Christina Baker Kline is a woman who wrote an incredible book called Orphan Train and came to our college in order to share her story behind the novel. On September 25, 2014, Richard Stockton College held Freshman Convocation at 4:30 p.m. at the Performing Arts Center. It is an event held once a year run by the Freshman Year Experience Team. The book was selected by a team including GT Lenard, Tom Grites, Jack Connor, and Shelly Meyers. During this event, Christina Baker Kline came to Stockton and spoke about her book and her struggles and time working on this piece of work until it became what it is today.

To start off, the author gives a brief tale as to how this idea for a book started, and why she became interested in orphan trains. It all started on a wintery day, when Baker Kline and her family were stranded at her in-law’s house for the holidays by snow. Baker Kline’s son and her mother in-law were looking at an old book of stories, and found out that her husband’s grandfather was an orphan train rider. This was news to the mother-in-law, for she never knew about this information, and neither did anyone else in the family. This puzzled Baker Kline, for how can someone keep such a big secret from family for so long, and why would they? Thus, began her curiosity on orphan trains, which would eventually lead to her best-selling novel.

This presentation was very interesting, giving an in-depth history lesson of what started and became of the orphan trains. Baker Kline clearly showed her passion for this topic and her dedication and effort she put into this book. I was writing a research paper on the topic at this time, and I was still able to obtain new information from her presentation. She spoke of Charles Loring Brace and his plan to help save these orphaned, homeless children off the New York streets from themselves and from the city. He truly believed that he was doing these children a service, taking them to the countryside for a better life that would teach them values through hard work.

The author further explains her research on the subject, and of the people she met who were orphan train riders. She had interviewed many people during the process of writing this book, and she found that while many faced some hardships under this system, most were grateful for what they endured. If they had not been on that train, they would not have the families and the lives they had now. They would probably still be living on the streets, making a living through stealing or working in gangs, with only death or jail as their outcome.

To end, I enjoyed the Freshman Convocation very much. I found this event very informative and eye-opening to see the book through the author’s eyes. I now have a new appreciation for this novel, after hearing the author express her reasoning behind the book and gaining an understanding about the novel’s history. This event aided in my achievement of being able to see what the author’s purpose was, and I actually witnessed the amount of hard work she put into her final product, and how much this actually meant to the author. I highly recommend going to future convocations at Stockton.