During the 1920's the United States was experiencing the final wave of immigration from Europe. Most of the immigrants came from Southern or Eastern Europe to look for industrial jobs. But the Irish also came to escape the rebellion from British rule. One of the main characters of Orphan Train is an Irish immigrant who becomes an orphan and is put on a train with other orphans to be adopted by families in Minnesota. Her fictional experience is similar to those of the two hundred thousand real children who made the journey from 1854 to 1929. Very few of these children became members of the families that adopted them. Most were used as labor. Some were abused. This book summarizes their experiences and explores how they dealt with them.
Why should you read it?
This was an easy story to read and once I became invested in the characters I was unable to stop reading. Kline makes the story relative by intertwining the story of an orphan train rider with one of a modern ward of the foster system. The author does a great job of drawing the two characters together and creating a bond between them with a school assignment about transition and what we take with us with we move from one situation to another. One complaint is that the modern side of the story is filled with stereotypes (the foster child who dresses like a goth to keep people from trying to get close to her) while stereotypes that existed during Vivian's youth are brushed aside and their impact on immigrants, especially in the Midwest, is trivialized.
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