Christina Baker Kline’s Orphan Train is an unforgettable story of friendship and second chances that highlights a little-known but historically significant movement in America’s past–and it includes a special PS section for book clubs featuring insights, interviews, and more.

Penobscot Indian Molly Ayer is close to “aging out” out of the foster care system. A community service position helping an elderly woman clean out her home is the only thing keeping Molly out of juvie and worse…

As she helps Vivian sort through her possessions and memories, Molly learns that she and Vivian aren’t as different as they seem to be. A young Irish immigrant orphaned in New York City, Vivian was put on a train to the Midwest with hundreds of other children whose destinies would be determined by luck and chance.

Molly discovers that she has the power to help Vivian find answers to mysteries that have haunted her for her entire life, answers that will ultimately free them both.

Rich in detail and epic in scope, Orphan Train is a powerful novel of upheaval and resilience, of unexpected friendship, and of the secrets we carry that keep us from finding out who we are.

Coalition Staff Member Review

If reading a good story is your idea of self-care, spending time listening to or reading this novel is just the thing. This is a beautiful story of two women with very different lives and stories who find sisterhood and friendship with each other, bonding over their times in the child welfare system. One, a young lady who is currently in the foster system and about to age out, and the other, a refined, older woman who finds comfort in reminiscing about her life with someone who is living through similar circumstances. Throughout the story, we learn a bit of the history of the child welfare system in America and we gain more perspective of what children in the system feel, see, and understand about themselves and others.

Author: Christina Baker Kline
ISBN: 978-0-06-195072-8
Count: 1