The Journey Home - Softcover

Holland, Isabelle

3.6

75 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0590431110 ISBN 13: 9780590431118

Publisher: Apple, 1993

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

Two orphan sisters in the late 1800s leave New York on the orphan train to seek a new home in the West.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

From School Library Journal:

Grade 4-6-- After their mother dies, Maggie Lavin, 12, and her younger sister, Annie, leave the slums of New York City on one of the orphan trains that deliv ered thousands of tenement youngsters to adoptive homes during the second half of the 19th century. Taken in by a childless couple, they begin a new life on the Kansas prairie, far different from all that they have known. Annie is a sunny, dreamy child; it is Maggie who must come to grips with the newness, the loss of her mother, the fear of being sent back, the hard work, and the hostility of some toward Roman Catholics and Irish immigrants. She is sustained by her strong sense of self, by all the good things that happen, and by the support of Priscilla Russell, her warm and gentle new mother who has an unshakable sense of right and wrong. There are a good many peripheral characters, all of whom Holland brings into sharp focus, but it is Maggie who carries the novel. She stays true to her heritage and religious beliefs, but she knows that this is her only chance, and Annie's, and she must learn to accomodate. By fierce determination and strength of character, she earns her place and comes to be valued and to feel at home. Holland balances Maggie's tension with a series of rather quiet everyday episodes that set the mood, advance the plot, and make for an accessible and readable novel. Joan Lowery Nixon's popular "Orphan Train Quartet" series (Bantam) places more emphasis on adventure; Holland deals more with life. --Tatiana Castleton, Stockton-San Joaquin County Public Library, CA
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.