SOLVED. MG book about orphan, apparently similar to Anne of Green Gables [s]

[Kate (Feathered Turtle Press Reviews)]

Read between 2002 - 2004. The book is about an orphan adopted by an older or middle-aged farmer. She's adopted more to help out around the farm than as a family member. The farmer's wife is sick and possibly depressed. I think they lost a son or daughter at some point and are cautious about getting close to the protagonist. Either while she's on the train to where the farmer is going to pick her up or before she leaves, she briefly thinks about the kids who weren't adopted or will never be adopted. She touched on the kids who got sick when some kind of illness swept the place and who went into the isolation ward to never come out.

The protagonist feels incredibly lonely at the farm and her only friend is a cat. Towards the end she feels a little closer to the couple who adopted her, but when they all go to visit their family for Christmas, I think, something happens that makes her feel alienated from them again. When they all return to the farm she sees (view spoiler)[something grey in the pond. When they were visiting the couple's relatives, the cat fell in the pond and it froze over. The girl cries over the cat and feels like she's lost her only friend. (hide spoiler)]

There was a quote on the cover that compared the book to Anne of Green Gables. I've tried searches specifically looking for books similar to Anne of Green Gables, but none have turned up my book.

[Dee]

it wasn't the prequel to AoGG that came out was it? Before Green Gables

[Kate (Feathered Turtle Press Reviews)]

No, it was completely unrelated, but thanks for trying.

I think the protagonist's name started with an 'S' or 'H', and the cover was rather gloomy looking.

[bookel]

http://www.librarything.com/work/4651...

The journey home by Isabelle Holland is one orphan train book. There's a second, see series page on the link. Look up orphan train juvenile fiction on worldcat.org if that's not it. Rodzina by Karen Cushman was another.

[Holly]

Do you know approximately when the book was published? Like, do you think it was contemporary with Anne of Green Gables, or was it published more recently?

[Kate (Feathered Turtle Press Reviews)]

bookel: Neither of those are it, but thanks anyways. I don't think the train played a very big part.

Holly: If I got it from a Scholastic book fair like I think I did, it might've been published in the early 2000s or late 90s. There were bags with a few random books in them, and the only other book I can find the name of from that bag was published in 2001.

[Shell]

Could it possibly be Emily of New Moon - keep in mind there are other covers as well.

[Ann aka Iftcan]

Also, Scholastic reprints books forever. So it could have been a really old book that Scholastic felt was "good for kids" or that "kids would enjoy reading." So that's not a hard and fast rule for when it came out originally Kate. I know when my daughter was bringing home Scholastic pamphlets with book titles in them, I'd recognize some as being listed when I was a kid--and they are STILL listed, because my grandkids brought home the pamphlets and they were still there. :o) The Witch of Blackbird Pond was one such.

[Kate (Feathered Turtle Press Reviews)]

Neither of those, but thanks anyways.

I'm not 100% sure it's from Scholastic--it's just very likely that it is. If it is older, I hope I didn't throw too many people off-track assuming it was published around 2001.

[Ann aka Iftcan]

Kate, don't worry about it. I'm sure that most of us just automatically assume with Scholastic's that it could be anything up to 50 or 60 years old or more, with their history. Or at least, that's what I do.

[Tab]

Gratefully Yours This edition has the Anne quote on the cover

[Kate (Feathered Turtle Press Reviews)]

That's it, thank you! I recognized it before even reading the description.

[Tab]

you're welcome :)