Book review: Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline

I recently finished reading this fascinating book, and highly recommend reading and learning more about this part of American history.  Although Orphan Train is a novel, it gives great insight into the history of the Orphan Train movement, and beautifully weaves in the plight of today's orphans in the foster care system.  - Dina Ackermann

Overview

Between 1854 and 1929, so-called orphan trains ran regularly from the cities of the East Coast to the farmlands of the Midwest, carrying thousands of abandoned children whose fates would be determined by pure luck. Would they be adopted by a kind and loving family, or would they face a childhood and adolescence of hard labor and servitude?

As a young Irish immigrant, Vivian Daly was one such child, sent by rail from New York City to an uncertain future a world away. Returning east later in life, Vivian leads a quiet, peaceful existence on the coast of Maine, the memories of her upbringing rendered a hazy blur. But in her attic, hidden in trunks, are vestiges of a turbulent past.

Seventeen-year-old Molly Ayer knows that a community-service position helping an elderly widow clean out her attic is the only thing keeping her out of juvenile hall. But as Molly helps Vivian sort through her keepsakes and possessions, she discovers that she and Vivian aren't as different as they appear. A Penobscot Indian who has spent her youth in and out of foster homes, Molly is also an outsider being raised by strangers, and she, too, has unanswered questions about the past.

Moving between contemporary Maine and Depression-era Minnesota, Orphan Train is a powerful tale of upheaval and resilience, second chances, and unexpected friendship.

Buy Orphan Train

Book Review: Orphanology

I've purchased this book, but have not had the chance to read it yet.  I came across this review from Christianity Today.  http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2011/july/quicktakes-jul11.html

 

Orphanology: Awakening to Gospel-Centered Adoption and Orphan Care
by Tony Merida and Rick Morton (New Hope Publishers)

Christians do not approach orphan care as mere humanitarians but as people adopted by God through the work of Jesus Christ. Orphanology provides the burgeoning orphan care movement with a gospel-centered theological foundation as well as a comprehensive plan for getting involved at many levels, including adoption, orphanage restoration, foster care, and transitional assistance. Between adoption stories, Tony Merida and Rick Morton offer a compelling picture of how the gospel motivates us to action on behalf of the fatherless.

Book Review: Somebody's Someone

I recently read a book called "Somebody's Someone" by Regina Louise. It is a memoir of her childhood growing up unwanted, moving from home to home until finally aging out of the foster care system. This brilliantly written book has made a profound impact on me. Never before have I read a book that so powerfully gave me a glimpse into the life of a child who is unwanted and unloved. It has given me a greater heart of love and compassion for vulnerable children. Regina becomes a voice for the half million children in foster care in our country. My only disclaimer for a Christian audience is that the language is raw and disturbing. But the language toward her is part of her story, and needs to be told.

The following review is from Regina Louise's web site, www.reginalouise.com.

This is the true story of one child who makes it against all odds, whose resilience shines through each attempt to break her, and whose sheer will to not only survive, but to thrive, is a beacon to us all.

Regina Louise's mother abandoned her at birth, her father barely knows she's alive, and even the state isn't there to protect her because she's been dumped in an illegal foster home. Within the walls of this tattered home, untold horrors happen. At eleven-years-old, this young child makes a pact with God and puts fate into her own hands by running away. But the attempt to free herself only lands her in the unloving hands of her mother, her father, and finally the state. Now in the "system", she is sent from foster home to temporary shelter and back again, until she's lived in too many places to count. With no parent willing to claim her, Regina is finally pronounced a Ward of the Court and sent to a children's shelter that's one stop short of a mental institution. But, in this most unlikely setting, Regina finds something so powerful and so transcendent that her Job-like trials all seem worth the price: Regina finds that she is loved.

This remarkable memoir shines the light on the plight of children with no parent to wake them up with a gentle kiss, to send them off to school with a packed lunch, to read them a bedtime story as they fall off to sleep. These are nobody's children who, due to their cruel circumstances, are rarely able to climb out of the shadows of society and are left to fend for themselves in an inhospitable world. But while Somebody's Someone exposes the extreme trials these children endure, it is also a triumphant story of how one small girl makes it out alive.

Never before has the voice of an abandoned child been so perfectly rendered, intimately captured, and lovingly portrayed. With Somebody's Someone, Regina Louise emerges as an extraordinarily gifted writer whose voice is filled with raw emotion, shocking honesty and pure lyricism. If Twain and Dickens were alive today, they would surely admire Louise's gift for not only deftly retelling this age-old story, but also for having lived it and survived to tell the tale.