Surprise Island (The Boxcar Children #2) by Gertrude Chandler Warner

★★★★½

*** Warning: This review contains spoilers! ***

I am really loving this series!

This book has all four children equally represented, and I feel we do get to know them a little better. I probably should not have read any of the books out of order; this being the second in the series, it makes sense that this book would have more character development than some of the later books, when the kids are already established characters. Here, we learn that Violet is artistic (she likes to paint and she has a gift for music), Jessie really is a great cook (she makes clam chowder and whips up an apple pie) and likes order (she likes to plan out their days and keep to a schedule), and Henry is quite handy (he builds cabinets and tables out of scrap wood) and has an interest in academia (he likes museums). True, they all stick pretty close to age and gender roles... But that's okay, the book was written in 1949 after all. (Another detail that dates this book is an illustration in which the kids are boating without life jackets!)

But what I really liked - and this was a major reason for giving the book 4 1/2 stars instead of 4 - is that Benny actually throws a tantrum in this book! Finally! The kids are not all super well-behaved all the time! Haha. Maybe it was nice, too, that it was clear that Benny's fit was not a result of his being "bad", but more of just an age-related issue; Henry said, "He will stop some time. Some day he'll grow up." If only I could be so matter-of-fact about my kids' tantrums!

There was also another child character, a friend of Benny's named Mike, who was loud and obnoxious. Benny liked him because they had fun together, but the older kids didn't think he was so great to have around. Even though the Alden kids are almost perfect, it was still nice to see that other less-than-perfect kids also lived in their world. :P

I also liked that this book finally made me understand why people always run out to buy bread and milk before a big storm. It probably stems from the old days, depicted in these books, when bread and milk really were food staples. Whole meals could be had by just eating bread with milk poured on top! As Jessie said, "We have to buy bread and bottles of milk. Then we could live, even if we didn't have anything else to eat."

As usual, the kids are models of resourcefulness. Besides the bread and milk, they eat food they gather themselves - though it helped that Grandfather started a vegetable garden for them in anticipation of their stay. Still, even though Grandfather is rich and the kids basically get whatever they want, they love taking care of themselves in the barn on the island! I love their attitude, summed up when Jessie said, "This is what I like. Everything seems better when we have to work to get it."

I have to admit, I didn't give this book 5 stars because the whole story about Joe was just a little contrived. I liked the ending, of course, but really, why didn't he just go back to his uncle as soon as he could?! The idea of not returning until he was 100% recovered seemed to put a bit too much emphasis on independence, which perhaps was a highly valued quality in individuals in 1949.

It was interesting, too, that this book didn't actually use the word "mystery" - Joe's unknown origin was just like a question always hanging around in the background. I wonder if the author sort of just found herself falling into writing "mysteries" simply because having unanswered questions helped to keep a story interesting.