Orphan Train

First Reactions

In school we all had to read a novel written by Christina Baker Kline called Orphan Train. The novel was about the forgotten history of America's Orphan Trains and the children who rode them and their experiences. In this book the reader follows a young Irish orphan, Niamh, and her journey as an orphan train rider and how it weaves into the present day and life of a young teen in foster care. 

I thought the book was very interesting. I was skeptical at first because I assumed it would be a boring book and not that interesting as a whole but was pleasantly surprised by how interesting the characters were and how Niamh's life progressed as a result of her becoming an orphan in the late 1920's in America. Before this book I didn't know orphan trains existed and i'm glad I learned about this important and astonishing but forgotten piece of this country's history. I loved the character Niamh and didn't want to put the book down when reading her sections of the book, but the teen Molly from present day I was not a fan of, i thought she was annoying and her story insignificant to the plot of the book. Had she not been part of it at all the book would be just as good if not better. I felt she was insignificant, but do see why the writer used her character to try and create parallels between orphans in the past and present and draw a connection between the two to make Niamh "more identifiable and understanding to teens today". All I would change about this book is Molly's involvement in it and the killing off the character of Dutchy, I felt that was overkill with the tragedy and made the book hard to keep reading because of how sad it got from there.