I don’t even know where to begin! This is one it takes days to digest and I’m still doing that. So much research went into this book. It was written beautifully. The topic, I believe, is not well know. The home children went through terrible, terrible situations in their childhood. These things should never happen to anyone. So grateful for Genevieve Graham for enlightening the world to these happenings. If I could give this millions of stars ratings I would!

The Forgotten Home Child is historical fiction based on well-researched facts regarding a little known part of Canadian history. With the best of intentions, Britain gathered destitute, homeless children and arranged for them to be sent to Canada to be placed with families, with the hope of a better life. Unfortunately, most of these “home children” ended up as indentured labor for Canadian farming families, all too often living a harsher life than the one they left behind.

Narrated by 97-year old Winny to her granddaughter and great-grandson, The Forgotten Home Child follows Winny and her five friends, all “home children,” detailing the story of their lives and their experiences, both in London and subsequently in Canada. We learn of their hopes and dreams versus the harsh reality of their existence. As adults, Winny and her husband, out of shame and anger, never shared their traumatic pasts with their family.

While heart wrenching in its subject matter, The Forgotten Home Child is very engrossing and kept my interest throughout. The author includes “A Note to Readers” at the end, describing the extensive research she undertook in preparation for writing this novel. She met and interviewed descendants of British Home Children to learn about the hardships and shame experienced by their ancestors.

First of all I want to thank the publisher and NetGalley for a copy of this book. From the beginning till the end I was captured by this extraordinary story about the Home Children I'd never heard before. Wonderful characters in a historial fiction book that kept me on reading for hours. I highly recommend this book to all my friends and family members. And to you, reading the reviews before asking for a copy. I'd give 6 stars if possible.

This book really tugged at my heartstrings. I am a sucker for a tale of hardship based on history, and this one is particularly well written. It's hard to imagine that this kind of thing could have ever happened to children, and I appreciate the amount of historical detail the author put into this work. Many thanks to the publisher for the chance to read this.

This fantastic read deserves more than 5 stars. This Historical Fiction book is based on the British Home Children who were children sent from England to Canda to clear out the orphanages and sold as indentured servants. In 1936, 15-year-old Winnie runs away from her mother's abusive boyfriend who lives with them and often beats all of them. She meets up with Mary and her brother Jack, brothers Edward and Cecil and together they live on the street and steal to survive. When they are caught, Winnie and Mary are put in Dr. Bernard's Barkingside Home for Girls and the boys are put in the home for boys. After 2 years, they all ship out to Canada at the same time supposedly to work for families and have a better life, but that is not what happens. The story then goes to present day when Winnie is a 97-year-old widow living with her granddaughter, Chrissie and her great-grandson, Jamie. One day, they ask her about the trunk from her childhood that she has brought with her and about her past which she has kept a secret for all these years. This is such a heartbreaking and moving read and I highly recommend that you keep some tissues nearby. The author, Genevieve Graham, did a very thorough job researching the history of the British Home Children. Thank you NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the ARC of this very moving story. I highly recommend this book.

<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/46404177-the-forgotten-home-child" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="The Forgotten Home Child" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1581258039l/46404177._SX98_.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/46404177-the-forgotten-home-child">The Forgotten Home Child</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4505583.Genevieve_Graham">Genevieve Graham</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3202330022">4 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
Thanks to Simon & Schuster for letting me read an advance copy of this book. I would highly recommend it as a wartime story with a different slant. It is an historical fiction which the author did her research on. I did not realize that children in GB had such a struggle during & following the war. They were farmed out to Canada on work projects. I am Canadian and am horrified at our treatment of them While heartwrenching at times it is an amazing story of the resilience of these children. How they overcame the challenges and obstacles was uplifting to read.
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/20664902-barb-muylaert">View all my reviews</a>

I didn’t like the beginning of this book, and I almost quit it. “Let’s sit down after dinner each night and get great grandma to tell us her life story.” Zzzzz. But it got better, and I rounded 3.5 stars to 4.

Usually when I read historical fiction, I am motivated to read up on that part of history, but this book didn’t do that for me. However it held my interest and was a quick read. Thanks so much to net galley for this ARC!

Genevieve Graham is a wonderful author that pulls you in from the beginning and doesn't let you go. I've had the great privilege of hearing her speak on several occasions and her passion for her characters and story breathe extra life into her words. Not to brag (maybe a little), she lives in my province and I am absolutely proud to recommend any of her titles to our customers. This book will not disappoint.

