ALA Booklist (Mon Feb 06 00:00:00 CST 2023)

In Orphan Train Rider: One Boy's True Story (1996), Warren told the riveting drama of a destitute child sent from an eastern city to find a family in the Midwest. For this collective biography, she interviewed eight people who lived that story, all of whom are now in their eighties and nineties. It's a selective sample--these are people who really want to look back and talk about their lives--and their stories are overwhelmingly positive: moving accounts of love and acceptance, courage and resilience, success, even reunion. Many also remember the anguish before the happy ending-- the nightmare of siblings torn apart, orphans treated as hired help, teased at school, abused at home. Younger readers won't be particularly interested in the adult experiences or in the photos of the adults with their families now, but the childhood memories are unforgettable. Warren frames the personal stories with commentary and information about social conditions at the time. She also raises essential questions: Would the children have done better if they had been left in orphanages? And what about today's foster children? This is powerful nonfiction for classroom and personal reading and for discussion. Warren includes Web sites of primary sources for children who want to learn more.

Horn Book (Mon Feb 06 00:00:00 CST 2023)

Introductory chapters explain how the orphan train program was begun in the 1850s by Charles Loring Brace and describe the role of agent Clara Comstock in accompanying orphans from New York to their new homes in the Midwest. The experiences of individual riders are described in the anecdotal, often touching text and accompanied by appealing black-and-white photographs. Bib., ind.

Kirkus Reviews

From 1854 to 1930, more than 200,000 orphaned or abandoned boys and girls were cleaned up, dressed in new clothes, and turned over to the custody of the agents of the Children's Aid Society. These groups of children traveled on "orphan trains" and arrived at the towns of the Midwest and South with the expectation that they would be placed in loving homes. In this companion volume to the award winning Orphan Train Rider: One Boy's True Story (1996), Warren smoothly recounts seven more stories gathered from interviews and archival research. After a short introduction, she describes the hardship of the neglected and abused children and then the simple plan of finding homes in the West for "homeless children." Warren begins with the account of Clara Comstock, a former schoolteacher who as an agent made more than 72 trips on the orphan trains. The subjects, now in their late 70s to 90s, look back to their common experiences. Often no one told them why they were going on a train or what was happening; some had happy endings; still others fared not so well. Each chapter has a similar format: one train rider's story—earliest memories, the departure and train ride, being trouped out in front of strangers, being chosen, what happened their first day of placement, what happened to their siblings, visits from the agents, and the search for their origins. Generously illustrated with black-and-white photographs of people and places as well as reproductions of original source material. As fascinating as the original and a worthy sequel. (index, sources) (Nonfiction. 9-12)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Interviews of eight orphan train riders reveal their childhood experiences when they were part of the "placing out" program run by the Children's Aid Society of New York City between 1854 and 1929. "The anecdotes about these brave and lonely children will keep readers traveling on this train," wrote <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">PW. Ages 8-12. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(Mar.)

School Library Journal (Mon Feb 06 00:00:00 CST 2023)

Gr 4-8 Warren's story of nine-year-old Lee Nailling in Orphan Train Rider (Houghton, 1996) opened a window onto a disturbing period of American history in which children were both victims and heroes. In this follow-up volume, she relates the personal histories of eight men and womennow senior citizenswho were orphaned or abandoned as children and later traveled across the country in trains to meet strangers who would become their new family members. An introductory chapter describes the appalling numbers of homeless children in 19th-century America's large eastern cities and explains how poverty and disease as well as high rates of alcohol and drug addiction contributed to a problem that continued into the 20th century. The personal histories, based on interviews that Warren conducted with her subjects, are rich and compelling and so full of dramatic twists and turns that they could have been conceived by Charles Dickens. Hunger, fear, and isolation are the most common recollections of the men and women who speak from these pages. Fortunately these stories all have happy endings, testimony to the resilience of children and the kindness of strangers. The author also includes information about early social activists such as Charles Loring Brace, who established New York City's Children's Aid Society in 1853. These remarkable stories have enormous human-interest appeal and will provoke serious discussion about just how much life has really changed for children from the last century until today. William McLoughlin, Brookside School, Worthington, OH