Wanderville: On Track for Treasure
In her second Wanderville book, On Track for Treasure, Wendy McClure continues the adventures of the orphans Jack, Frances, Alexander and Howard as they try to avoid their fate as orphans on the Orphan Train. Captured from Wanderville, “where all children in need of freedom are accepted,” they are once again headed west to fates they have heard would be worse than death. So, they follow their brave leaders, Jack and Alexander, and escape.
As they begin to head back east to the life they’ve known, they hop a train, a trick learned from some kindly hobos. While with the rail-riders, they learn a few more helpful hints. They also receive a treasure map. While the boys don’t believe in the treasure, Frances studies the map over and over, trying to decipher the clues.
Of course, the kids run into trouble in the form of the sinister Miss DeHaven, head of the orphan trains. She comes close to discovering them, too close. A kindly pastor and his wife help them escape from Miss DeHaven and take them in. Some of the children choose to stay with the Careys, but Jack, Alexander, Frances and Harold decide to escape once more; they want to follow their own path and that path does not include living with some holy rollers on an apple orchard.
The story is full of excitement along with some ethical questions regarding race, as one of the kids who joins them is an African-American boy who has been mistreated by the Careys as well as by his own father. Young readers should enjoy the idea of living without adult supervision and the comradery that develops among the children (along with the usual tensions) will ring true.
