A Family Apart (Orphan Train Adventures)

by Joan Lowery Nixon

Book Overview

When their mother can no longer support them, six siblings are sent by the Children's Aid Society of New York City to live with farm families in Missouri in 1860. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0440226767
• Release Date: December 1995
• Publisher: Laurel Leaf
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 0.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 6.9" x 0.5" x 4.1"

Customer Reviews

An Excellent Novel! One You Must Look Into!

My mom bought me the orphan train adventures series a long time ago, and I never really read them because I wasn't that much into reading. But now, after I read this book, I am reading all the stories in this series 30 minutes a day! This would really be a good book to read. The story is about a 13 year old girl named Frances Mary Kelly who lives with her mom and her brothers and sisters named Megan, Mike, Danny, Peg and Petey. The family is very poor and the mother realizes that she cannot afford to keep all of them. So, to solve that problem she sends them on an orphan train to live in the west with more wealthy families. Each of the children gets separated into different families and the second part of the story tells how Frances and Petey get along with their new family. I thought that the story was very interesting and when I finished one chapter I was so curious that I had to read more than one. What I also liked about the book was that it was very easy to understand what is happening. I have read many other books including Harry Potter where there are so many things that are happening at once that it's just to hard to keep track of everything so that's another good point of the story. The other books in this series include: Caught In the Act, In the Face Of Danger, A Place To Belong, A Dangerous Promise, Keeping Secrets and Circle Of Love. The other books tell you the stories of the other kids and I also recommend them. This was one of the best books I have read so far and I am going to read the whole series!!!

A Phenomenal Book for Readers of All Ages!

This book has got to be one of my favorites. My fifth grade teacher read the whole series to us that year. the other books in the series are as followes- 1) A Family Apart, 2)Caught in the Act, 3) In the face of Danger, 4)A Place to Belong, 5) A Dangerous Promise, 6) Keeping Secrets, and 7)Circle of Love. There is also a series called the Orpan Train Children which is based on the book Circle of love. the books in that series are as follows 1)Lucy's Wish, 2)Wills Choice, 3)Aggie's Home, and 4)David's Search. I hope u enjoy all of these books as much as i have

Family learns to accept their new homes!

6 children are put up for adoption on the Orphan Trains. Unfortunately Frances Mary has promised to take care of her younger brother Petey but has heard that people will only accept boys together. So she dresses up as a boy and is accepted by two wonderful people. Her name is now Frankie and lives on a farm. She gets involved with the Underground Railroad and learns what its like to be a boy. Unfortunately, she doesn't like the new life and misses her other brothers and sisters.I normally don't like western books but this book is suprisingly ausome!

You really have to read the book!!!!!!!!!!!!

I thought that A FAMILY APART was a really good book. It helped me to understand what a poor teenager's life was like in the mid 1800's. The story was mainly about a thirteen year old girl named Frances, who lived with her mother and five siblings in New York. After Frances' father died, the family lived in poverty. The mother worked at all hours of the day to support her family. Therefore,she never had time to properly care for her six children, so she sent them on an orphan train to St. Joseph's, Missouri to live with farm families who could feed them and care for them. The children were very upset to leave their mother. They were upset because they would be separated from their brothers and sisters also. Frances did however get placed in a home with her six year old brother, Petey. Frances learned to cope with, and love her new family. Frances had some very exciting adventures while she was living with her new family in Missouri. This book helps the reader understand love, sacrifice and trust. If I were you, I'd sacrifice a little bit of time to read A FAMILY APART.