One Book, One Philadelphia announces 'Orphan Train'

“I discovered a story about American history that has been hidden in plain sight,” author Christina Baker Kline said at the Free Library unveiling of her novel, Orphan Train, as the 2015 selection for the One Book, One Philadelphia program, now in its 13th year.

In short, it’s the story of the largest migration of children in our nation’s history, now largely forgotten in the media, classrooms, and textbooks across the country. From the mid-19th century until 1929, thousands of children who were orphaned or abandoned in East Coast cities were rounded up for “orphan trains,” which carried them to an uncertain fate in the Midwest. Some were adopted, but others met years of forced labor.

Speaking at the unveiling event on October 16, Kline, the author of five novels, said that “the history of our country is not the history of the poor and dispossessed,” but the stories we’re telling today are starting to change that.

Orphan Train tells the parallel stories of a pair of unlikely friends: the 90-year-old Vivian, a New York City child who took her own ride on the orphan train to Minnesota during the Great Depression, and the 17-year-old Molly, a Penobscot Indian who’s had a turbulent youth in foster care.

Kline, a New Jersey resident, said part of what inspired her to write the novel is its relevance to the present day, particularly in Pennsylvania, where vulnerable children are often shuffled to foster homes across the state, with few resources to thrive in a strange new place.

Chatting with BSR after the event, One Book, One Philadelphia chair Marie Field said that the roster of possible selections for the program usually begins with 30 to 40 books, and the committee narrows it down based on several criteria, like good literary quality, the book’s accessibility to a broad audience, and its appropriateness for readers in high school and above.

Field added that it "sounds like bragging," but it’s true: Similar programs exist in cities around the country, but authors say “the Philadelphia One Book program…is the best.”

One Book, One Philadelphia runs in partnership with the Mayor’s office and will get its official kickoff on January 22, 2015. Through March 19, the Free Library invites any and all residents to read Orphan Train and join a conversation with over 100 happenings, including discussions, film screenings, music, and even culinary events.

“We grow our literacy skills and push ourselves to think in new ways,” Free Library president and director Siobhan Reardon said of the program’s offerings.

Hard copies and e-book or computer downloads of Orphan Train will be available to borrow at all of the Free Library’s 61 locations. For more information, call 215-814-3514, or visit the Free Library in person or online.