a woman he supposedly never met before, who wasn’t famous at all. People have offered to buy the photograph from Kate, but she refuses to sell it.

The Aldens find the old Victorian house charming, but Kate also tells them that there’s a mystery surrounding her grandmother. Not only does nobody know why Ethan Cape came to see her and photograph her, but Sally said before she died that she had a secret to share with her family. Unfortunately, she passed away before she could tell them what it was. It might have been the reason why she knew Ethan Cape and why he came to see her, but Kate thinks they’ll probably never find out.

A woman who’s staying at the bed and breakfast at the same time as the Aldens is fascinated by the bluebird necklace that Kate wears. The necklace used to belong to Sally, although nobody knows exactly how or when she got it or how old it really is. The woman recognizes it as an antique and tries to pressure Kate to sell it to her, but Kate refuses. Even a professor who is also staying at the bed and breakfast suggests to Kate that she might want to sell something for some extra money.

Far from wanting to sell anything, Kate has been trying to find some old family antiques that were sold years before when her grandfather needed money, repurchase them, and use them to furniture the bed and breakfast. She shows the Aldens one of the pieces that she’s managed to track down and buy, an old desk. It’s a bit of a mess, so the Aldens offer to help clean it up. While they’re cleaning, Henry finds a hidden compartment in the desk with a strange message for Sally signed “Thane Pace.”

When they show the note to Kate, she’s astonished, but she recognizes the name. Thane Pace was a boy who saved Sally’s life when she was a young child. Sally had been skating one day when she fell through the ice, and Thane Pace saved her. Thane Pace himself is a bit of mystery because he didn’t live in Sally’s town. He told everyone that he had come in search of his missing sister. They had both been sent out west on the orphan train as young children, but they were adopted by different families. However, nobody knows what happened to Thane Pace because, even though he saved Sally’s life, Sally’s father soon chased him away, accusing him of theft!

Was Thane really a thief? What does his message to Sally really mean? When Kate’s bluebird necklace suddenly disappears, the Boxcar Children investigate the mysteries of Sally’s past and consider if they’re related to the mystery of the missing necklace.

My Reaction and Some Spoilers

I loved this story, and it’s a new favorite of mine in this series! I love how the children have to look into the past and solve a kind of treasure hunt to learn the secrets of a pair of orphans from the past and the real identity of the famous photographer who once visited the house and his connection to it. Part of the mystery might seem obvious to adults and older readers who enjoy word games, even from my description, but I enjoyed the treasure hunt and riddles that lead the Aldens to the full story of what happened all those years ago.

I enjoy books with historical references, and the story explains a little about the history of the orphan trains, which ran from the mid-1800s to the 1920s. It was an early form of organized foster care in the United States, carrying orphans, homeless/abandoned children, or children whose parents were unable to care for them away from crowded orphanages in cities on the east coast of the United States to communities in the Midwest, where children were in demand as extra helpers on farms or in houses or just as family members for people who were unable to have children of their own. The orphan trains were later replaced with more modern forms of foster care, and there are rules now regarding the transporting, placement, or adoption of foster children across state borders. These rules exist to provide greater oversight for the protection of the children, the suitability of their new placements, and their continued welfare.

One of the criticisms of the orphan trains was that they provided too little oversight over the quality of the foster parents and their treatment of the children. The way the trains worked was that they had scheduled stops, and interested members of the communities could come to view the children from the train and select one or more to take home with them. There was little other qualification for a potential foster parent to take a child than for them to simply show up and little follow-up on the treatment of the children once they were placed with a new family, especially with the early orphan trains. They were known for placing most of their trust in “the kindness of strangers” will little verification. The result was that some orphans were lucky and were raised by families who loved them, treated them well, and educated them, while others were used as little more than slave labor.

Orphan trains were also known for their disregard for the relationships between siblings. They were focused on getting the children placed in homes as quickly and efficiently as possible, and if that meant splitting up siblings because a potential foster family only wanted one child, they would do that, which is the basis for the history behind this story. Potential foster families often had in mind the age of the child they wanted before they ever met any of the children, and they were eager to get exactly the type of child they had in mind. Some families specifically wanted boys who were old enough to help with farm work immediately, and they weren’t interested in infants, who would need extra care before they would be old enough to be useful. Other families specifically wanted infants so they could raise them as members of their own families without the influence of the children’s birth families, their memories of the past, or any bad habits they may have acquired hanging over them. These differing priorities among the foster parents are the reasons why siblings like Thane and his sister were separated from each other. However, Thane never forgot his sister, and he wanted to make sure that she knew the truth about their past in the end.

The disappearance of the necklace isn’t directly related to the secrets of the past, but the necklace is important as a family heirloom and the shared connection between Thane and his sister. It’s a separate puzzle from the treasure hunt to learn the truth about Thane, but it’s still fun and interesting.

