Book #98: Mystery Ranch by Gertrude Chandler Warner

Dane is loving these Boxcar Children books. This one was not my favorite--there wasn't really a mystery that the kids solved (the ranch definitely did not deserve the title of Mystery Ranch, haha), and there wasn't even very much of the charming independent living stuff where they explain how they built a campfire or made their own house in a boxcar or a barn, like in the other ones. But it was a lot shorter than the others, which was a bonus--I was able to get through two chapters a day with Dane instead of just one.

It is funny how unrealistic the Alden kids are, now, looking back at these books as an adult. It is super, super unlikely that any kids would excitedly volunteer to go take care of their great-aunt for the summer, whom they'd never met and of whom they didn't know anything except that she was extremely cross. And it seems very unlikely that they would get that great-aunt to be happy again simply by showing up and cheerfully making her lunch. But, of course, those elements don't bother me at all--it's just something to laugh at now. It's just surprising to me that I truly never noticed that before when reading all of these books as a kid.