The Old Motel Mystery by Gertrude Chandler Warner is a fantastic mystery book about Violet, Benny, Henry, and Jessie Alden who went to visit their aunt in Florida, Miami. The four children Stayed with Kay Kingsley in her old motel that she inherited many years ago. The motel wasn’t a pretty sight, the children suggested that they help fix up the motel so that Ms. Kingsley would not have to sell it. Soon after someone began to sabotage their work by stealing items that were necessary for the job to be done or undoing what they had done. It seems that someone didn’t want the old Motel to get fixed.tThis was a fantastic read and Gertrude does a wonderful job capturing readers, as soon as I read past chapter one I began to feel like I could not put this book down until I found out who the culprit was. Being new to The Boxcar Children series I have not read any other story like this one. The illustrations are small but are well done and in pencil. The story had enough suspense and drama that it would keep a reader interested. tThe children in The Old Motel Mystery are very bright and very eager to help others. The characters have well written dialogue. Gertrude did a wonderful job in building her characters. The characters were dynamic and changed a bit throughout the story mainly in that they were more mature near the end of the story. I would definitely recommend the series to students of the middle school reading level.
