Book Review: Orphan Train, by Christina Baker Kline

For me, the best part of being a reporter is that I get to hear people's stories. Almost every time I interview someone, I'm amazed by what I learn. In fact, that's somewhat of a job detriment because I often want to learn more about something that has nothing to do with what I'm supposed to be reporting on.

Reporting is a good excuse to get to know people, and getting to know people is often full of surprises. Everyone has a story, and they're often not what one would expect. I think that's a big part of what I liked about the book I'm reviewing this month.

Waitsburg librarian, Rosie Warehime, (who is an excellent resource for book suggestions) highly recommended Orphan Train and I'm so glad she did. "Orphan Train" is an inspirational novel about perseverance, life stories, and new beginnings.

The story begins through the eyes of Molly, a seventeen-year-old foster child, who is about to be booted from her latest "family." With a dead father, a mother who's gone off the deep end, and a stream of foster families in her wake, Molly has learned to keep to herself and hides behind her Goth appearance.

After getting caught attempting to steal the library's most worn copy of Jane Eyre – a book she received a week later at school for free and that she could have purchased for a quarter at the library's used book sale – Molly is sentenced to 50 hours of community service. She does her penance helping to clean the attic of, Vivian Daly, a "rich old lady in a shorefront mansion."

Over the course of the 50 hours in Vivian's attic, Molly and Vivian share their stories. As they sort through boxes of Vivian's memorabilia, Molly realizes she and Vivian have more in common that she would ever have thought.

Vivian's story begins during the Great Depression as her Irish immigrant family struggled to eke out a living in America. When her entire family is killed in a tenement fire, Niamh (Vivian's birth name) is shipped to the Midwest on an Orphan Train filled with dozens of other orphaned children, all hoping to find families to care for them.

Young Niamh moves from place to place, suffering physical and emotional abuse and neglect all along the way. She lands in New York where she is renamed Dorothy and then Vivian, treated like a slave, and never knows what a home feels like until she finally finds care in the home of a kindly shopkeeper and his wife.

Vivan eventually marries, returns to Maine and is living a quiet, comfortable life as a widow when she and Molly meet. As the two sift through Vivian's attic, they share their stories and reconcile their pasts.

In the end, Molly is able to bring peace to Vivian, first by discovering that the sister Vivian thought had died in the fire, had actually lived and led a fulfilled life. And second, by bringing joy and fresh beginnings from the most devastating secret of Vivian's life.

Orphan Train is a lesson in endurance, courage, and love. Through Vivian and Molly readers learn that we all have stories, are more alike than we know, and that it's never too late for a fresh start.