Highly enjoyed this one! It kept me engaged throughout and was a joy to read, would certainly recommend!

•Quick Deets•
England
Orphan Train
History

•Rating•
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5 stars
I highly recommend this book!

•Similar Recommended Reads•
Before We Were Yours
Rust and Stardust
The Orphan's Tale

Remember the Forgotten.
This heart-breaking history, described by Winny’s teen-age grandson as ANNIE and OLIVER but without the music, is compelling and unforgettable reading. There is a parallel to the orphan trains taking children from eastern U.S. to the less-populated West, but crossing the ocean is even more formidable and isolating. Good intentions, perhaps, but lack of oversight and protection for vulnerable children, can lead to so much misery as there are always those who would exploit the defenseless. “How could they?” echoed in my mind as I read on, wanting to jump in and arrange a rescue of these lovely, brave children.
I admired Winny and Jack and their found family of lost children. They were so strong and resourceful, but they shouldn’t have had to be, nor should they have been made to feel shame for what was not their failing. They, and so many others, deserved better, and perhaps remembering them can help us do better for those in need now. Secrets brought into the light can help to make repairs and do right in future.
Author’s notes make clear the extensive research to make this accurate, and there are resources for further study and contact. Forgotten no more.

Would definitely recommend to historical fiction fans! A very emotional but important read. Thank you for the copy!

4.25⭐️ - this was very interesting and emotional. I loved the flow between timelines and characters, as well as the balance between dark and hopefully moments.

Heart wrenching and so incredibly beautiful. The writing style was easy to connect with and I was hooked from the first few chapters.

I’d recommend this book to friends and family alike. It’s a good one!

I enjoy reading historical fiction books. And the fact that this one was compared to The Orphan Train and The Home for Unwanted Girls had me excited to get lost in the story. The premise of the book was interesting in that it focused on the poor British Home children who were sent to Canada. The dual timeline is appealing. The treatment these children received was appalling. Though a few were placed in loving homes, the majority suffered abuse and neglect. It is a different and emotional read. But I can appreciate the amount of research the author conducted to provide a story that will touch you deeply. While not an easy read, I feel it is important that these atrocities be brought to light so that history is not repeated.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for my advanced review copy. All opinions and thoughts are my own.

This story was excellent. Sad, sometimes shocking, but really excellent. Well written, well established, easy to follow, a great flow. For some reason though, I didn’t connect with the characters. There’s no reason for it, but I just wasn’t emotionally impacted by any of the things happening. Cecil was likely the only close call for tears.
I loved the educational aspect of this book. I’m shocked that I’ve lived in Canada my entire life and never once heard of a British Home Child. I know Canada has a shady past, but the idea that there are hundreds of thousands of people that have been swept under the rug and still haven’t come up all this time later?! Ridiculous. I appreciate the author for bringing stories like this to life. Whenever I finish a book like this, it makes me want to dig into so much research. I will tell as many of my fellow readers as possible to read this one, especially if they’re Canadian.

A little girl sits on a suitcase, hands folded neatly in her lap. Maybe Winny, waiting at the train station. I love the colors of this cover. It tells a sad story in itself of a child, who came to another country in hopes of finding the loving home and family she did not have in England.

The Story:

The Forgotten Home Child is a touching story of a group of children taken from the streets, placed in orphanages and then sent to Canada to work in homes, hopefully for a better life. Based on true stories, it weaves a tale of how more often than not, those children ended up in horrible situations with no hope of rescue. I could not stop reading Winny's story, sharing in her heartache and her triumphs, praying for her happy ending.

The Characters:

Our family of orphans are easy to fall in love with right from the beginning. They are very well written, each with their own trials, but all just trying to make it through the day. They were all lovable characters, with Winny and Mary being my favorites. Their personalities seemed to be opposite, but they supported each other as best as they could throughout their heartaches.

Was it Worth Reading?:

Yes, please go read this book. Until I found it, I had no idea such a scheme had taken place. It is one of those things in history that is buried deep, shameful and forgotten. So, yes, Read the story, learn everything you can about this dreadful period and share it whenever and wherever you can. I highly recommend The Forgotten Home Child to readers of historical fiction and give it 5 out of 5 crossbows.

