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teachreadinspire 's review for:
The Orphan Collector
by Ellen Marie Wiseman
The Orphan Collector is set in a major city (Boston maybe?) during the major outbreak of the Spanish Flu in 1918. The story alternates between main characters Pia and Beatrice (aka Nurse Wallis). Pia is 12 years old and essentially an orphan when the flu claims her mother while her father is fighting overseas. She must make difficult decisions in an attempt to care for her twin baby brothers, Ollie and Max. When she is completely out of food she knows she must leave the babies alone at home but worries they might get into something without her there to protect them. She places them in a little cubby and runs out to find something to eat, but the flu hits her while she is out and she never makes it back to save them. Meanwhile, Beatrice is mourning the loss of her son Wallis and late husband. She sees her neighbour Pia leave her house during the lockdown and is livid. She already hates the German immigrants for stealing her father's job, allowing a child to go out in this dangerous time makes her even more angry at Pia's mother. When she breaks into the apartment and finds Pia's mother deceased and the twins in the cubby, she decides it is best if she takes over their care. Things go from bad to worse when Pia wakes up from her flu in a makeshift hospital and is then brought to an orphanage without her brothers. Beatrice manages to get a nursing uniform and an idea, if the babies helped her get over Wallis, maybe she can help other mom's get over their losses. She quickly takes on a role of Nurse Wallis and begins stealing and selling babies. When she learns about orphan trains, she also begins stealing older orphans with European origins and sending them on the trains (without potential parents arranged) using money from the baby stealing to fund her "good efforts" to rid the city of immigrants.
Beatrice and Pia cross paths several times throughout the story, sometimes without one of them knowing, but the question of Max and Ollie is not answered until the very last few pages, making this a real page-turner and not the least bit predictable. I really enjoyed this book, especially the last 1/3 or so of it. The pandemic experiences were of course relatable, and the awful views towards immigrants and people experiencing poverty were sadly not so different from what we hear today, clearly history repeats itself. I would definitely recommend this book for any histfic lovers who want a good pandemic story, and you know I love a good orphan/adoption/foster book, so this one is definitely one I'd recommend in that category too! I've heard mixed feelings about Wiseman's other books, but I am definitely interested in checking them out.
Beatrice and Pia cross paths several times throughout the story, sometimes without one of them knowing, but the question of Max and Ollie is not answered until the very last few pages, making this a real page-turner and not the least bit predictable. I really enjoyed this book, especially the last 1/3 or so of it. The pandemic experiences were of course relatable, and the awful views towards immigrants and people experiencing poverty were sadly not so different from what we hear today, clearly history repeats itself. I would definitely recommend this book for any histfic lovers who want a good pandemic story, and you know I love a good orphan/adoption/foster book, so this one is definitely one I'd recommend in that category too! I've heard mixed feelings about Wiseman's other books, but I am definitely interested in checking them out.