Great short story of a part of our history!

In years past, as today, there have always been children who find themselves needing a home outside of their birth families. In earlier times, families often took in orphaned, or needy children, then immigration and poor jobs and wages, made this all but impossible. This book tells the story of one man's solution to this problem. A pastor decided that there was a better solution than housing kids in orphanages. Thus the Orphan Trains were started from the Children's Aid Society.

Orphan Trains took inner city kids cross country to give families in the Midwest and south an opportunity to choose kids from the trains to become a part of their family. Between 1854 and 1930, more than 200,000 children were placed into families by this method. This book tells one man's journey from his mother's death to his final placement into a good home. Lee Nailing tells his story from abandonment by his father, splitting up of his siblings, to becoming the "son" of a wonderful family. He eventually got in touch with a couple of his surviving siblings too. Parts of other children's experiences were interspersed within this story. Some poor experiences, but mostly good ones.

Children from these trains generally grew up to be good productive citizens, including one governor, a leader in Alaska, leaders in other children's aid groups, and other community leaders. Very interesting book, good for adults and for teaching children about this part of history. Pictures included.

7 persone l'hanno trovata utile

Very Dry lecture, better to listen to historical fiction

This book is told as a dry recap of the historical tragedy surrounding the Great Depression; A time when people were so poor and jobs so scarce, people were starving and unable to feed their families. This tragic circumstance caused a proliferation of orphaned and abandoned children. The Orphan Train was a humane way to deal with providing homes to the overwhelming number of orphaned kids, but the oversight post adoption was lacking. There were no laws in place regarding adoption at this time, and while many children found good homes, many were not so fortunate.
This historical tragedy is better told in stories such as “Orphan Train” written by Christina Baker Kline, and , “Before We Were Yours” written by Lisa Wingate . There are many interesting books available, but this one does not really portray this heart wrenching time in history in a meaningful way.

1 persona l'ha trovata utile

Page turner

I loved this book. It was a roller coaster ride of emotions! I thoroughly enjoyed it!

1 persona l'ha trovata utile

What is amazing story.

Follow the adventures of an orphan as he travels West in this true tail of hardship and hope.

Lovely Historical Story

I really enjoyed the first person account of the orphan train. Excellent narration and story.

One of the best true stories ever!!!

I love how the story was told by an actual person who rode the train!

Listen with your children

A simple story, but brings back to life a bygone era and a bygone method of caring for homeless children.

Great historical quick listen

Great informative piece of history during the depression not often mentioned. I had never heard of the orphan trains before reading. This is a shorter story with plenty of info and perfect for a short trip.

Heartwarming

This is a moving story that brought tears to my eyes. I’m so glad it had a happy ending after all the loss and heartbreak he experienced early on.

Very informative

I enjoyed the story and the information given. I didn’t care for the style of the reader.