This Tender Land

A wonderful tale of four runaway vagabonds who escape their miserable confinement in an Indian School/ orphanage during the thirties. Brothers, Opie and Albert are some of the few white kids at the Indian school, although that doesn't mean they're any better treated. Under the "black witch" they are often subject to beatings, nights in solitary confinement and hard manual labor. When things reach a breaking point they decide to canoe down the river with the good friend Moses, a mute Indian boy, and Emma a recently orphaned six year old girl who looks on the older boys as her protectors and older brothers. The stakes are high as the black witch has alerted the authorities that precious little Emma has been kidnapped, and the boys must use all their wiles to evade other vagabonds, police, and poor people who would be happy to sell them out for the reward money. Entrancing and wonderfully told; these four young characters will earn a place in your heart. It's a touching journey of freedom, discovery, and adventure.

Orphan #8

There is a hell of a lot going on in this book. In the early twentieth century, four year old Rachel and her brother are put in a Jewish orphanage after their father "accidentally" kills their mother. In the orphanage, Rachel is subjected to a series of x-ray tests that will have significant effects on her life, the most obvious being her permanent baldness. Despite all the odds, she does pretty well for herself eventually becoming a nurse. Rachel had pretty well blocked out her childhood, but when one of the patients she's treating turns out to be a doctor that tested on her, it all comes rushing back. She is forced to confront her past and come to terms with how it is affecting her future. This book does a great job illustrating problems that minorities (Jews, orphans, women, lesbians) faced in the first half of the twentieth century and does a great job of outlining the historical basis for the book in the afterward. Dark, but enlightening.

Orphan Train

This is a perfect book club pick. It's intriguing, informative, fast, and easy to read. Honestly, I could even see this book passing off as a young adult novel, as one of the main characters is a seventeen year old girl and it's such a fast read.

The story is told by two characters; Molly, a seventeen year old orphan in 2011 and Niamh, an young orphan shipped out to the west on the orphan train in the 1920's. Their stories are more alike then they realize. When Molly starts on a volunteer project to clean out 91 year old Vivian's attic she has no idea the story she will uncover. Each box in the attic has a story that brings the two closer together.

A wonderfully told story with more historical details about the orphan train included in the back. A perfect pick for book clubs or fans of historical fiction.