Review: Orphan Train

Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I picked up Orphan train for some trip, but never read it. I recently found it in a suitcase, and decided to give it a go. I had no idea that this was a real thing. The Orphan Train was a welfare program that transported orphaned children from crowded Eastern cities of the US to foster homes located largely in rural areas of the Midwest. The orphan trains operated between 1853 and 1929, relocating about 250,000 children. Many of the children were adopted for their labor, in a kind of indentured servitude. While reading Orphan Train, it made me sad to know what some of these children, who had already lost everything, experienced at the hands of the people who were supposed to help them.
Orphan Train follows the lives of one of the train riders, Vivian, and a modern day orphan simultaneously. Molly is trying to make it the last few months in her current foster home before she ages out. She gets in a little trouble, and ends up doing her community service at the home of a 91 year old wealthy woman, who also happens to be one of the train riders. As Molly helps Vivian clean out her attic, they discuss the possessions she has collected in almost a hundred years. They soon realize how similar their stories are, and both understand how important they are to one another. I would have liked for the story to continue a little more, as it ended abruptly, but I guess that is for the readers to determine.



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