Orphan Train (2013)

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by Christina Baker Kline



Seventeen-year-old orphan Molly Ayers is due to age out of the foster care system when she encounters Vivian Daly, an old lady who turns out to be an orphan herself.

 


Both have endured difficult placements with undeserving families, and they grow to recognize the similarities in each other's life stories.

 

"Orphans Train" (Persian)


The greater part of the book is taken up by Vivian's story, which was fortunate for me because I didn't care much for the Molly section.

 

"The Things I Don't Know About You" (Italian)


I didn't find Molly's story to be terribly interesting and the trope of the young person learning valuable life lessons from the old person and in return enriching a lonely life felt a little too pat.

 

"Orphan Trains" (Korean)


While Vivian's story held my interest, it was a bit melodramatic, and I felt that I was able to predict what was going to go wrong in each of her failed placements.

 

"The Train of the Orphans" (Spanish)


I was unaware of the orphan trains and appreciated that this novel brought them to my attention, but precious little of this story actually involved the movement from which this book takes its name.

 

"Orphan Train" (Chinese)


Author Christina Baker Kline really had my interest early on, as I was very interested in the workings of the orphan trains and the personalities of the adults who oversaw the children.

 

Christina Baker Kline


However, once Niamh (later called Vivian) is adopted out, we never see the trains again.

 

"The Train of the Orphans" (German)


A surprise encounter later in Vivian's story strains credulity but seemed inevitable due to the predictable plotting of much of the novel.


"The Orphans' Train" (French)

"The Orphanage Train" (Hebrew)

"Orphan Trains" (Polish)

"The Train with the Orphans" (Greek)

"The Train of Orphans" (Portuguese)

"Orphan Train" (Croatian)

"The Little Girl on the Orphan Train" (Romanian)


"Orphans Train" (Turkish)

"The Orphans Train" (Bulgarian)

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