The Twin Connection

Dangerous Play by Adam Mills, 1989.

Thirteen-year-old twins Ryan and Chris Taylor are visiting Kansas State University during homecoming week because their parents used to attend the university, and the boys are looking forward to getting their first look at life on a college campus. They’re also looking forward to the big football game. At least, Chris is looking forward to the game. Ryan isn’t as athletic and doesn’t see the appeal of sports as much as Chris does. Ryan is more studious. However, both of the boys are hoping to meet Trent Dasher, the star quarterback on the Kansas State football team. Chris wants to ask him for sports advice, and Ryan is hoping to get some pictures of him for their school’s newspaper. Meanwhile, their parents are looking forward to reliving their college years. They met in college, and they spent their honeymoon at the same hotel where they are now staying with the boys.

The twins go in search of Trent Dasher. They contacted him before arriving, so he should be expecting them, but they discover that he is missing. When they go to his dorm room, his roommate doesn’t know where he is. Then, the boys overhear a conversation between Coach Butler and Dean Murray in the athletic offices, in which the coach says that Trent has been behaving oddly recently, and now, he can’t find him. The twins ask Trent’s roommate, Danny, for more information about Trent and if he knows anything about where he might be. Danny says that he and Trent don’t really confide in each other. Even though they’re sharing a dorm room, they’re both pretty busy with their own activities. Danny has noticed that Trent has been unusually nervous recently and that he’s missed some classes, which is out of character for him. Danny suggests that they look for Trent at the Wildcats’ Lair, a snack bar in the University Union where Trent likes to hang out.

Before they leave Trent’s dorm room, the boys sneak a look at Trent’s belongings, and they learn a few things about him. Trent has a girlfriend named Jeannie who lives in their town and has written letters to him. He’s also in danger of failing his chemistry class if he doesn’t get some extra help, and if he fails chemistry, he could lose his scholarship. The boys figured that his problems with his classwork and the threat of losing his scholarship are probably what was worrying him so much.

When the boys go to check out the Wildcats’ Lair, they meet a girl who says that she’s Trent’s girlfriend. Unfortunately, she isn’t Jeannie. When the boys address her as Jeannie, assuming that she’s the one who wrote the letters, she says that’s not her and gets angry. The twins are embarrassing, thinking that they might have just accidentally created a new problem for Trent by complicating his love life.

The boys finally locate Trent talking to a tutor called Wilson about getting help to pass his chemistry exam. It seems like the mystery of the missing athlete is over, but then, Wilson tells Trent that the way he “helps” students is by selling them the test answers. Trent gets angry and refuses to cheat. The boys try approaching Trent, but he doesn’t want to talk to them because he has too much on his mind.

The twins are a little offended at being brushed off by Trent since he knew they were coming and had agreed to meet them, but they can also see that Trent is in trouble and could use some help. They decide to go after him, and they hear him talking to someone on the phone about a special “deal.” Since they just heard him turn down an opportunity to cheat by purchasing test answers, what kind of “deal” is he looking into to solve his problems?

The boys follow Trent and see him meeting with Coach Hatfield from Flint Hills University, Kansas State’s rival. It seems that Coach Hatfield has made Trent an offer to come play for their team, or at least, that’s how Trent interpreted his offer. With his scholarship to Kansas State in danger, Trent is considering the possibility of switching schools. However, it turns out that Coach Hatfield wants something very different. He wants to bribe Trent to throw the upcoming homecoming game and make sure his team loses! He says that he’ll make sure that Trent has enough money for his tuition if he does. Trent is appalled and refuses.

The twins continue to follow Trent as he goes to talk to his girlfriend, Cindi, who is the girl they met earlier. She asks him about Jeannie, but Jeannie is just a high school girl from his home town who has an unrequited crush on him. He’s really serious about Cindi. Trent tells Cindi everything about the troubles he’s been having and the unethical offers he’s had. She asks him why he hasn’t gotten help from the legitimate tutors or from his professor, but he says that the chemistry tutor quit and hasn’t been replaced yet and that his professor seems to have a prejudice against athletes. Trent is thinking that maybe he should just quit college and get a construction job so that he and Cindi can get married, but Cindi doesn’t think that’s a good idea.

Even if Cindi can help Trent find a solution to his problems in chemistry, Trent’s football problems are just beginning. He turned down Coach Hatfield’s proposition, but the Flint Hills football team isn’t going to take no for an answer. They’re prepared to use violence to make sure that the upcoming football game goes their way. Chris and Ryan witness some of them kidnapping Trent! They’ve got to get help and prove that Trent is in trouble to save him!

The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive.

