The Doughnut Whodunit

  Logan snickered at that. Before he could speak, Grandfather turned from the desk and handed the children keys. “Here you are, rooms two twenty-two and two twenty-four. Let’s go unpack.”

  “What about Coach?” Naomi asked. “Should we wait for him?”

  Henry asked the hotel clerk, “Has Mr. Kaleka checked in yet?” He spelled the name for her.

  The woman checked the computer. “No one by that name has a reservation this weekend, and the hotel is all booked up. Lots of people are coming for the Robot Roundup.”

  “Thank you,” said Henry, turning back to his family and teammates. “That’s strange. But maybe Coach is staying at a different hotel.”

  “I’ll text him and let him know our room numbers,” suggested Rico.

  “Good plan,” said Grandfather. “Let’s go to our rooms so we’re not in the way here.”

  They grabbed their bags and headed down the hallway. Henry glanced back, but Logan had disappeared. So had his teammates and coach.

  At their rooms, Henry pushed open the door that said 222. Something made a soft scuffling sound.

  “What was that noise?” asked Rico.

  Henry stepped into the room. “There’s a piece of paper on the floor. The door pushed it back.” He picked up the white paper. Words were written on it in black marker.

  Greenfield, Go Home!

  Add to Your Boxcar Children Collection with New Books and Sets!

  The first twelve books are now available in three individual boxed sets!

  The Boxcar Children Bookshelf includes the first twelve books, a bookmark with complete title checklist, and a poster with activities.

  The Boxcar Children 20-Book Set includes Gertrude Chandler Warner’s original nineteen books, plus an all-new activity book, stickers, and a magnifying glass!

  Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny Alden are on a secret mission that takes them around the world!

  When Violet finds a turtle statue that nobody’s seen before in an old trunk at home, the children are on the case! The clue turns out to be an invitation to the Reddimus Society, a secret guild dedicated to returning lost treasures to where they belong.

  Now the Aldens must take the statue and six mysterious boxes across the country to deliver them safely—and keep them out of the hands of the Reddimus Society’s enemies. It’s just the beginning of the Boxcar Children’s most amazing adventure yet!

  GERTRUDE CHANDLER WARNER discovered when she was teaching that many readers who like an exciting story could find no books that were both easy and fun to read. She decided to try to meet this need, and her first book, The Boxcar Children, quickly proved she had succeeded.

  Miss Warner drew on her own experiences to write the mystery. As a child she spent hours watching trains go by on the tracks opposite her family home. She often dreamed about what it would be like to set up housekeeping in a caboose or freight car—the situation the Alden children find themselves in.

  While the mystery element is central to each of Miss Warner’s books, she never thought of them as strictly juvenile mysteries. She liked to stress the Aldens’ independence and resourcefulness and their solid New England devotion to using up and making do. The Aldens go about most of their adventures with as little adult supervision as possible—something else that delights young readers.

  Miss Warner lived in Putnam, Connecticut, until her death in 1979. During her lifetime, she received hundreds of letters from girls and boys telling her how much they liked her books.