MY HEART REMEMBERS

By Kim Vogel Sawyer

Reviewed by Marion Kelley Bullock

It’s 1886. Three Irish immigrant siblings are orphaned when their parents die in a tenement fire. Destitute and with no family in New York, they are placed in an orphanage. Eight-year-old Maelle Gallagher determines to keep her younger brother and baby sister with her, but the orphanage decides differently.

The children are placed on an orphan train and sent to Missouri to be adopted. Each child is placed with a different family, but Maelle vows to bring them together again— someday. Seventeen years later, Maelle is still searching. But her hopes and her memories have grown dim. She wonders if she’ll ever find Mattie and Molly.

Kim’s rich and tender story is based on a time in history when orphan trains really did carry homeless children from New York to new beginnings. Maelle’s experiences— some good, some bad— are interwoven with those of her brother and sister. As I read their stories, I felt their anguish, imagined their turmoil, and gloried in their triumphs. I believe you will, too.