Riders on the Orphan Train a novel Alison Moore 9780615684550 Books
Download As PDF : Riders on the Orphan Train a novel Alison Moore 9780615684550 Books
Riders on the Orphan Train is an historical novel about a little-known piece of American history. Between 1854 and 1929, over 250,000 orphans and "surrendered" children were "placed out" across the country. They started their journey in New York and were given away in train stations across the country. The novel is the story of the journey of two children from very different backgrounds who find themselves on the same train heading West in 1918. Ezra Duval, age 11, was left in an orphanage. Ezra's father, a widower, left his son behind for an opportunity to be a part of an archaeological expedition in Egypt. Maud Farrell, age 12, arrives in America from the west of Ireland to join her father, a "sand hog" excavating the subway, and discovers she must make her own way as a singing girl on the streets. Both Ezra and Maud are scheduled to be sent out on a train to find new homes in the West by the Children's Aid Society. Their brief friendship makes a life-long impression on them both and though they are initially taken by people in different states, (Arkansas and Texas), their experiences, like separated twins, run uncannily parallel. This is a story of dislocation, loss, and the search for home that is at the heart of the American experience. Beginning on the eve of America's entry into World War I and spanning the period of time until the Great Depression, these children encounter and learn from people also looking for a way to belong in a rapidly-changing world. The novel's locations include New York City, Arkansas, the Big Bend region of Texas, central New Mexico and southeastern Arizona. The novel began with a short story that is at the heart of a multi-media presentation called Riders on the Orphan Train that the author has been performing in libraries and museums since 1998. The program was originally developed for the Orphan Train Heritage Society of America, Inc. in Springdale, Arkansas, and now serves as the official touring outreach program for The National Orphan Train Complex Museum and Research Center in Concordia, Kansas. Author Statement I left the tenure track of a major creative writing program in 1998 to become an itinerant performer and have never regretted the decision. Reaching the public initially with my short story about the Orphan Trains has been extremely rewarding; finding a way to have my work serve a larger purpose has become a story my own imagination could not have created on its own. The short story continued to grow until it became a novel. I chose fiction as a means for exploring the emotional truths often left out of historical facts. For me, the completion of this novel is the culmination of fourteen years of writing and research while touring and getting to know many Orphan Train Riders by participating in national reunions. Their experiences are woven through the novel. It is my hope that the stories of the children who road the trains will live on through this novel for generations to come.
Riders on the Orphan Train a novel Alison Moore 9780615684550 Books
Alison Moore is a well researched historian and a gifted story teller. She walks her characters through about every major historical happening in America from the first World War to the second. Her two protagonists Ezra and Maud aka Elizabeth indeed rode an orphan train. I would have liked the story better if their experiences in Terlingua TX and/or Benton County Ark and many other places had related directly to their orphan experiences. These could have happened had they not been orphans. I was pleased that Moore didn't drag us through the cruelty of child abuse, and I must admit the tale was a real page turner for me in the last trimester.Product details
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Tags : Riders on the Orphan Train: a novel [Alison Moore] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Riders on the Orphan Train is an historical novel about a little-known piece of American history. Between 1854 and 1929,Alison Moore,Riders on the Orphan Train: a novel,Roadworthy Press,0615684556,FICTION Historical
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Riders on the Orphan Train a novel Alison Moore 9780615684550 Books Reviews
THIS BOOK IS EXCELLENT FOR A HISTORY SOURCE.
THE PEOPLE ARE REAL, THEIR STORIES CLEAR.
I THINK THIS BOOK RELATES HISTORY IN A VERY
COMPELLING AND HUMAN INTEREST WASY
Good read
It was a good read but not really what I expected. My uncle's mother was one of the train orphans. I thought the book was a bit disjointed but possibly that was just for my own taste.
This is an interesting book, but I wish it would be based on more facts, it would make it more interesting for me. It just hasn't "grabbed" me as some other books have. I am able to put it down, and get back to it whenever I don't have something else to do.
The amount of story that there was I thought was good story. I felt the characters did too much philosophic reflecting, and that became a lot of blah blah for the reader.
I'd heard about the orphan trains but like most history, it was fact without a face. This is historical fiction, the imagined story of two of those children in 1918 New York City. Maud Farrell is a motherless Irish immigrant in search of her father; Ezra Duval is the "surrendered" son of an archaeologist. These children are only 11, trying to make sense of confounding circumstances. Maud and Ezra meet on one of the westbound orphan trains in a memorable first encounter and their lives twist in a loose braid through Arkansas, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona over the next six decades. The story is set in an America approaching World War I, replete with outlaws, prophets, robber barons, cowboys and Indians. Moore's writing is lush and nuanced, populated with characters you wish you knew. She takes care to anchor places and events with historical detail, yet you are swept away by transformative prose that is sweet, lyrical. A winner of the Katherine Ann Porter Prize for Fiction, Moore is a gifted writer. This is her best work yet. A delicious and satisfying read.
A little known phenomenon in American History, the infamous orphan trains delivered thousands upon thousands of children to new homes in the West. Alison Moore's novel of the trials and perils of two riders is both well researched and eminently readable. The story of Maud, a motherless, impoverished Irish girl, begins on a ship bringing immigrants to Ellis Island, and the harrowing, often humiliating, experience of making ones way through this gateway to a new life. Simultaneously, we meet Ezra, who is living in the bohemian paradise of the Chelsea Hotel with a distracted father and a small community of artists. Even though from radically different backgrounds, the two find themselves aboard the train and sometimes hoping for but also dreading the prospect of adoption. And once they leave the train, the real adventure begins. I'm two thirds of the way through the novel and loving the ride. I highly recommend this novel.
Alison Moore is a well researched historian and a gifted story teller. She walks her characters through about every major historical happening in America from the first World War to the second. Her two protagonists Ezra and Maud aka Elizabeth indeed rode an orphan train. I would have liked the story better if their experiences in Terlingua TX and/or Benton County Ark and many other places had related directly to their orphan experiences. These could have happened had they not been orphans. I was pleased that Moore didn't drag us through the cruelty of child abuse, and I must admit the tale was a real page turner for me in the last trimester.
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