ORPHAN TRAIN by
Christina Baker Kline
5 stars of 5
This novel will appeal to both teens and adults. Orphan Train tells two interlocking stories.
The first concerns a frustrated, angry teen who has been bounced around the
foster care system from one uncaring “home” to another, unloved and generally
unwanted. Molly, half Indian, has stolen a library book and is now forced to do
50 hours of community service. Through her boyfriend she finds herself helping
Vivian, a 90 year old woman who wants help “clearing out” her attic of a
lifetime’s worth of boxes and mementos.
Vivian’s story, told in flashback and the more fleshed out
of the two stories, is that of an Irish immigrant child orphaned and then sent
from New York to the Midwest on one of the “Orphan Trains” organized by the
Children’s Aid Society. The children are often no more than “cheap labor” to
the receiving families and this is Vivian’s fate.
Realistic in both tales, the novel gives a vivid and accurate
portrait of life for unwanted children in two eras. Mother/daughter book groups will find much to
discuss - family, adoption, family services, poverty, child labor, education,
faith, “acting out”, tattoos, belonging – among others. Adults will likely find Vivian’s story easier
to relate to, especially the topic of adoption and seeking one’s birth family.
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