Train to Somewhere
Bunting, E. (1996). Train to somewhere. New York: Clarion Books.
As I read through this book I felt mesmerized, or
spellbound. I heard a very quite, solemn voice in my head as I went page by
page. I haven’t read children’s books since I was a child, and though I was a
fan of Reading Rainbow, I don’t have a memory of children’s books being so
serious. And while this book is certainly very serious, I can see why it would
be of comfort to a child because it does end happily without being silly or
overly celebratory. Both the writing and the illustrations that accompany the story
are written at such a level that they could easily be for adults, but it is
their inherent simplicity that makes this more of a children’s book.
In this story a group of orphans travel west by train in the
hopes of being adopted by new parents. They have all lived in orphanages or on
the streets in New York City, and this is their opportunity for a new life.
Everyone wants to be adopted, except for Marianne who is holding out hope that
her real mother will be there at one of the stops, and that they will be
reunited. Unfortunately Marianne never finds her mother in the story, but as
the narrative resolves she is matched with a couple who seems to understand
her pain, and they take her home to be their own child.
I found this to be a very beautiful story because the plot
and resolution are simple, and there is nothing sweet about the characters or
their situation. Though everything seems very solemn, it is realistic and I can
see the tone “meeting” the needs of the children who read it.
Even the illustrations are simple, and though there isn’t a
lot of detail, the composition of each piece perfectly matches the words on the
page. I like the shading and the way the artist uses colors and light on each
picture the most. Each picture feels like it is a complete painting.
I enjoyed this story, and would even like to read a more
detailed and “grown up” version of it. I had no idea that there was such a
thing as an Orphan Train, but as I think about history and the number of
immigrants that came through New York in that time period, I can understand why
there was a need for one. If I were teaching history, this would be a great
book to include when talking about the industrial revolution and immigration.
When I think of incorporating this book into my own
(English/Language Arts Secondary) classroom, I think it would make a great
reflection piece for my students. So many of them have had to face hardships in their
lives and they will share their stories with you quite matter of factly—which
is similar to the narrator’s voice. I would like to read this story to them and
have them respond to how they felt hearing it, or to encourage them to begin
writing about their own experience. It may make for a good piece to add to my
upcoming unit on the Odyssey. As this little girl travels, her life is
changing. My students could reflect on both character's travels and how they change in their own personal narratives.
Reading this story made me think of my own personal experience and the
one
trip that I have made to New York. I had the opportunity to go to Ellis
Island and the Statue of
Liberty. I think sharing my personal details like this could be helpful
to having students
connect to the story and it would be fun to see them make their own
“Train to
Somewhere” poster or presentation as a performance assessment. I could
even see this being something that we do at the beginning of the school
year, and then once again at the end to see how they have changed over
the course of it.
This was a very good first experience for becoming reacquainted
with children’s literature. I am looking forward to getting into the next
couple of picture books that we are going to read. As I wrote this reflection I
came up with more ideas for how to use this story in my classroom than I
anticipated, and so I hope to come up with more ways to use the next couple of
books as well.
As a complete aside, when looking for an illustration for this post, I
found this website with a list of children's books broken down by common
threads. I think it would be really useful to look into for
incorporating more children's literature into the classroom, and so I'd
like to post if here for future reference.
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