A Horse Named Dragon created by Gertrude Chandler Warner

A Horse Named Dragon created by Gertrude Chandler Warner

(Suggested grades: 3-6)

I have to say this is one of my favorite Boxcar Children Mysteries that Amber (10) and I have read together. The four Alden children are spending a week at the Dare to Dream Ranch while their grandfather is away on business. The Aldens have gone riding at the ranch many times and know the place and the owner, Cookie, well. But horses start disappearing, including Jessie Alden’s favorite Dragon, and the kids are determined to find out what’s going on.

There are plenty of clues sprinkled throughout the story, clues that kids can catch and can put together to solve the mystery before the Aldens. And the horses are definitely being stolen, it’s not some innocent misunderstanding. This was actually a little more exciting than some of the Boxcar books. There were several possible suspects and a point where the children actually were in a bit of true danger.

I think this is the first kids book I’ve read that was set on a ranch. It did a nice job showing all the work that needs to be done, from mucking out the stalls to filling the water stations, but made it all seem fun too. I enjoy the variety of settings in the series.

This was a nice, short little mystery. Amber enjoyed it too, as she does all the Boxcar Children books. She even likes the ones that bore me.

Published March 1, 2008 by Albert Whitman & Company
The Boxcar Children #114
120 pages