Jack, Frances, and her younger brother Harold are being sent to Kansas on an orphan train. It is supposedly a new, brighter future for the city kids, but as the train moves further west, rumors about what life is really like in Kansas make the three children decide to do the one thing they can think of to save themselves: jump from the train. Alone in an environment none of them are prepared for, Jack, Frances and Harold must find a way to survive. Soon they meet Alexander, a boy who'd also been sent west on an orphan train, a boy who escaped the dreaded farm he'd been given to. He knows a place where children can go for freedom. It's called Wanderville and he wants Jack, Frances, and Harold to be the very first citizens.

WANDERVILLE by Wendy McClure is imaginative, hopeful, and filled with spirit. The first in a new historical fiction series for middle grade readers, WANDERVILLE takes readers from the crowded streets of New York to the vast prairies of Kansas in the early twentieth century. Both settings show the hardships and fears orphaned children faced in order to survive, but WANDERVILLE is a story of freedom, hope, and dreams.

Wendy McClure captures the power of childhood dreams and delivers it to her readers through the voice of her dynamic characters. Jack, Frances, Harold, and Alex each dream of different things. Jack dreams of his brother and of a time when his family was with him. Frances dreams of a place she and Harold can be safe and together. Harold dreams of having a family and home. Alex dreams of Wanderville, a city for all children who want more from life than to be orphans and cast-offs. He dreams of community, but he can't build it alone. Alex, Frances, Jack, and Harold create Wanderville with pure imagination, resilience, and ingenuity and it is their pursuit of their dreams and their belief in each other, which gives WANDERVILLE an atmosphere of adventure and excitement.

WANDERVILLE is the start of what looks to be a fun, historical series that promotes imagination, community, and an atmosphere of adventure. Fans of The Boxcar Children will find WANDERVILLE right up their alley.