By Christina Baker Kline
From 1854-1929, over 200,000 orphaned or abandoned children were transported from crowded cities of the east Coast to the midwest for "adoption", which sometimes resulted in a child not necessarily being absorbed into a family but rather serving as an unpaid servant. This novel tells the story of one little girl, a nine-year-old Irish immigrant, who was bounced to several homes before she finally found acceptance and security. Vivian's story becomes the research project of Molly, a modern day foster teen who has been bounced to even more families. Though very sad, this is a good story of a little-known movement in US history. Hopefully, there were more success stories but, as the author notes, each of these children had a back story, a story of loss or abandonment - so there would have been a lot of pain to overcome even before starting the long train ride west.
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