I have been a fan of Genevieve Graham's books for a few years now so of course when I received The Forgotten Home Child ARC I was so excited and of course I just had to read it right away even though the book didn't come out for a few months.

I just absolutely loved this heart-wrenching book. It is so well written and so well researched. I didn't even know about the forgotten home children until I heard of this book.

I just couldn't put this one down at all that I actually ended up staying up one night just so that I could keep reading this book.

I do highly recommend.

I really enjoyed this story and the part of history I wasnt aware of. Early 20th century, particularly European and British history is a favorite time period. I was aware that children were sent out of the cities and that orphans were "adopted" as helpers on farms but I didnt know they were sent to Canada.
I loved how the story unravelled and how the children formed their own family. The characters were well written and developed.
I will definitely read more by this author

Beautiful story of life and death and not wanting the past to die with you. I kept tearing up within this book thru this story. Life and secrets that come to light.

This book starts out with our main character (Winny) telling her now fully grown granddaughter and her great grandson the story of their family and how she ended up in Britain. She starts the story with great unease because telling the whole thing means breaking a promise that she never thought she would have to break. The story then jumps into the story that she is telling. .While I usually don't like books where the time periods change often this one did so very easily and it was very easy to determine what time the reader was in all while getting a better understanding of the backstory that our character was trying to tell. This book was told with such compassion and warmth however some of the situations that Winny was placed in as a child were horrendous and I would never wish upon anyone. This story had everything, humor, sadness, betrayal, pain, and last but not least a whole lot of love. I'm very glad that I got the chance to read this story as I feel that it changed my life a little bit after reading it.

This is a wonderful book. I loved the little known historical content, delivered in a superbly woven story of hardship, hope and friendship. The characters are beautifully developed. I have read a few of Genevieve Graham's book and this is one of my favorites. Once again she has allowed me to discover some of Canada's history, worth knowing, and that must be remembered.

If you loved Before We Were Yours, you will absolutely fall for this book! I was engrossed from the very beginning and couldn’t help getting emotionally attached to all the characters. This is a heart breaking history of London, Canada and homeless children that definitely needed some much needed attention. I had never heard of the Home Children before and now I know I will never forget them. What an extraordinary historical fiction book! Graham is an incredible storyteller! A solid 5 stars for me! I highly recommend this book.

Wow! This is one of those books that you sit down and take a deep breath it has so enwrapped your soul. I cried which is a hard thing to make me do. Children who were shipped from England to other countries from 1869- 1948 this one focuses on children sent to Canada. England had an overpouring of orphans at that time and thought this would give them a family and a good life. Sometimes this just wasn't the case. This book follows the lives of a few of these "Home Children". Such a sad, horrible story written with such beauty.

The Forgotten Home Child is a beautiful, abeit sometimes painfully sad, story that takes place partly in 1936 and 2018. It is a story of abandoned children, either just given up or actually orphaned, and the terrible hardships they endure. In the midst of these hardships there are lifelong friendships made and during those years these friendships are their families and this goes along the way, 1936 to 2018. It is also a story of love, determination, survival and the beauty of love. My heart just burst reading this, I loved the story and I'm sure you will too. Thank you #NetGalley #Simon&Schuster #TheForgottenHomeChild

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for the advance copy of this book.

Based on the true story about the British Home Children, The Forgotten Home Child by Genevieve Graham tells of how the UK shipped children to Canada from homes that had rescued the children that were either destitute, from families that were dysfunctional, or suffered a tragedy such that they fell on hard times forcing them to surrender the children to these homes. Many still had families, and when some recovered and went to get their children back, they were heartbroken to find they’d been sent away.

Thrust onto a new continent, these children were placed into situations that were not always good and they suffered as many viewed them as inferior and filthy street rats from London. Alone and separated from anyone they knew, they withdrew into themselves and buried the stories of their past in dealing with the trauma.

While this migration scheme was well-intentioned, the results were devastating to these child victims. Being poor and in need stigmatized them in many different ways bringing shame to their plight as we learn as Winny, a 97-year old, tells here story painful bit by bit to her granddaughter and great-grandson.

This is beautifully written and tells an important story about the dark history here. Don’t discount it as being like so many others similar in it subject matter. The Forgotten Home Children is distinctly different. Historical fiction fans will find lots to like in this book.

