The Boxcar Children: Great Adventure 2 - The Clue in the Papyrus Scroll

Authors Dee Garretson and JM Lee continue the world-traveling adventures of the four Alden children - Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny - as they seek to return a number of valuable objects to their rightful owners.  In celebration of the 75th anniversary of The Boxcar Children, Albert Whitman & Company is offering up this four-part "mini-series" of sorts that has the Alden Children aiding the Reddimum Society returning historical artifacts and other priceless memorabilia  to owners from whom they were stolen.  This "Great Adventure" began with the 146th book in the series, Journey on a Runaway Train (although the book is renumbered as "Great Adventure No. 1"), and continues now in this second book, The Clue in the Papyrus Scroll.

Again, I'm not sure I like the idea of the renumbering.  Both Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys have done this recently (and of course, back in the '70s, the Dana Girls played that same game).  I like having a series that is high in numbers, particularly well over the 100+ mark, as it gives the series a sense of history.  This whole idea these days that people want a "new number one" for their series - - well, that just isn't me!

Aside from that, the story in this book is a step above the previous book.  Yes, the four kids, all under the age of 15, have way too much freedom as they hop from one country to another, and it is rather unbelievable that so many adults would place such trust in these kids and leave them on their own to handle as many situations as they are forced to do; yet, it is rather fun to watch Henry, Jessie, Violet, and even little Benny work so hard to figure out the riddles left for them in order to solve the puzzles that will lead them to the return of the next treasure.

In The Clue in the Papyrus Scroll, readers get to see not one, but two different treasures returned.  The first takes them to the deserts and Great Pyramids of Egypt, and such is the source of the title of the book.  The second quest takes them to Stonehenge in England, where they are nearly thwarted on their mission by the nefarious Anna Argent. Along the way, the four children have to use all of their wits (and the help of the Internet) to solve some rather unique riddles that provide the necessary clues to unlocking the packages they are delivering.  Now, being honest, the riddles were fairly easy to figure out for me (as an adult); however, for the target age group for this series, I'd say the authors did a pretty good job at providing a fun way to figure out the codes and the next destinations.

What no one seemed to do, however (and not really sure any more whose job it is in the publishing world), is edit the story.  Normally, I can overlook one, or even two, editorial misses - however, this book had some very obvious, glaring errors that could easily have been caught if someone simply read the actual story.  Examples include:

p. 17 - "I had to attend in meeting in Cairo."  Clearly, it should have read "I had to attend a meeting in Cairo"

p. 42 - "A camel's gait is not a smooth as the way a horse walks..." Here, it obviously should have read "A camel's gait is not as smooth as..."

p. 60 - Rania says, "I'll stay with the car." Yet, on the very next page, it says the Aldens and Rania walk over to the professor. Then, on page 65, it says that Violet ran over and got Rania, and they followed Ken. However, on page 70, when the children come out of the pyramid, it says that Rania and one of the Egyptian policeman stood outside, waiting for them. There is a plain case of continuity error here that should not have been missed.

p. 76 - "They ... went through the airport where was a car waiting to take them..." The mistake this time was the omission of a word, as the line should have read "where there was a car waiting to take them..."

It concerns me that editing on books these days has become a real issue, particularly in children's books, as they are the ones who are learning how to read and write - and what do glaring errors such as these teach our children?

I suppose we'll have to wait and see what the third book in the "Great Adventure" holds...

RATING:  6 shy and hungry giraffes out of 10 for searching for ways to keep a series that is 75 years old fresh and accessible to today's readers (just work on the editing!)