My Heart Remembers

Title: MY HEART REMEMBERS
Author: Kim Vogel Sawyer
Publisher: Bethany House Books
March 2008
ISBN: 978-0-7642-0262-9
Genre: Inspirational/historical/women’s fiction

Maelle Gallagher woke up in the wee hours of the morning, to a fire. Her father helps her rescue her younger brother and sister, but he and their mother die in the fire. Orphaned, a police officer takes the three children to an orphanage, but he misunderstood Maelle when she told the officer her name, and told the orphanage her name is Michael. So, Maelle is placed in the boy section of the orphanage, dressed in boy clothes, but at least she is with her little brother.

When the three children are placed on the orphan train going west, Maelle requests that they be placed together. The director says they will be, but Molly, the one-old-baby is ripped from Maelle’s arms and given to a wealthy couple. Maelle and Mattie are placed with a photographer, looking for a strong man to help with the photography business, but the photographer gives Mattie away to another family, thinking that Maelle is really a boy, and he calls her Michael.

Maelle vows that someday she’ll find her brother and sister again, but details of their adoption and placement are sketchy at best. Will she even have a hope of seeing them again?

MY HEART REMEMBERS is probably the best book I’ve read by Ms. Sawyer. Loosely based on a true story, the book accurately portrays what the orphans must have felt as they rode the train and were separated from their siblings.

The book starts out in Maelle’s point of view, but as the children grow up, Mattie and Molly’s point of views are added. I wondered if it were even possible for the three siblings to even find each other again, but I hoped that they would. I thoroughly enjoyed reading MY HEART REMEMBERS. Don’t miss this book. $13.99. 352 pages.