Description The Box-Car Children is a children's literary franchise originally created and written by American writer and first-grade school teacher, Gertrude Chandler Warner. Today, the series includes well over 100 titles. The series is aimed at readers in grades 2-6 About the Author Gertrude Chandler Warner (April 16, 1890 - August 30, 1979) was an American author, mainly of children's stories. She was most famous for writing the original book of The Box-Car Children and for the next eighteen books in the series.