coffeeandlostinabook 's review for:

The Orphan Collector by Ellen Marie Wiseman

5.0

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The way the flu ripped through the country in 1918-1919 is just heart wrenching. The struggles that Pia went through as her mom died overnight and her struggles to feed her infant twin brothers with nearly no food is just difficult to through. Then she falls ill for a week and a half before she is about to return to her brothers from attempting to find food for them just to learn they are gone and a new family has moved in. The German hating neighbor, Bernice, luckily saves the twins from starving or so we think. She ends up stealing them and eventually starts finding children around town to either sell to richer families with recently diseased children, placing them on one way ticket trains to get them out of her town, or dumping them in terrible overcrowded orphanages which is where Pia ends up. Pia doesn't know Bernice has her brothers, but knows something is up. Luckily Pia ends up with a wonderful family and that's where she learns Bernice known as Nurse Wallis is actually taking and selling children to grieving families. It takes Pia about 6 years before she discovers the truth about her long lost brothers. The Orphan Collector was a great yet sad book. It shows the insight of living poor and comfortable during a pandemic and how those two life styles can result in very different struggles.