In the last couple months, I have shared about historical fiction books that go beyond world war fiction. History is not just limited to war – political, socioeconomic change, international relationships, all these existed before the wars and continue to exist after. In January, as part of Ariel and my horror reads, I shared about Dark Matter by Michelle Paver. Though that book briefly mentioned the state of poverty and unemployment in England in the early 1900s, The Forgotten Home Child by Genevieve Graham is about some of the steps that were taken by authorities to curb that poverty and unemployment and give people, children especially, a new shot at life. But is that what really happened? Take a look at the synopsis and then I will share more.
2018
At ninety-seven years old, Winnifred Ellis knows she doesn’t have much time left, and it is almost a relief to realize that once she is gone, the truth about her shameful past will die with her. But when her great-grandson Jamie, the spitting image of her dear late husband, asks about his family tree, Winnifred can’t lie any longer, even if it means breaking a promise she made so long ago…
1936
Fifteen-year-old Winny has never known a real home. After running away from an abusive stepfather, she falls in with Mary, Jack, and their ragtag group of friends roaming the streets of Liverpool. When the children are caught stealing food, Winny and Mary are left in Dr. Barnardo’s Barkingside Home for Girls, a local home for orphans and forgotten children found in the city’s slums. At Barkingside, Winny learns she will soon join other boys and girls in a faraway place called Canada, where families and better lives await them.
But Winny’s hopes are dashed when she is separated from her friends and sent to live with a family that has no use for another daughter. Instead, they have paid for an indentured servant to work on their farm. Faced with this harsh new reality, Winny clings to the belief that she will someday find her friends again.
Inspired by true events, The Forgotten Home Child is a moving and heartbreaking novel about place, belonging, and family—the one we make for ourselves and its enduring power to draw us home.
Content Notes: Depictions of war, poverty, homelessness, emotional and physical abuse, rape (off screen), suicide, cheating, bullying, violence towards children, death.
Thoughts on The Forgotten Home Child
Part 1 is The Forgotten Home Child introduces us to Winny. She is a great-grandmother, living with her granddaughter and her son. In her move to stay with them, an old trunk of hers is discovered. The kids ask her about her past and she starts to tell them how she came to Canada as a teenager and all that transpired. Born in England, Winny left her family as a young girl. She ended up on the streets and found a new family in her friends. Stealing and begging were the only ways for these kids to get food and stay alive. Eventually, they were given to child care authorities and it was decided that they would be sent to Canada and start a new life there. The Forgotten Home Child is deeply rooted in history. I loved the research that the author did to write this book. It is the story of being separated from loved ones, opportunities to have a better life, and learning to be ok with the choices that one makes.
On The Forgotten Home Children
“Thanks to the growing accessibility and popularity of genealogy, we now know that approximately 12 percent of Canada’s population – more than four million Canadians – are descended from British Home Children. Whether they chose to come to Canada or not, those children were integral in building our nation, which has now become what it was supposed to be then: a vast, welcoming land of opportunity.”
A Note to Readers, pg 351
The Forgotten Home Child exposed me to a history of Canada, and the world, that I did not know about. The characters were easy to relate to and I felt their pain so many times. When I posted about this book on Instagram, the author Genevieve Graham had commented to keep a tissue handy and that was great advice. Though the main character is Winny, the story is actually about her group of friends – Mary, Jack, Edward and Cecil. Through these unforgettable characters, a wide range of experiences that the children went through are represented.
I liked Winny’s perspective and how well she understood what had happened after decades of living in Canada. With no foster care system, a vast landmass where kids were sent to numerous families, there were just not enough resources or manpower for the organizations to check on the kids.
On Connections to Other Books
I want to take this opportunity to connect a few books I have mentioned recently on the blog., namely The Nightingale, The Children’s Train, and The Forgotten Daughter. All these books offer a perspective on the plight of the children during the wars or after, The Forgotten Daughter and The Forgotten Home Child focusing on different time periods of Canadian history. The main contrast that I want to draw is between The Children’s Train and The Forgotten Home Child:
- While The Children’s Train is about Italy and how young kids were sent from the southern states to the north to have a brief period of better life, The Forgotten Home Child focuses on kids in a wide age range from 5 year old to late teenagers. As I mentioned in my review of the former book, the kids were welcomed to their new homes and some of them got to stay. For the later, they were not welcomed to Canada in most instances. They were treated as free help, slaves who slept in the barns, should have but did not always go to school and were only free to leave at 18 years of age, getting access to money set aside for them at 21 years. It was heartbreaking to read about the poor outlook that Canadians had about these kids – treating them as having bad characters, without even knowing them.
- Another difference was that the kids in The Children’s Train had families back home. Graham’s research reveals that only 2 percent of the home children did not have parents. The kids in The Forgotten Home Child came from orphanages, from the streets or their families had given them up or been forced to give them up to the care of authorities because they could not afford to care for them at that time.
- The age difference had a huge impact on how the kids were treated by their new families. The Children’s Train kids were quick young, under 10 years of age. The older kids in The Forgotten Home Children were trained in household and farm duties and there were no excuses for them to not do well in a task.
- The Children’s Train had made me think about how love is shown in many ways and sometimes it is not obvious. In The Forgotten Home Child, Winny’s time with the Adams family is another instance of this. It was only years later that Mistress Adams realized that she could have done better by Winny, but once she had that realization, she was supportive in her own unique way, pushing Winny to realize her dream of becoming a nurse and helping her support her family. I loved reading that aspect of the story and it gave me hope that eventually the families came to similar conclusions about their Home Children.
On Hidden History
“You know, there’s nothing about Home Children in the curriculum. When I asked my teacher about them, he didn’t have any idea what I was talking about. He thought I meant the kids sent to Canada from England during the Second World War.”
The Forgotten Home Child, pg 204
This is a quote from Jack, Winny’s great grandson. I echoed his sentiments as well but after talking to friends and family about this book, I have realized a few things.
There is so much in history that we don’t know and I don’t know if it is feasible to teach all of it. This is why we have specified fields of study and programs in higher education to give people who are interested the right tools to find that knowledge. Historical fiction like the books I have mentioned and this book too, offer a great opportunity to learn more.
We can’t count on curriculum to teach us everything – at some point we just have to take the leap and learn things for ourselves. The best part though is that when we talk to people about these issues, we hear what they know and collectively, our awareness is growing.
I highly recommend this book to all my fellow Canadians. We are in a good place today but that comes from the sacrifice of a lot of people before us. The Forgotten Home Child is an unforgettable book and I hope to bring you other books touching on not well known history in the future. Thank you so much for reading!
** The Forgotten Home Child is now available in stores. Be sure to check your local library and support them. **
Amazon Print
Amazon Kindle
Many thanks to the publisher, Simon & Schuster for providing me a complimentary copy of the book with a request for an honest review.
Cover image: Photo by Avinash Kumar on Unsplash
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