BOOK REVIEW: Orphan Train

Between 1854 and 1929 over two hundred thousand children were transported from cities on the east coast to small towns across the country. These “orphan” trains would stop, the children would line up and people would pick the children that met their needs. Some of these children ended up in loving homes; some ended up as indentured servants to be badly mistreated.  

In her novel, ORPHAN TRAIN, author Christina Baker Kline tells us of Vivian, a woman who experienced the reality of being one of these orphans and Molly, a modern day teenager who might have been one if she had been born in an earlier time.

Molly has been bounced from foster home to foster home most of her life. After being caught stealing a book from the library, she is given the choice of community service or time in a youth detention center. She reluctantly chooses to help an elderly woman organize an attic that has gone untouched for years.

The boxes in Vivian’s attic are full of the memories of a young girl taken from New York City to the Midwest where she faced a strange and sometimes brutal life alone.

Vivian’s story was moving and kept my interest, but it was the relationship that grew between Molly and Vivian that made this book. The story line shifts from the late eighteen hundreds to modern times as Vivian and Molly each tell of their lives. Author Christina Baker Kline did a very subtle job in showing the similarities of the two characters. Their backgrounds were so much alike, considering the age difference.

I have felt that recently some of the best things that are being published fall into the Young Adult category.  ORPHAN TRAIN should be listed in this classification. The story is simply told and some of the side characters are rather stereotyped. There were few surprises in the people that were responsible for young Vivian. I am sure that in reality, the cruelty that was inflicted on these orphans was much more brutal than described by the author.

I did like that we were able to hear what happened to some of the children who shared Vivian’s train trip. The historical notes and pictures at the end of the book were also very worthwhile, very informative and personal.

ORPHAN TRAIN was an enjoyable read because this is a subject that fascinates me. It  is one more piece of our history that often gets overlooked. We would like to think that modern society has come up with a better way to treat children who are abandoned or orphaned. I hope so.