by Christina Baker Kline
Thanks to Daniela W-L for lending me this engrossing novel based on the orphan trains of the 19th and 20th centuries in America. Niamh Power immigrates to America from Ireland, only to lose her parents and siblings in a tragic fire. She is sent to Minnesota on an “orphan train” and finds herself little more than a servant or slave in two placements, one worse than the other, until her luck finally changes. . . . More than eighty years later, she awakens the memories of these transformative life events as she goes through an attic full of papers and keepsakes with the help of Molly, a rebellious half-Native American teen who discovers that the rich old lady is similar to her in ways she could never have imagined.
(Summer break is beginning and I am heading to McKeldin Library tomorrow to gather a boatload of books from my “to-read” lists! Watch this space!)