A Family ApartBy Joan Lowery Nixon

A Family Apart

First book in the series. This book is about the Kelly family. Their father has died and their mother cannot afford to feed them. They are sent on the Orphan Train to Missouri to find loving families to feed them. They are all adopted by different families.

Brothers

Mike- oldest boy in family child #3

Danny-child #4 looks up to Mike

Petey- youngest child #6

In book 1 Frances Mary pretends to be a boy to make sure she would be adopted with her youngest brother

Children

Frances Mary Kelly

Megan Kelly

Mike Kelly

Danny Kelly

Peg Kelly

Petey Kelly

Da and Danny

The Kelly family's father

Passed away from illness

All problems started when he passed

Children loved him a lot

Danny is child #3 he looks up to his brother mike. He loves adventures and is very

Exciting

Mike thought Living in the west would be an exciting adventure. In some ways he was right. But it was also scary and very different than he expected.

Frances Mary Kelly

Frances Mary Kelly is the oldest of the Kelly children. She is loving, gentle, and strong. SHe has a very tight relationship with her mother and is devastated to leave her.

Great great great grandmother

The woman is reading Frances Mary's journal to Jeff and Jennifer Collins. Frances Mary is their great great great grandmother.

History

This book includes a lot of history from the 1850s

Includes information on slaves, civil war, and the orphan train

I love you

It is always hard for a family to split. This family was very close and they ment the world to each other.

St. Joseph, Missouri

The orphan train stops in St. Joseph, Missouri

All of the children get adopted by families in the Missouri and Kansas area

The Kelly's

The Kelly's are the family in this story

They are a family of 7

Mrs. Kelly is very brave and gentle. She loves her children so much she is willing to send them to better families

Lessons

Since the children came from a poor family they had never had lessons. But now they do! They are homeschooled or go to schoolhouses near them.

Michael Kelly and Meg

Adventure loving, hardworking 12 year old boy. He was a pickpocket because he thought it was the only way to bring money home to his family. He went to court and learned his lesson. Mike promised his mother and himself to never steal again.

Meg is child #2 in the Kelly Family. Her job in New York was to watch over the smaller children. She was very responsible and caring.

Joan Lowery Nixon

Joan Lowery Nixon is the author of the Orphan Train Adventures series. She has also written many other young reader books. She is a 2 time winner of the western Writers award and a 4 time winner of the Edgar Allen Poe Best Juvenile Mystery Award.

Orphan Train

The orphan train was multiple trains that took orphans from crowded cities to families in the country.

Peg and Petey

Peg was child #5 in the Kelly family. Peg had a good imagination but was very shy. She got adopted with her older brother Danny.

Petey was the youngest Kelly child. He, like his older brothers wanted adventure, but also needed loving. He was adopted with Frances.

Quaint

The Kelly's lived in a quaint house in New York City. Their house was just one room with a large bed and a kitchen.

Railroads

Railroads were the main transportation in this time period. The children came to Saint Joseph in a train.

Sacrifice

Sacrifice is the word Mrs. Kelly used the Frances when telling her why they had to go. Frances did not understand at first why her own mother was sending them away, but she learned it was for their own good.

Will Someone Take Us?

It must have been terrifying sitting in a room with a bunch of families looking at you, wondering if anyone will want you.

Underground Railroad

The Underground Railroad was a system in which whites and free slaves helped slaves escape to free areas. Frances Mary got to help free slaves in this way.

Violent

The family that Mike Kelly gets adopted by are violent. When Mike does something wrong they beat him!

Water

The Kelly's ate cabbage, potatoes, and water for dinner almost every night. So when the kids moved in with richer families they were not used to such great food.

Extravagant

Mike with his courage and kindness.

The west, with its scenery and landscape.

WHY?

When Frances Mary learned she was being sent away she wondered why. She felt as though her mother left them with no reason. Later she learns that her ma did this for their benefit not her own, and that she loves them.

Zero

Mike and Megan had zero brothers and sisters with them. They both got adopted alone. They were disappointed because they didn't have people they knew around them. As Danny had Peg and Frances had Petey.