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Buchanan, Jane
HANK'S STORY
New York : Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2001
IL 3-6. RL 4.9
ISBN 0374328366

Twelve-year-old Hank is living with the Olson family.  They are not his parents and they are not very nice.  Hank had lived in New York City with his parents and his older brother.  His parents had died leaving the two boys on their own.  The boys were sent to live in an orphanage.  Many of the orphaned children at the orphanage were sent West on what was called The Orphan Train.  The idea was to pair up children in need of a home with families out West who had room for one more.  Sometimes the matches worked out really well.  Sometimes they didn't.  For Hank and his brother, their new home came with overwork, beatings and little food.  Hank's brother ran away and now Hank gets the full brunt of Mr. Olson's drunken rages.  Even at school, Hank is taunted and mistreated.  His only happy time comes when he can visit with Miss Molly McIntire, a crazy old lady with a barn full of sick animals.  The friendship between the two seems odd and Hank is warned not to talk to her ever again.  Will he risk another beating to spend time with Molly?  Will he resign himself to live with the Olson's  or will he follow his brother's example and run away?  All the answers are her in HANK'S STORY.

SUBJECTS:      Orphans -- Fiction.
                        Farm life -- Nebraska -- Fiction.
                        Nebraska Fiction.


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