Free Game Store Mystery by Gertrude Chandler Warner Page A

small trophy.
    “Thank you,” Carter said with a small smile.
    Jessie turned back to the letters in front of her. She wondered how Andy was doing? Did he have more words than she did?
    But she knew it was a mistake to worry so much about her opponent. It was better to simply look at the letters in front of her and do the best she could.
    Finally, the game was over and they counted up their points.
    “I have 212 points,” Jessie announced. “How many do you have?”
    “I have 204,” Andy replied. He reached across the table to shake Jessie’s hand. “Good game.”
    “Good game,” Jessie echoed. “Maybe we can play again sometime.”
    Andy nodded. “I’d like that.”
    Jessie and Andy started picking up the game. Queenie came over and handed Jessie a small trophy. Carter and Raina stood right behind Queenie and clapped. So did Grandfather, Henry, Violet, and Benny.
    “Thank you,” Jessie said with a grin. She turned the trophy around and looked at it. It had a gold cup on top of a wooden pedestal. The lettering on the front of the pedestal read WORD MASTER CHAMPION. It was identical to Carter’s trophy.
    “Perhaps the two Word Master champions should play a game next,” Carter suggested, once everyone except the Aldens had left.
    “Really?” Jessie asked eagerly. “You’d play a game with me, Carter?” He had said no when Jessie had asked him before.
    “I’d be honored. In fact,” Carter gestured for everyone else to come and sit down, “why don’t we all play a game? Just for fun?”
    “Don’t mind if I do,” Grandfather said as he pulled out a chair and sat down. The children, Queenie and Raina sat down, too.
    Then Carter divided up the letters and they all got ready for another game.

About the Author
    G ERTRUDE C HANDLER W ARNER 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.
    When Miss Warner received requests for more adventures involving Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny Alden, she began additional stories. In each, she chose a special setting and introduced unusual or eccentric characters who liked the unpredictable.
    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.

The Boxcar Children Mysteries
    T HE B OXCAR C HILDREN
    S URPRISE I SLAND
    T HE Y ELLOW H OUSE M YSTERY
    M YSTERY R ANCH
    M IKE’S M YSTERY
    B LUE B AY M YSTERY
    T HE W OODSHED M YSTERY
    T HE L IGHTHOUSE M YSTERY
    M OUNTAIN T OP M YSTERY
    S CHOOLHOUSE M YSTERY
    C ABOOSE M YSTERY
    H OUSEBOAT M YSTERY
    S NOWBOUND M YSTERY
    T REE H OUSE M YSTERY
    B ICYCLE M YSTERY
    M YSTERY IN THE S AND
    M YSTERY B EHIND THE W ALL
    B US S TATION M YSTERY
    B ENNY U NCOVERS A M YSTERY
    T HE H AUNTED C ABIN M YSTERY
    T HE D ESERTED L IBRARY M YSTERY
    T HE A NIMAL S HELTER M YSTERY
    T HE O LD M OTEL M YSTERY
    T HE M YSTERY OF THE H IDDEN P AINTING
    T HE A MUSEMENT P ARK M YSTERY
    T HE M YSTERY OF THE M IXED -U P Z OO
    T HE C AMP -O UT M YSTERY
    T HE M YSTERY G IRL
    T HE M YSTERY C RUISE
    T HE D ISAPPEARING F RIEND M YSTERY
    T HE M