The Forgotten Home Child

By: Genevieve Graham

Narrated by: Alana Kerr Collins, James Langton

The Home for Unwanted Girls meets Orphan Train in this unforgettable novel about a young girl caught in a scheme to rid England’s streets of destitute children, and the lengths she will go to find her way home-based on the true story of the British Home Children.

2018

At 97 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.

©2020 Genevieve Graham (P)2020 Simon & Schuster Audio

A beautiful story about a grandmother’s life

If you found “The Orphan Train” of interest, this will also be a book to add to your list.

Very informative

I really enjoyed this book. Working on my genealogy I discovered my grandpa was a British Home Child.

Unforgettable

The history of how Canada became what it is and all the children that helped establish it’s heritage. Heartbreaking and inspiring at the same time.

Enlightening!!

I enjoyed, the story & characters. Definitely eye-opening. Only thing that bothered me was the female narrative- she was too sing songy..Fine when she did characters.

An important story of the history of canadian children from the uk

I have never written a review of any other audible book. This was captivating as well as meaningful to me as a canadian. I didn’t know anything about the home children. I had heard of the fresh air kids who were brought to Canada during the war to keep them safe and were adopted and loved. A very different story from the home children. Every page was as interesting and well written as the last one. I would highly recommend this book to all canadians and those wanting to know if their family may have one of the 12% who arrived on their shores for 80 yrs. thank you ms graham for your loving tribute to these special children.

Excellent book!

This was a very interesting book. It gives the reader great insight into what these children went through and the injustices that occurred to them that the world nows little if anything about.

Can’t stop listening

I have recently started listening to historical fiction and loving it more and more. This story is another lost story in history not widely known. I couldn’t put this story down and I was sucked into the lives of Whinny and Jack. I urge you to listen to the story of what British Home Children went through thinking they would have a better life than what they left behind. Narration was great and flowed as the story read along. Jacks narrator was hard to listen to when he was doing a female voice but otherwise a great story.

Forgotten History Exposed!

Well written, interesting story, historical truths-this book had it all. I felt as if I was in the story. It is heart wrenching to think what these Home Children went through. Shows what happens when the government gets involved in the care of the weakest in our society. It can only be called "child abuse." Through a fiction cast of characters you are able to follow their lives, some to adulthood, to see how it affects them for the rest of their lives. Highly recommend.

Loved this book so much!

This book was wonderful. I love how it told the story of home children that I had never known before In such a way that is compassionate and kind and honest. I loved the narrator! I love the characters! I love everything about this book.

Must-read book for Canadians

Painful and heartbreaking... I had to keep reminding myself that I wasn't listening to Roots. As a Canadian, I naively believed that these sorts of horror-stories only happened in other countries. It's unbelievable that this happened here, and even more unbelievable that most Canadians have never heard of it.
Of course, this is historical fiction, but as the author explains at the end of the novel, all of the characters and incidents are based on true stories collected from the descendants of home-school children.
A national tragedy... and a riveting story. I couldn't stop listening.