The Boxcar Children

When I was a kid I loved to read The Famous Five books by Enid Blyton. The characters in the book are Julian, George, Dick, Ann and Timmy the dog and they had all kinds of adventures. I'm really hoping my boys will read them when they get a little older, though they are written in an older traditional English (the first book came out in 1942 after all), so they might find it a tad difficult. I'm having the same problem with Roald Dahl books. I tried to read "Danny Champion of the World" to Daniel and even I struggled.

So anyway, I found an American version of The Famous Five called The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner. These books date back to the 1920's but they have been updated to a more modern English so my kids can understand them. Last night we watched the film of the first book, which they love. Now my boys want to live in a boxcar. Daniel is quite adamant about that. He told me he wants to be Ben (the youngest character) and when he went to bed he had that dreamy look in his eyes. I hope he has the same dreams of adventure that I did at that age.