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Orphan Train

Christina Baker Kline

Start date: September 1, 2014

Finish date: September 30, 2014

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What Members Thought

May 29, 2014 Stacey Matson rated it really liked it

Loved this book. Had no idea of this episode in American history. Orphaned, often homeless children,taken by train from NY to the mid-west to be "adopted", essentially indentured servants, often starved, worked to the bone, mistreated. Although one would perhaps expect it to be so, the book is not bleak. I love how the two stories, one of the orphan children in the 1920's and 1930's and that of a girl in contemporary foster care situations, compliment and contrast one another. The book portrayed ...more

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Jan 17, 2016 Dana rated it it was amazing

It’s always a pleasure to come across a book that uncovers yet another historical event. It’s even more rewarding when the author does so with such skill and sentiment that its revelation leaves an indelible mark on the reader. I absolutely loved this novel, both for its evocative prose and its beautiful handling of a heart-rending theme: orphaned children.

Of the two stories running parallel, Molly’s and Vivian’s, it was the latter’s that touched me deeply. Admittedly, both have known desertion ...more

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Dec 10, 2013 Neila rated it it was amazing

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It gave me a hopeful feeling, a feeling that things eventually work out as they are supposed to. In this book, a young girl was in foster care. She had been moved around from home to home and felt no one really cared about her. She was to do community service for stealing a book and ended up helping a 90-year-old woman clean out her attic. In the process of going through boxes of what she considered junk, she learned the story of the old woman's life. The old woma ...more

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Mar 23, 2017 Rachel N. rated it liked it

Shelves: historical-fiction, maine, read-in-2017, adoption, play-book-tag, minnesota, ireland

The story alternates between Molly, a 17 year old in the foster care system in 2012, and Vivian who was a child sent on the orphan train from New York to Minnesota in 1929. I found Vivian's story to be much more compelling than Molly's. I never really felt connected to Molly. I was drawn into the main story but a few things caused me to lower my rating. First the reason Molly is doing community service work at Vivian's house is just silly. It's revealed in the first few pages of the book that Mo ...more

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May 13, 2015 Sunflower rated it really liked it

Shelves: e-books, historical-fiction, fiction-read-2015

I'm a sucker for this kind of story: difficult childhood/people torn from their families and made to start again/ losing contact and finding people almost by chance/ supposedly bad people turning out to be good after all, merely misunderstood. This one has all this and is a work of fiction around a real occurrence. Entertaining. ...more

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Jul 10, 2014 Kay Green rated it liked it

Shelves: bookclub

The first 2/3 of this book was ho hum for me. I have heard the story many times before - the young girl in a bad foster home situation. But when the Vivian and Molly connected the story became much more interesting. I love the idea that generations have things to share with each other and when the story went in that direction, it was delightful. Plus it finished with an awesome ending.

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