The Boxcar Children Prequel?

Indeed.

From a piece in the Chicago Sun-Times...

MacLachlan’s novel “Sarah, Plain and Tall” won the 1986 Newbery Medal, which is given annually by the American Library Association to the best-written children’s book. Since then, she’s written a number of other novels and picture books, but she’s always trying to stretch her talents.

So, when editors at Albert Whitman publishers asked MacLachlan if she’d be interested in writing a prequel for the beloved series called “The Boxcar Children,” originally created by Gertrude Chandler Warner, she decided to say yes.

“A door opened and I decided to walk through it and see what happened,” MacLachlan said.

The result is “The Boxcar Children Beginning: The Aldens of Fair Meadow Farm” (Albert Whitman, $16.99), published just in time to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the series.

In her book, MacLachlan imagines the life that the four Boxcar siblings — Henry, Jessie, Violet and Benny Alden — led before they became the orphans they are in the first book of Warner’s original series.