Title: Train to Somewhere

Author: Eve Bunting

Illustrator: Ronald Himler

Date of Publication: 1996

Genre: Historical Fiction

Suggested Grade Range: Intermediate (Grades 4-6)

From the mid-1850s until the late 1920s, homeless children in America were sent from <st1:State w:st="on">New York</st1:State> to the Midwest in hopes of finding a family that would adopt them.  This story focuses on a fictional character, Marianne, who portrays an orphan traveling by train to the Midwest.  Marianne is determined to find her mother on her journey.  The train makes stops at different cities throughout the Midwest, and at each stop the children get out and hope to be adopted.  Marianne, however, is not chosen at any of the stops.  She is okay with this, because she wants her mother to find her and take care of her.  However, at the very last stop, her mother is not there, but an elderly couple known as the Books finally adopts Marianne.

Marianne is an orphan girl who has low self-esteem.  She does not feel that she is pretty.  She refers to herself as a “plain, average” girl.  She is a character that has hope and faith that her mother will find her and they can be a family again.  When her mom does not show up, though, and another family adopts her, she realizes that life does not always turn out the way you expect it to.  Nevertheless, she comes to realize that even though life does not always go according to plan, there can still be a happy ending.  She realizes that any parents are better than no parents at all and so she is excited about being adopted.

The theme is powerful in this story.  It talks about how life does not always turn out the way people want. The author tells us that even though life may turn out different than expected; a happy ending can still take place.  I believe the expressions, “when life hands you lemons, make lemonade,” and “when one door closes, another one opens,” are appropriate phrases to describe the theme.  I also believe that another theme could be the message that everyone is loved and needed.  Even though the couple wanted a boy and the little girl wanted her mom, the older couple and Marianne realized that they needed each other.  Everyone deserves to be loved and wanted.  These themes are wonderful for children and adults alike to learn.

This book is considered historical fiction.  I believe that this book is historical because in U.S. history there really was an orphan train that transported children from <st1:State w:st="on">New York</st1:State> to the Midwest in hopes of being adopted.  As I have said before, the orphan train ran between the mid 1850 until the late 1920s. Historians have estimated 100,000 orphans were sent.  Now, this book is considered fictional because the characters, such as Marianne, are made up.  In addition, the route from <st1:State w:st="on">New York</st1:State> to Somewhere, <st1:State w:st="on">Iowa</st1:State> that the train takes is made up.  In reality, there is no such town as Somewhere.  It was created by the author’s imagination.  Therefore, a historical fiction book takes real historical events and incorporates that into a fictional plot with pretend characters and events. One of the special features this novel has is found before the beginning of the story.  The author has created a paragraph explaining the background of the orphan train and making the audience aware of the fictional plot.  This novel also uses a lot of dialog spoken between characters.

Students can pretend that they are one of the characters and they can write a letter to Miss Randolph, the head of the orphan home, explaining their new lives in the Midwest.  This activity will help students write their own sequel, so to speak, for this novel.  They are essentially writing the after math of this story.  Students will need to use the correct letter format and age appropriate sentence structure.

Grade: 5

Strand 2: Writing Elements

Concept 2: Organization

Organization addresses the structure of the writing and integrates the central meaning and patterns that hold the piece together

PO 1: Use a structure that fits the type of writing

PO 6: Construct a paragraph that groups sentences around a topic

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