We Rode the Orphan Trains
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company
ISBN: 0618117121
Genre: Informational
Review
We Rode the Orphan Train is an informational book about the orphan trains and the orphans who rode it. While reading this book you learn more and more about what orphan trains where and how they came to be. The beginning mainly gives you the history about orphan trains and how they came to be, then it goes on to tell you seven different stories about the riders. After the history and the stories it goes on to tell you what the riders of the orphan train are doing now to help people become more aware of this type of thing.
I chose this book because one day I saw it and read the back and it sounded very interesting. I thought this book was well written and cool to learn about this period in history that I had never heard about. In each chapter it tells you about a different rider and it has their story of how they ended up on the train and what their life was like after the orphan train. Reading this was sad at points especially in the stories where the kids had grown up and wanted to find their parents and when they did find their parents the parents didn't want to see them. There were times where they had gone through so much trouble tracking down and finding their parents and they went to see their parents and the parents weren't even happy to see them. It was sad from that perspective because being given up as a child then wanting to find your birth parents and them not being at least one bit happy to see you that would be really hard for any kid especially little kids who were left by their parents and sent out west. I would definitely recommend this book to most people because it was so cool to learn about the orphan trains. The only people I wouldn't recommend this book to are people who don't have any interest in history because they could get bored about the history in the first two chapters of the book.
Further Explorations
- This is a map showing about how many kids rode the orphan train to each of the states.
- They would have posters put up to let people know if the orphan train would be stopping in their town.
- An article about Clara Comstock and the trips on the orphan trains.
- The Children's Aid Society was the group who started the orphan trains.
- More about orphan trains.
- How the orphan trains came to be.
- More about the orphan train program.
Partner Tittles
Orphan Train Rider One Boy's True Story
Orphan Train Rider One Boy's True Story would be a partner title to We Rode the Orphan Trains because they both have that same concept of orphan trains and their riders. In Orphan Train Rider One Boy's True Story it is about this one boy's journey through foster homes, adoption agencies, and homeless shelters. In We Rode the Orphan Trains there are stories from different orphan train riders instead of just one. Both of these books are of course set in the same time period because it was the time of the orphan trains. These books are also similar because they both touch on the history of the orphan trains even if it isn't throughout the whole book like it is in We Rode the Orphan Train.
Orphan Trains: The Story of Charles Loring Brace and the Children He Saved and Failed
Train to Somewhere
Train to Somewhere is a partner title because it is about a little girl who is riding the orphan train. Instead of hoping to find a loving family she is hoping to find her mom who told her that she would come and get her once she started a life for them out west. It is like We Rode the Orphan Train because although most of the kids whose stories are told want to find their families they weren't promised to see their families again. They also were hoping to find a loving family if they couldn't find their family. Both books are similar because they are also about the kids who are riding the orphan train and who are afraid of what kind of house they could go to and they are worried about never seeing their families again.
Works Cited
"Novel Follows the Orphan Train to Minnesota." MinnPost. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Jan. 2016.
"Orphan Train Rider: One Boy's True Story." Orphan Train Rider: One Boy's True Story. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Jan. 2016.
"Orphan Train Riders Agents." Orphan Train Riders Agents. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Jan. 2016.
"'Orphan Train' Riders Share Common Bond." TwinCities.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Jan. 2016.
"Orphan Trains - Social Welfare History Project." Social Welfare History Project. N.p., 20 Aug. 2011. Web. 12 Jan. 2016.
"Orphan Trains of Nebraska." NE Orphan Train: NEGenWeb. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Jan. 2016.
"The Orphan Trains." The Orphan Trains. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Jan. 2016.
PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 13 Jan. 2016.
"Robot Check." Orphan Trains: The Story of Charles Loring Brace. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Jan. 2016.
"Train to Somewhere." Train to Somewhere. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Jan. 2016.
"We Rode the Orphan Trains." Goodreads. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Jan. 2016.
"We Rode the Orphan Trains." Scholastic Teachers. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Jan. 2016.
"We Rode the Orphan Trains." We Rode the Orphan Trains Andrea Warren. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Jan. 2016.