The Yellow House Mystery

I loved the Boxcar Children books when I was little.  I'm sure I read the entire series multiple times, but I probably read the original book dozens and dozens of times.  I was fascinated by orphans Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny Alden (and their dog Watch) and the life they created for themselves in the boxcar in the woods.

After they were rescued from life in the boxcar by their kind grandfather, the Boxcar Children went on to solve mysteries for the rest of the series, including a mystery about an old yellow house on Grandfather's property.  (Wonder why that one appeals to me today???)

The books have been reprinted several times since I read them in the early 80s, but the image to the left is exactly how I remember them.  Old books like this make me so nostalgic.  Other favorites: Nancy Drew (of course), Trixie Belden, the Meg mysteries, Encyclopedia Brown (clearly I had a thing for kid detectives), the B is for Betsy books, Betsy-Tacy (I also apparently had a thing for books about girls named Betsy), and Ramona.  And, of, course, I've written about my devotion to Anne of Green Gables before.

I think it's interesting that most of my favorites were not contemporary 80s books (like the Sweet Valley High books, although I read those too!), but they were books that were written decades earlier and withstood the passage of time.  I guess great books really are timeless.  I hope that when my niece is old enough to read that she'll be interested in reading these classics too.