moonhas.blogg.se - Orphan train book

ORPHAN TRAIN BOOK FULL
ORPHAN TRAIN BOOK WINDOWS

This story stunned me, and led me to the Internet and the library to do research. So it was quite a surprise to read the article about him, “They called it ‘Orphan Train’: And it proved there was a home for many children on the prairie.”

I knew that Carole had grown up in Jamestown and that her father, a taciturn and somewhat aloof man, had been president of the local bank – but that was all.

“Hayden, there’s a story in there about my dad, your great-grandfather, that might interest you,” my mother-in-law, Carole, was saying. Called “Century of Stories,” it was a celebration of Jamestown, ND’s centennial in 1983, filled with articles and photographs. On the second day, after several interminable games of Sorry with my younger two boys, I escaped to find their bookish older brother, Hayden, on his stomach in the living room, leafing through a publication I’d never seen before. As the snowfall grew heavier we watched the cars in the driveway disappear, along with any dreams we might have had of going sledding or shopping.

ORPHAN TRAIN BOOK FULL

The boys shrieked, threw on ski pants, and ran outside to make snow angels and igloo tunnels, but after a few minutes they trudged back inside, icicles dripping from their noses and boots full of slush.

ORPHAN TRAIN BOOK WINDOWS

Visiting my mother-in-law in Fargo, North Dakota, for a week with my husband and three young sons, we woke up one morning in the dark, the windows blanketed with snow. In the case of Orphan Train, that soil was in North Dakota - under about four feet of snow. Sometimes the seeds for a novel are planted in the most unexpected soil.

Did you know everything that would happen in the novel when you started, or did you change things as you went along?.

Could you tell us about the origins of the first line you wrote for the novel? How did you know you had a first line? Did it come to you fully formed, or did you rework it? Did it end up being the first line of the novel, or of another section?.

How did the writing of the book personally affect you?.

How does your novel of the Orphan Train differ from other books on the subject?.

What was it that was most compelling to you about the idea of an orphan train?.

Where does the idea of the novel, two voices talking about loss and solitude, comes from? And why did you choose the story, I guess not so famous as others, of the Orphan Train?.

Parents and children will find much to like in this story of bonding and respect between two seemingly disparate generations, a lesson much needed in today’s society. I’m not really sure why a YA/middle grade version was deemed necessary, but young readers will likely be fascinated with the details of the little-known orphan train kids’ lives. If you’ve read the adult version, this one may seem overly sanitized and saccharine, but it is right for the age group. The main character, Molly, is aged down from 17 to a sixth-grader, and the negative aspects of the story are removed, resulting in a much more pleasant, albeit perhaps less impactful, tale.

This version is understandably toned down from the original story, containing none of the tales of abuse and harsher details of the adult novel. A special appendix at the end of the novel addresses the real history of the period, including a brief historical note and photos. It braids the tales together until they merge, to show that a young modern girl actually has more in common with the 91-year-old survivor of the orphan trains than either could ever imagine. This is a shortened, YA/middle-grade version of Orphan Train, the popular adult novel that traces the stories of two orphaned girls, Vivian in the early part of the last century and Molly in present times.