The queen of Canadian historical fiction strikes again. I absolutely loved this novel and the authors ability to weave history and story telling together. While the specific story was fiction, it describes a very real part of the war history. The reader is filled with emotion as they go through all the ups and downs of trying to navigate the world, and the rest of history, as a Home Child.

When I began this book, I didn't realize children had been shipped to Canada. This opened my eyes to a piece of history I didn't know. This book is both heart breaking and heart warming. Stories like this need to be told.

Interesting story but would have been better served in the hands of a writer with more talent,. Prose was of a very melodramatic nature. Thanks to NetGalley for a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.

The Forgotten Home Child is a heartbreakingly beautiful book about a time period in history I never knew existed. Thousands of orphaned/abandoned children were shipped off to Canada and the promise of a better life, but unfortunately they arrived to find themselves treated no better than slaves - starved, beaten and forced to work for families that had paid for their indentured servitude. Through it all Winny and Jack’s will and determination shown through, and we get to see them survive their experience and ultimately thrive in the new world

Thank you so much for my advanced copy. Unfortunately, this book just wasn't for me. I found it very slow and challenging to get into and kept putting it down to pick up other books instead. I typically love this genre and time period but I just couldn't connect with this one.

In the last couple months, I have shared about historical fiction books that go beyond world war fiction. History is not just limited to war – political, socioeconomic change, international relationships, all these existed before the wars and continue to exist after. The Forgotten Home Child by Genevieve Graham is about some of the steps that were taken by England authorities to curb poverty and unemployment and give people, children especially, a new shot at life. But is that what really happened?

The Forgotten Home Child exposed me to a history of Canada, and the world, that I did not know about. The characters were easy to relate to and I felt their pain so many times. When I posted about this book on Instagram, the author Genevieve Graham had commented to keep a tissue handy and that was great advice. Though the main character is Winny, the story is actually about her group of friends – Mary, Jack, Edward and Cecil. Through these unforgettable characters, a wide range of experiences that the children went through are represented.

I liked Winny’s perspective and how well she understood what had happened after decades of living in Canada. With no foster care system, a vast landmass where kids were sent to numerous families, there were just not enough resources or manpower for the organizations to check on the kids.

I highly recommend this book to all my fellow Canadians. We are in a good place today but that comes from the sacrifice of a lot of people before us. The Forgotten Home Child is an unforgettable book and I hope to bring you other books touching on not well known history in the future. Thank you so much for reading!

This was an interesting book about the over 100,000 British children that were sent to Canada at the beginning of the twentieth century (right until the 70s). The idea was to give them a better life in Canada and take them off the streets in England and out of orphanages. The problem was that many were not actually orphans and that they were treated as cheap labor in Canada. The book focuses on a woman in her nineties who decides to tell her family about her childhood and being a British Home Child. An interesting read.

Fans of Christina Baker Kline’s Orphan Train will love this latest novel from Genevieve Graham. This story is also about the relocation of children, much like what happened here in in America between 1854 and 1929. This story, however, is how the British relocated destitute children to Canada between 1869 and 1948. During that time it is estimated that more than 120,000 children between the ages of three and eighteen were taken from England’s streets and orphanages, or given up by their parents, and sent to Canada to be taken in by whoever would give them a home. Many were abused and neglected as there was no checks and balances systems to ensure they were well cared for. Graham based this novel on those children.

This story is framed by ninety-seven-year-old Winny, who was once one of those children. In 2018, her granddaughter drops the box when she is helping Winny move and a lifetime of memories tumble out.

Then the story goes back to 1936, which is the setting for the majority of the story. It follows Winny, Jack, his sister Mary, and two brothers, Edward and Cecil. The little band of five is all they have in the world to call their family.

Upon their arrival in Canada, they are split up---Jack, Edward and Cecil going to one farm while Mary and Winny are also split up. Life is hard on the farms, the people entrusted with the youngsters treat them less than they do their animals. The live for the day when they can all be together again and make a home of their choosing.

