Orphan Train

Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Christina Baker Kline’s heartbreaking novel Orphan Train parallels the story of two women - Vivian and Molly. Vivian was once a young Irish immigrant who came to America with her family but lost them to an apartment fire. Molly is a teenage Native American lost in the foster care system and on the edge of being booted out. When Molly acts out for the last time, her only chance is to work community service hours cleaning the aging 91 year old, widow Vivian's large attic. As Molly learns more of how Viv was shipped on an orphan train to "better" her life out West, she comes to admire the resiliency and bravery of the older woman and feels as if she's finally found family.

History intertwined with fiction is so appealing to me and in this case it really opened my eyes to the abuse and indenturing of over 100,000 young, helpless orphans. The novel includes a small section covering the history of the orphan trains and some information on why the author chose to write this novel.

See: http://orphantraindepot.org/

http://www.childrensaidsociety.org/ab...



View all my reviews