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Bridie’s Daughter: The Second Story in the Orphan Train Trilogy

Robert Noonan
iUniverse (2007)
ISBN 9780595436293
Reviewed by Kam Aures for RebeccasReads (3/08)

“Bridie’s Daughter” is the second of three books in Robert Noonan’s “Orphan Train Trilogy.”  This book begins on June 8th, 1899, in an orphanage in New York City where the children are preparing to ride an orphan train to the Midwest in the hopes that they will be chosen for adoption.  Fourteen-year-old Catherine was one of the orphans on this train and she was drawn to, and grew close to, three other orphans that were around the same age as her:  Monica, Brian, and Jason.  At the train’s first stop in Newberry, Illinois, Catherine, Brian and Monica were adopted by people waiting at the station.  Catherine was adopted by Bridie MacDonald, a well-to-do woman who had never married, and Brian was adopted by Tom and Margaret Holmgren who were friends of Bridie.  The people of Newberry had difficulty in accepting them as most thought that they were bastard children and shunned them.  Despite that hurdle, Catherine settled into her new life well and grew closer and closer to Brian.

At first when I began reading this book none of the characters names were familiar and I thought that it was going to be a stand-alone book with the only tie-in to the previous novel being the orphan trains.  However, I was incorrect in that assumption as the links began appearing when I least expected them.  This novel contained a lot more surprises than the first book in the trilogy and I read it from cover to cover in one day because I could not wait to find out was going to happen next. 

“Bridie’s Daughter” is a definite page turner and skillfully written.  The novel is very thought-provoking in that it really makes you think about the orphan trains of our past and the lives of the children who rode them. The author himself is a member of the Orphan Train Heritage Society of America and his knowledge of the history of this time period provides for a very realistic work of fiction.  I am eager to begin reading the third and final book in the trilogy “Secrets.” 


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