Before I read the Orphan Train, by Christina Baker Kline, I never really knew anything about orphans or the system. The book is about a young girl named Niamh who came from Ireland to New York in 1929. When their house in New York burns down killing most of her family and leaving her mom unstable to take care of her, she ends up getting put on one of the orphan trains that ran around the country from 1845 to 1929. At one of the meetings she’s picked by woman who has no care for her but only to work. She made several nice people but in the end the woman is unstable to take care of her when the economy crashes. She is sent to another house which doesn't work out for her and the she finally finds a resting place with a middle aged couple that needs help with their store. But this is only half of the story. In 2011 seventeen year old, Molly, who has been in the foster care system for many years was caught stealing something and has to do 50 hours of community service instead of juvenile detention. Her boyfriend helps her out and find her a job helping a old lady clean out her attic. When she gets there she finds out that Vivian, the old lady, Has an orphan story to tell herself.
What I learned from this book was that being an orphan has really changed from the 1900s to now. For example when Niamh goes to her second home the house is destroyed. There’s no plumbing or electricity, all the kids sleep in one room with mattresses just lying on the floor and the house is slowly decaying. In Molly’s home she has a nice room to herself, a bookshelf, a bed and lots of other necessities that most people have. This shows the most foster care systems now pick very wisely and make sure that the people taking in the foster children have a steady income, a decent living space and will treat the children they’re taking in as their own children. It also shows that people don’t adopt children for work but to help them if they need it.
When I was reading this book I also put myself in the place of the characters, and I was very shocked what I found myself thinking and doing. When I put myself in the place of Niamh, in 1929, I realize I want to enable to take it and I would've been shocked by the way people treated me. I also realized how privileged every day people are to have a nice house that has running water and electricity. I know I also wouldn't have been able to pull myself together and be able to live on life as I knew it. if I put my place in Molly's I'm pretty sure I wouldn't put up with my foster parents and told the foster care system about how they were treating me and that I wanted to be moved. In the end I would've definitely gone and told someone, and done something about the horrible situation I was in.
After reading this book it definitely change my perspective and taught me a lot about how the foster care system worked and the differences from the old-day system and the current system. This book was very interesting and I recommend it to anyone who wants an easy, yet very interesting read.
