From the crowded streets of New York City to the wide prairie of North Dakota, Adults Not Wanted is a heartfelt historical novel about two orphaned children who discover that finding a home is not as simple as being taken in.Twelve-year-old Aaron has lived by his wits for most of his life. As a skilled young pickpocket, he knows how to dodge police officers, sleep under the boardwalk, and survive without depending on anyone. Adults, in Aaron's experience, are people who take, punish, and decide what children need without asking them. So when he is caught and placed on an Orphan Train heading west, he wants nothing to do with the families waiting at each stop.Eight-year-old Anna is grieving a very different loss. Raised in comfort and surrounded by people who cared for her, she is suddenly left without parents, without her old home, and without any say in her future. Unlike Aaron, Anna wants a family desperately-but she soon learns that love is not measured by dolls, dresses, or the life she once knew.When Cyrus and Carolyn Lansing take both children home, Aaron and Anna must learn what it means to become brother and sister, and the Lansings must learn how to parent two children carrying very different kinds of hurt. Through farm chores, school, church, friendship, mistakes, and second chances, Aaron begins to face the hardest question of all: can he trust a family that refuses to give up on him?A moving Orphan Train story for readers who enjoy historical fiction, pioneer family life, adoption stories, and themes of trust, forgiveness, and belonging. Read more
