The Orphan Trains Book

This book is a Historical Nonfiction book that tells about orphan trains that would carry homeless children to the midwest to be adopted by families there. This book outlines one of the solutions used by the United States government to combat child homelessness, while also showing that this is not a new issue, but one that has been around for hundreds of years. I feel that that is important, for realizing that this is not just a current issue, but one that has existed for such a long span of time, adds to the weight and importance of discussing it.

Given that this book is directly about children, and offers photos of events that happened very long ago, I feel that children will find it highly interesting. It uses age-appropriate language for children that are in grades 3-6, which is a good time to start discussing issues of this nature more in depth. The story attempts to outline a potential solution to a large problem that still exists in modern-day societies, and even though the orphan train program did get shut down, just discussing this potential solution could spark deep discussion in the classroom, and could prompt the children to come up with some ideas of their own.

The illustrations in the book are actually photographs taken of the children and the train that they rode on. I feel that the use of photographs instead of drawn illustrations is necessary for a work like this, as this work is meant to recount a historical moment, instead of merely telling a story of fiction. The pictures provided in the book not only show the children and the train, but they show the conditions that these children lived in. An illustration would not as accurately portray that as well as an actual photograph of real people living that life would.

The book was highly accurate and blunt when discussing the cultural considerations of the book. In the book, it was explicitly said that those who rode these trains were mainly white, as African American children were not wanted for adoption by the mainly white families in the midwest. I feel that the inclusion of this point in the story opens the door for a discussion on race and socioeconomic status. I also feel that that was important to include for it gives children a glimpse into the perspectives of people during that time, which is vital in giving a genuine representation of the lifestyle that these children lived in.

I feel that this book is fantastic for discussing some of the more serious and in depth aspects of poverty while opening the door for broader discussion.