Looking for Home, Beyond the Orphan Train Series, Book 1, was written by Arleta Richardson and published by David C. Cook (1993). According to the “About the Author” page at the back of the novel orphan trains operated between 1854 to 1929 in the United States. These trains helped to relocate about 250,000 orphaned, abandoned and homeless children. Arleta Richardson based her series on a boy, Ethan Cooper, who rode the orphan train in 1908.
The novel begins in 1907. Ethan Cooper’s mother has just died after a long illness and his father is away at sea. His four older siblings decide that Ethan and his four younger siblings cannot stay at home. There is no money and there is no one to care for them. A neighbor takes the baby girl and Ethan, who is eight, and the three other children must go to live in a nearby orphanage, Briarlane Christian Children’s Home. Ethan is put in charge of five-year-old Alice, three-year-old Simon and two-year-old Will on the journey to the orphanage. His older siblings also tell him to look out for the little ones while they are at Briarlane. Ethan accepts this big responsibility.
The children are treated well at the home. They receive lots of good food; they have chores, but they also have time to play. There are rules, but the adults, though firm, treat the children with kindness. Ethan and Alice know that in the fall they will have the chance to go to school which they are excited about. The Cooper children are happy at the Briarlane. Ethan’s greatest concern is that they will, or he will, do something wrong and they, or he, will be sent away.
One day Matron calls Ethan aside because he has not been making his bed before going out to play. During this time of correction, Matron tells Ethan that God is interested in him. When Will goes missing and Ethan is frantic, Matron tells Ethan that God is the Good Shepherd. She encourages Ethan to pray and ask God to take care of Will and then trust that He will somehow bring the little boy back. This comforts Ethan.
Before Will went missing, Bert, a good friend of Ethan’s, overheard a lady tell the home’s director that she was determined to adopt Will. When, after a thorough search of the farm, Will is not found, Bert and Ethan go to the lady’s home. But neither she nor Will are there. The boys go to town and wander into her husband’s office. He begins to piece together that his wife probably has Will at their summer home. He goes there immediately which results in his wife returning the child and apologizing to the director.
Ethan tells Bert that Matron is right. “It is a good idea to pray about stuff.” Will’s return is not the end of Ethan’s troubles, but he will begin to see and believe that there is a Good Shepherd who is watching over him.
The reading level for Looking for Home is about third grade and Ethan, the main character is eight years old, but I think the book would be more appropriate for fifth graders. Fifth grade social studies curriculum covers US history, so the book would have more meaning for these readers. I also think that developmentally fifth graders and/or fourth graders in the latter half of the school year are better able to handle, psychologically and emotionally, the loss, hardships and uncertainties that Ethan and his siblings experience. The readers of this age would still have compassion for the Cooper kids, but their growing maturity would shield these young readers from feeling personally threatened.
This is an interesting story. Children will want to read what happens next. I think it will also help young readers grow in their faith in God and help them consider that He is looking out for them even when they experience hardship and troubles.
Nancy Ellen Hird is a mom, a writer and a credentialed teacher. (She taught seventh grade and preschool.) Her latest works for children are I Get a Clue and We All Get a Clue, mystery novels for girls 10-13. For several years she was a freelance reviewer of children’s and teen’s literature for the Focus on the Family website.