My Reaction

There wasn’t really much mystery to the story, which was a disappointment to me. The boys figure out where Trent is and directly witness his kidnapping, so there’s nothing really for them to figure out. It’s more about how they manage to rescue him. It’s more of an adventure story than a mystery. Part of the premise of this series is also that the twins have a kind of psychic connection and can sense each other’s thoughts, but that didn’t really enter into this particular story. The resolution of the situation didn’t depend on them having this ability, and for most of the story, the twins just talk to each other openly about everything without a need to communicate anything silently.

Things turn out okay in the end because Trent is able to make it to the football game and help his team win. The book doesn’t mention any of them going to the police about the coach and football team participating in an actual kidnapping, which made me feel a little weird. It’s great that the boys were able to rescue Trent and that he was able to win the football game honestly. Trent never compromises his values, in spite of the pressure he’s experiencing from all sides, and in the end, there’s an honest solution to his problems with his grades, but still, kidnapping is a serious crime, and I thought that there should have been serious consequences to go with it.

As for Trent’s troubles with chemistry, it turns out that his chemistry professor is actually an old friend of the boys’ parents, and he isn’t really against athletes. The only reason why he hasn’t noticed Trent failing and helped him to get the extra tutoring he needs is that, at a large university, classes are made up of hundreds of students, and professors rely on graduate assistants to help manage the grading. The professor doesn’t know that much about how individual students are doing. They mainly help when students approach them for help, which Trent hasn’t done. When the twins explains Trent’s problems to the professor, the professor talks to Trent, telling him that he should have come to him earlier and that he will help him improve his grades, not because he’s a star athlete but because he’s a student in need of help to complete his degree.

Although I wasn’t thrilled by the mystery itself because it wasn’t much of a mystery, there are some interesting points in this story about both prejudices people have about athletes and the system of success/failure at universities. First, the prejudice part is an obvious one. Many people assume that people are either smart and good at studying or that they’re not smart and that’s why they’re mainly good at sports – like life’s options are brain vs. brawn, with no in-between. The twins themselves represent this notion because Ryan is the studious one and Chris is the athletic one. This seems to be how other people think of them and how they think of themselves.

Ryan in particular has this view. He’s good in school subjects, better than his brother, but not that good at sports and has no interest in sports. Chris is offended that his brother seems to think that his athletic prowess also makes him the dumber twin and that Ryan is often telling him that he needs to read more and study more or he’s not going to make it in college. Chris argues with Ryan and tells him that just because he’s into sports and not as good at studying as Ryan is doesn’t mean that he can’t manage. Ryan is correct that a student athlete can’t just be all about sports and neglect his school work, as Trent’s situation indicates, but he does underrate the athletes’ abilities to manage and think their way through problems. The boys also have some prejudices against girls, with Ryan particularly thinking of cheerleaders as being brainless, but Cindi, who is also a college cheerleader, comes through for them and helps to rescue her boyfriend. I didn’t like the way the boys talked about girls in the story, but Cindi’s role helps to highlight that theme of underestimating people and their abilities.

Success and failure are major themes in the story. Trent is a successful athlete, and generally, a pretty good student, apparently. However, the failure of one single class could endanger his scholarship and end his entire university career. As the chemistry professor points out later, it’s not just a matter of Trent losing his scholarship because of failing that class; this is a class that is required to complete his degree. We don’t actually know what Trent’s major is, but he apparently needs to understand at least some chemistry for it. Failure of this particular class is just not an option. A student whose scholarship was assured or who had other resources for paying for their education could simply retake a failed class and try to pass the next time, but there’s pressure for Trent because he really relies on his scholarship. Without it, there won’t be a next time for him. What the story points out is that it’s not just Trent’s failure but also the system’s failure. Professors with hundreds of students, and also the pressure of having to do their own researching, writing, and publishing on the side, just can’t keep up with every individual student and give them all the support they need. They rely on graduate assistants and tutors to fill in the gaps and provide that support. Trent falls through the cracks because the chemistry tutor left and hasn’t been replaced yet, and he was reluctant to talk to his professor about it. His lesson is one about how the university system functions and his need to go to his professor about his problems to get the help he needs.

It turns out that Trent isn’t the only one whose future hangs by a thread because of one possible failure. The reason why Coach Hatfield and his players are so desperate to win this upcoming football game is that Coach Hatfield will be fired if they don’t. The Flint Hills football players are desperate to save their coach. They see it as loyalty and as avoiding having to get a new coach that they won’t like as well, but that doesn’t justify engaging in a serious crime to accomplish their goals. In real life, they would be endangering their own futures by pulling this kidnapping stunt. The fact that the coach is willing to go along with such a thing may be a sign of why his career has reached this desperate point in the first place. It might not be just that he’s been unable to deliver the football victories that his university wants but that he also engages in reckless, irresponsible, and unethical behavior. At the very least, we know that he is likely to lose his job because his team lost the football game, but I still think that there are serious legal consequences for his actions.