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'Orphan Train' Author Visits WKCTC for "One Book, One Campus, One Community Read"

westkentucky.kctcs.edu

New York Times and USA today best-selling author Christina Baker Kline, author of Orphan Train, visits West Kentucky Community and Technical College as the finale to the college's 2015 One Book, One Campus, One Community Read. Although the book is set in the 75 year period between 1854 and 1929, when an estimated quarter of a million abandoned and homeless children were placed with families through the United States and Canada during the "Orphan Train Movement," Kate Lochte asks the author if she sees parallels today.

Christina Baker Kline says there are parallels between the orphan trains and today's "border children." People forget that every immigrant group undergoes a "hazing process," she says. Today, the people complaining about immigrants coming from other countries are the descendants of people who had a hard time of it when they came over. The belief that immigrant groups are unruly, dirty, not respectable and won't be assimilated is one that's as old as human nature. She thinks it's a problem that will always exist, however there are now laws in place to protect children. At best, they work, but they don't always work.

In the orphan train movement, there were few laws to protect children. They were considered property in those days, particularly poor children, who were considered labor. In her book, she talks about the twin traits of 'adventurous' and 'self-discipline,' which were necessary for immigrants, but contradictory: if you're disciplined, you might be cautious; and if you're adventurous, you might not be so disciplined. Kline says it's a hard thing to come to a new place and make a new life. A lot of people have failed or could never gain a foothold because the deck is stacked against them.

The story of the orphan trains in American history is one that's been told before, but isn't widely known or taught in history books, even though it's a large migration of children. "The history of our country is not the history of the poor and the dispossessed - it has not traditionally been - and that's changing a bit." While her book is historical fiction, the bones are true, she says. What happens to her characters could be an experience. Kline read terrible stories in her research and some delightful stories, too, but the majority were difficult and complicated. "These children were severely traumatized... All of them had been through something terrible. All of them had been through something children. As we now know about young children, even pre-verbal children who'd been through something traumatic retain that in their psyches." There was no therapy. They weren't allowed to talk about their experience. Their parents were not their parents. Their past was not their past.

Credit westkentucky.kctcs.edu
Christina Baker Kline headshot

WKCTC hosts New York Times best-seller "Orphan Train" author Christina Baker Kline for two speaking engagements as the finale to its One Book, One Campus, One Community Read. The community's invited to hear Kline Tuesday, March 31 at 7 p.m. in Crounse Hall, Room 101. At 11 a.m. on April 1, Kline speaks in the Clemens Fine Arts Center.

More about her visit to WKCTC

Christina Baker Kline's website

Matt Markgraf joined the WKMS team as a student in January 2007. He's served in a variety of roles over the years: as News Director March 2016-September 2019 and previously as the New Media & Promotions Coordinator beginning in 2011. Prior to that, he was a graduate and undergraduate assistant. He is currently the host of the international music show Imported on Sunday nights at 10 p.m.
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