My Heart Remembers by Kim Vogel Sawyer

My Heart Remembers by Kim Vogel Sawyer


My rating: 5 of 5 stars


United by blood, divided by time, will three orphan train siblings ever find one another again?



Orphaned in a tenement fire, three Irish-immigrant children are sent to Missouri to be adopted. Despite eight-year-old Maelle's desperate attempts to keep her siblings together, each child is taken by a different family. Yet Maelle vows that she will never stop searching for her brother and sister... and that they will be together one day in the future. Seventeen years later, Maelle is still searching. But the years have washed away her hope... and her memories. What are Mattie and Molly doing now? Where has life taken them? Will she ever see her brother and sister again?

This book made me cry...twice! It was soooooo good. It's the story of 3 children who lose their parents in a tenement fire New York in the late 1800's. They are sent West on an orphan train and subsequently separated. Maelle, the eldest, promised the other two that she would find them again and gave each of them one of "ties to home" that her father had given her when he made her leave the tenement with her brother and baby sister. He also made her promise to "take care of the wee ones". The three siblings grew up separately, but eventually all were involved in "taking care of the wee ones" -- orphans who were made to work long hours in factories and on ranches under arduous conditions. The story is predictable, but so wonderful. You keep saying in your mind, "but your sister is right over there" or "your brother is just down the road" so that when they actually get together it is very poignant. As I said, it made me cry. The book was very well-written. I love a book I can't put down and this one was one of those. It will tug at your heartstrings.




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