OK, let me preface my review by saying that I had no idea that The Boxcar Children was an entire series. I found this book in a pile of old books on a whim. I wanted to reread what I thought was the original story in the series that my teacher had read to me when I was in 3rd grade. I didn't notice that this was #17 in the series until I actually started reading it. It didn't live up to my memory of the original story and characters, but what does when you're an adult revisiting a childhood memory? That being said, Mystery Behind the Wall by author Gertrude Chandler Warner was a decent read, I suppose.Benny Alden needed a friend for what was going to be a lonely summer. His grandfather hooked him up with a young friend visiting from Canada, named Rory. The boys stay in adjacent rooms and decide to make a telephone system that runs a wire between the wall separating their closets. Upon doing this they discover a journal hidden behind the wall left by a former occupant, a young girl named Stephanie. In the journal she describes a coin collection that she has hidden somewhere and has left clues on how to find it. The boys, accompanied by the other children, follow the clues that lead them to some local shops and around the old house itself. The story follows the children on their treasure hunt and how they figure each of the clues out.My review of the book is... meh. Warner's writing is very suitable for children and is of high quality. I just couldn't really ever find anything all that interesting about the story, nor can I really point out anything that I disliked enough to be worth mentioning. It was just a very simple, somewhat unspectacular story. In fact I'm just now realizing that this review is as unspectacular as the book. No, actually it's worse. So I'll just stop there.
