A Place to Belong (Orphan Train Adventures) [Mass Market Paperback]

Joan Lowery Nixon (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 10 and up | Grade Level: 5 and up | Series: Orphan Train Adventures

In 1856, having traveled with his young sister from New York to a foster home on a farm in Missouri, ten-year-old Danny plots to get his foster father to send for and marry his mother.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

The Orphan Train Quartet follows the story of the six Kelly children, whose widowed mother has sent them west from New York City in 1856 because she realizes she cannot give them the life they deserve.

Danny and his younger sister Peg feel lucky to be adopted by kind Alfrid and Olga Swenson in St. Joseph, Missouri. But when Olga dies suddenly, the children fear they will lose their wonderful new family.

Danny comes up with an ingenious plan so they won't be separated, and which might even bring his real family back together. Then Danny runs into a phony doctor he knew from New York City, who recognizes him. Can Danny protect himself and those he loves from the evil doctor and still make his plan work? --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 10 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Laurel Leaf (May 21, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0440226961
• ISBN-13: 978-0440226963
• Product Dimensions: 4.5 x 0.5 x 6.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #244,052 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Place to Belong, July 26, 2000

A Kid's Review

This review is from: A Place to Belong (Orphan Train Adventures) (Library Binding)

This is a great book. I wouldn't recommend reading this book before: A Family Apart, Caught in the Act, and In the Face of Danger. It is the last book a Quartet about the Kelly children. Unless you don't want to read the first three I suggest you read A Place to Belong last.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars One dud in the entertaining Orphan Train saga, March 24, 2010

By 

Nicole Rega (New York, United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: A Place to Belong (Orphan Train Adventures) (Mass Market Paperback)

In A Place to Belong, the next story in the Orphan Train saga, Danny Kelly wishes his family were back together. Danny's a mix of Meg and Mike to some degree but lacks the rich characterization of his siblings in the previous three books. In his story, his younger sister Peg and he are adopted by Alfrid and Olga Swenson , not far from St. Joseph. Like in A Family Apart, there is a lot of abolitionist and anti-abolitionist talk as Abraham Lincoln is elected president. It's been awhile since I've read about the Civil War, but they way the characters talk about slavery and the election of 1860 comes across very anachronistically. There's no talk of state's rights, or republicanism, or even the slaves themselves, its just pro slavery or anti-slavery and everyone falls too neatly into either camp (oh, and there is also the hilarious scene when Danny meets John Wilkes Booth and just knows he's evil). I know it's a children's book but still both Mike's and Meg's books managed to make the world at least a little bit gray.

Olga dies with little fanfare and in then pages or less Alfrid is convinced by his ten year old foster son to marry Mrs. Kelly. Mrs. Kelly agrees and comes to St. Joseph to be with her children. From here the plot becomes so melodramatic (kidnapping, fire, love triangle) that I had to skim through until the end. Upon rereading this I remembered why I lost interest in the series, sans A Dangerous Promise. Basically, Mrs. Kelly and Alfrid decide not to get married and she goes on to marry the town blacksmith. Peg goes to live with them and Danny, stays with Alfrid for I suppose valid reasons (didn't want to lose another father) but still bugs me ten yeas after I first read this book. Mrs. Kelly and her new husband cannot financially support the other four children, Frances Marry, Megan, Mike, and Petey, plus they don't want to leave their new foster families anyway so it all works out- I guess. Even at twelve I didn't enjoy the plot nor did I think it was historically realistic or interesting. Young adults readers it is okay to skip this one.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Couldn't put it down, July 18, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: A Place to Belong (Orphan Train Adventures) (Mass Market Paperback)

It was souch a great book I finished it in one night! Although it was sad, It was very interesting. You really got to know the characters. I hade to get the three other books as soon as I could! One night I stayed up till one in the morning to finish one of the books!