Eve Bunting

A young girl hopes to find her mother as she rides an Orphan Train to find a new life out west in "this finely crafted, heart-wrenching story" (Publishers Weekly, starred review). Marianne, heading west with fourteen other children on an Orphan Train, is sure her mother will show up at one of the stations along the way. When her mother left Marianne at the orphanage, hadn't she promised she'd come for her after making a new life in the West? Stop...

Ten-year-old Jim and his father, who work together on a boat, use the power of love, nature, music, and the help of some dancing alligators, to outsmart a greedy stranger who tries to steal Jim's flute.