39 - The Ghost Ship Mystery

Ah, dammit. I was going to make a joke about how I don't see anything interesting on the cover, and it's just the kids standing around, and the punchline was going to be that nobody was pointing; then I looked at Henry's hand up behind Benny's head, and wouldn't you know it. Then I looked even closer at Henry's arm, and realized that it's clearly crazy deformed, and only about a foot long, so maybe I should just go easy on the kid. If I had an arm like that I'd want it to be useful, too, even if I was just pointing at something someone else was already looking at and holding in their damn perfect hands. Or maybe Benny's just so dumb he hasn't noticed it yet.

38 - Mystery of the Purple Pool

I should really go back to taking my own photos at the store. You're missing out on a lot at this resolution. To wit:

1 - The box Jessie is looking at is labeled "PURPLE DYE". I assume her puzzlement will be replaced with realization when she turns it over.

2 - Benny is not, as you might assume, pointing. He is holding up some of the water to show Jessie. You can see it splattered on the ground. I swear, I don't know how this kid manages to dress himself. Wait, that actually explains a lot.

3 - For a reason on which I extremely do not want to speculate, the artist has drawn Jessie with incredibly veiny legs. I mean, like 90-year-old lady veiny. You can see it a little on her calves there. Why would someone do that?!

4 - Do they ever stay at a hotel that someone's not trying to destroy by doing stupid things to the pool?

37 - The Mystery of the Lost Village

Oh, man, it's the Mountaintop all over again. I mean, I understand that the need to excavate an ancient civilization to discover the secret origins of the pattern on Jessie's shirt, but dress appropriately! Henry's got it, but the rest of you need to shape up. There's no shortage of hideous lime green boots and pith helmets you could be wearing. Okay, there's not a lot of those, but if anyone could find them, it's you guys.

36 - The Castle Mystery

Oh come on, Henry, you have to turn back. Even your shirt agrees with me. Actually, everyone's clothing choice seems to be indicating a desire to go back today. Though in the girls' case, it's more a matter of wanting to go back in time. And Benny? Well, he's just begging to be pushed down the stairs.

35 - Mystery at the Dog Show

What we see here is Henry barely restraining some kind of Great Danematian who is set to devour Benny because the sight of his pants has driven it into an unquenchable rage. Benny almost approaches my personal level of style with his Chucks, but ruins it with the bunchy black socks, which admittedly are also at my level of style. Meanwhile...

Sorry, can I help you?

Um... Okay. Meanwhile, the dachshund is...

Okay, guys, I can't finish today because VIOLET'S DOG IS STARING AT MY SOUL.

STOP.

34 - The Mystery Horse

Oh my. This is it. This is the perfect storm. The clothing is more insane than it's been in weeks, Benny's pointing at the only thing anyone could be looking at, someone's inexplicably not looking at it anyway, Violet's squatting, the cover makes it appear that the titular mystery is solved ("Oh, there it is!")... In the future, the sages will ask of me: "Brian, what Boxcar cover is above all others?" and I will say: "The Mystery Horse." And they shall reply: "What was the mystery?" And I shall say: "I don't know, maybe the horse was missing? I don't read these." And lo, they shall say: "Just curious. Wanna play frisbees?" And I shall say: "Cool beans."

33 - The Pizza Mystery

Holy cow, I actually remember this one. I definitely own this. It's probably in my attic somewhere. It's another one of those A-team ones. They go to visit Grandpa's friends who own a pizza place near a car factory, but someone's trying to run them out of business. And the Aldens help them by, for example, putting the sauces out in the snow after the refrigerator is sabotaged before a health inspection. And it turns out the car factory owner is trying to run them out of business so that his workers will eat at the cafeteria instead, but he eats a pizza and IT'S SO GOOD IT MAKES HIM STOP BEING EVIL, so he puts in a skyway instead.

Wait, none of that makes sense. Am I remembering that right?

By the way, I occasionally make jokes about how these characters have no personalities, but this cover does highlight one consistent trait that I remember. Benny likes eating. All the time. He practically makes big Dagwood/Shaggy type sandwiches everywhere they go. Just wanted to mention, since their clothes are within acceptable limits this time. Except for the paper hats, but that's hardly their fault.