Oh man...this sat on my Kindle app for months. I worked at it little by little, not because it's not good (quite the opposite in fact) but simply because the story is so heartbreaking and unfortunately it's a work of fiction about true events. This is my second book by this author and I have another one of hers on my Kindle...yes I like the way she tells a story. The Forgotten Home Child is about England's scheme to clean up the streets by sending poor, unwanted children overseas to be taken care of by families. The problem was that the majority of these children suffered greatly at the hands of these people who were supposed to take care of them. Most of them were treated as indentured servants with no rights and no recourse. Forgotten by everyone basically, no follow-up from the agency who shipped them off and definitely no more than a mouth to feed by the people who "cared" for them.
There are two different timelines, and the story is told by Winnie starting in 2018 when she's 97 and in 1936 when she's 15. I love books with different timelines and different POV's and this one didn't disappoint.
At the end of the book Ms. Graham provides a lot of insight into why she wrote the book and how she did her research. Many heartbreaking stories that apparently are only coming to light in recent years because of things like ancestry.ca. Unfortunately a lot of history is already lost because people were ashamed of the stigma of being a "home child" and therefore took their heritage/stories to their graves.
Any book that teaches and opens our eyes to injustices past and present is typically a 5 star for me.
Excellent book!

Thanks to NetGalley & Simon & Shuster Canada for the ARC and allowing me to write an unbiased review.
#NetGalley
#TheForgottenHomeChild

In the mid-1930s, Winny, Mary, Jack, Edward and Cecil are children living in the streets in London. Their families couldn't afford to support them and rather than be abused or put in orphanages, the alternative was to take to the streets and do whatever they could to eat. The five of them are eventually rounded up and put in orphanages and then in Barnardo Homes. After a couple years, when they are in the early to mid-teens, they are put on a boat along with hundreds of other children and sent to Canada as "Home Children". It's positioned as a great opportunity for them as families in Canada will be taking them in.

Once they arrive, they discover that they are basically slaves living on farms, helping the poor farmers who saw this as a cheap way to get labour. Jack, Edward and Cecil end up on a farm in the London, Ontario, area working for an abusive man who beat them for no reason. Winny and Mary end up on different farms near Peterborough, Ontario. Winny's mistress expects her to do many chores, sleep in a barn with the sheep and she is always hungry. Mary lives in a shed on her mistress' property and is responsible for taking care of the children. This is not what the Barnardo organization had promised but no one if following up.

Despite the subject matter, I liked this book ... though I did find it wrapped up rather quickly with a happy ending. I've read other books about home children and the author does a good job letting us know what life was like for them. I liked the writing style. It bounces back and forth from present day with 98-year-old Winny finally telling her story to her granddaughter and great grandson to beginning with when Winny, Mary, Jack, Edward and Cecil are children on the streets, how they came to be home children, their life in Canada and what they did once they were able to leave their masters. It is written in third person perspective in Winny and Jack's voices ... the chapters are noted with the dates and voices.

The story is based on true experiences of home children. There is a chapter at the end providing some history about what home children programs were all about. It's hard to believe that until the late 1940s, up to 130,000 British children between the ages of three and eighteen were taken from England's streets, orphanages and homes and shipped to Canada, Australia and other countries. Many were told that their parents had passed away or didn't want them anymore, which wasn't always true. While some children did benefit from the arrangement, most didn't and were beaten and abused. In 2017, a monument was erected in Park Lawn Cemetery here in Toronto honoring home children who are buried there.

This book reminded me of Orphan Train and Before We Were Yours. Here, the children were sent from London orphanages to Canada. It’s based on a true story, like these books usually are, of a program that existed for over 70 years and covered over 100,000 children.

The book alternates between the present day, as 97 year old Winny finally tells her family about her history as a Home Child, and her earlier years. There was a lot of abuse in the program, with many of the children being treated more like slaves than family members.

To me, the most interesting part of the book was the shame that caused Winny and Jack to keep the secrets they did. In much the same way as we have treated migrants, the Home Children were not well received or treated as equals. That stigma caused ripples far down Jack and Winny’s lives.

I will admit that while reading the book, it often struck me as melodramatic. However, in the author’s note, Graham states that each incident in the book is based on someone’s real history. According to her research, about 75% of the children who came to Canada experienced abuse and neglect. As is often the case with historical fiction, I found the author’s notes to be the most moving part of the book.

My thanks to netgalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for an advance copy of this book.