At Winny’s new home, if she doesn’t finish her chores before the supper scraps are thrown out, the dogs get to eat while she goes to bed hungry. She is forced to sleep in the barn, but thank heavens for the sheep or she would freeze to death in the deep cold of a Canadian winter. At the farm where Mary has been sent, she is repeatedly raped by her “master.” The boys are worked like mules and are often beat for the tiniest of infractions.

Much like Baker Kline’s Orphan Train, readers will get to know all five of the children intimately, but Winny takes the lead. This is a tale of loss, turbulence, resilience, second chances, adaptability, and courage. Be prepared to not get anything else accomplished once you start this wonderfully woven tale.

The Forgotten Home Child receives 6 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

Wow- this book. I stayed up to finish it, there wasn’t a place I felt I could stop and sleep through the night. It’s based on the children sent from England to Canada and while they are fictional characters the author gained real life survivors to build her story. This book just took me away. It’s a sad sad topic but her writing is amazing and just pulls you in. The horrors inflicted on these children, it was sad and there is no excuse- they were humans but her characters bore such awful circumstances. This book had me thinking all day. Thinking about history and humans and sadness and all sorts of things. The characters came alive and you feel like you are there with them. I would love to read more by this author. An unbelievable book.
#TheForgottenHomeChild #NetGalley

Historical fiction that tells the stories of 6 "home child" survivors. Up until 1948, impoverished orphan or abandoned children from England (primarily London) were shipped to Canada to be "adopted". Most actually ended up as indentured servants to farm/rural families, many were mistreated, many died. For years, this was not a story that was told in history class. Thanks to the efforts of some dedicated people, the story has come to light in the last few years, and these children are now recognized and honored.

Winnie is now in her 90s, her daughter has died, and she's living with her granddaughter who discovers an old trunk with items from Winnie's childhood. In flashbacks, Graham takes readers into the lives of 6 of children -- from their lives as beggars & thievs on the streets of London, to their lives in orphanages/schools, to their shipment to Canada and the lives they led there. The real focus is on Jack and Winnie whose stories are told in alternating chapters, but even the minor characters are fully formed and worthy of our care and concern. I was totally pulled into their stories and cried along with them at their tragedies and cheered at their triumphs. Clearly Winnie survives to tell the tale, but all is not "happily ever after".

I was completly enthralled with this story and highly recommend it to fans of historical fiction. If you liked The Book of Lost Friends or The Orphan Sisters, you will like this one.

I was never sure that the term "Home Child" meant, but now I do. These were children that were sent from their home country of England to have a better life in other countries. This story is set in Canada, my home, and it is one that I am not proud of. These children lived on the streets and were taken in to orphanages. When the orphanages became overrun and could not support all the residents, this was a solution that was supposed to offer these children a better life. When they arrived in Canada, they were not welcomed as children into a new home, but many were taken in as slave labour, purchased until they turned 18. There were certain things that were supposed to be offered to these children, but once they were in their new homes, many became subjects of abuse in different ways.

This is the story of Winnifred (Winny) Ellis, who sailed to Canada in 1936 with her brother and several friends. Once they arrived, they were separated and sent to live in various towns, in various roles and treated in very different ways. This was not an easy story to read. It was not all rosy and full of happiness. The story follows several characters from the trip over to Canada and into their adulthood. Unfortunately, they did not all reach adulthood and that was very emotional to read about. Winny kept a lot about her life a secret, even after she became an adult and a successful resident of the Toronto area. It was her great-grandchildren that convinced her to share her story and she does this in flashbacks. I do not want to give this story away, as it is one that I think anyone who enjoys Historical Fiction will enjoy. What I will say is that it was an emotional read. I became attached to these characters and I felt their pain. I did not know about the Home Children and I am ashamed to say that this is not a proud moment in Canada's history, but one I think we should all know about. There is a bit of a happy ending to this story, so I was not left distraught, but I definitely needed tissues throughout this story.