Rodzina

By Karen Cushman

Rodzina Clara Jadwiga Anastazya Brodski, a strong and stubborn Polish orphan, leaves Chicago on an orphan train, expecting to be adopted and turned into a slave—or worse, not to be adopted at all. As the train rattles westward, she  begins to develop attachments to her fellow travelers, even the frosty orphan guardian, and to accept the idea that there might be good homes for orphans—maybe even for a big, combative Polish girl. But no placement seems right for the formidable Rodzina, and she cleverly finds a way out of one unfortunate situation after another until at last she finds the family that is right for her. Like Karen Cushman's other young girl protagonists, Rodzina is trying to find her place in the world—and she does.

The compelling narrative is laced with wry humor and keen observation, full of memorable characters, and a thoroughly researched Afterword.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Mar 20, 2003
• ISBN: 9780547533483

Karen Cushman

Karen Cushman's acclaimed historical novels include Catherine, Called Birdy, a Newbery Honor winner, and The Midwife's Apprentice, which received the Newbery Medal. She lives on Vashon Island in Washington State. Visit her online at karencushman.com and on Twitter @cushmanbooks.

Book preview

Copyright © 2003 by Karen Cushman

Introduction copyright © 2020 by Avi

Educator resources additional content © 2006 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

All rights reserved. For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to [e-mail] or to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 3 Park Avenue, 19th Floor, New York, New York 10016.

hmhbooks.com

Cover illustration © 2020 by Maria Ukhova

Cover design by Celeste Knudsen

The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:

Cushman, Karen.

Rodzina / by Karen Cushman.

p. cm.

Summary: A twelve-year-old Polish American girl is boarded onto an orphan train in Chicago with fears about traveling to the West and a life of unpaid slavery.

1. Polish Americans—Juvenile fiction. [1. Polish Americans—Fiction. 2. Orphans—Fiction. 3. Orphan trains—Fiction. 4. Survival—Fiction. 5. West (U.S.)—History—19th century—Fiction.] I. Title.

PZ7.C962 Ro 2003

[Fic]—dc21

2002015976

ISBN: 978-0-618-13351-2 hardcover

ISBN: 978-0-358-09751-8 paperback

eISBN 978-0-547-53348-3

v3.1120

I was ten years old when Grandma Lipski took me to the Polish Cemetery in Chicago to show me her mother’s grave. In front of a gravestone marked Rodzina Czerwinski she sat and cried, while I watched her, this tough little grandma who never cried.

Many years later, when I thought about writing a book about a Polish girl from Chicago, I decided to call her Rodzina after my great-grandmother. I checked with my father to make sure I had the spelling correct, and I discovered that Rodzina was not her first name, but was the Polish word for family. The gravestone marked the resting place of the rodzina Czerwinski, or Czerwinski family.

Rodzina is about the search for a family, and I decided that while Rodzina was not my great-grandmother’s name, it was the perfect name for the girl in my story. And so she is Rodzina.

I would like to dedicate this book to my family—the Czerwinskis, the Cushmans, and the Lipskis, who were kings in Poland.

Introduction

by Avi

How would it feel to be an orphan?

Your parents have died. So have your sisters and/or brothers. You are living homeless on city streets. You have no money. You have no food. Then, to your surprise, you are scooped up by adult strangers, put on a train, and sent thousands of miles away to be sold (or so rumor has it) into an unknown family. It may not even be a family: one adult, perhaps. You may be made a slave, though you are promised otherwise. It’s not your choice to do any of this.

That is what happens to a twelve-year-old girl, the heroine of the book that bears her name.

How would you feel if that happened to you?

Even more important, what would you do?

This is the story of Rodzina and what she did, as written by Karen Cushman. The story is as unusual as it is suspenseful, and—with all of Rodzina’s hardships—a pleasure to read.

Here is the background. In the middle of the nineteenth century, the United States of America had a huge problem: thousands of orphaned children, deserted children, children whom parents could not support—perhaps because of illness, or poverty, or neglect—were homeless in the crowded and rapidly growing cities of the east.

In 1853 a plan was established to send these children to the American west, to be taken into families. The west was supposed to be more healthful than the eastern cities, and had sparser populations. The children—it was believed—would do better there. These children were not asked if they wished to go, and they did not get to choose the family that took them in. The adults chose the children, much as they would select a calf or a colt. If you were selected to go, you went.

This really happened.

Would you be treated well? Well, maybe yes, maybe no. Did anyone check to see how the children got on? Not really. There were surely some happy conclusions. The truth is, however, that there were probably just as many not so happy. In fact, many of those children ran away and simply vanished. Unless the children survived and left stories about what happened to them, we can’t know for sure.

But author Karen Cushman has carefully researched the accounts that were left and used them to write a gritty, truthful, sometimes harsh, sometimes funny tale of one such child. Sometimes, in fact, it is hard to remember that this is a work of fiction.

As the story tells us, Rodzina—a Polish word that means family—came from Poland to America as an immigrant in the middle of the nineteenth century, with her loving family. They established themselves in Chicago. Alas, it was there that her family ceased to be; her parents and siblings died, and the young girl became an orphan.

The novel tells the story of this twelve-year-old who is taken from Chicago to California in search of a family (or anyone) who will have her. It’s a painfully hard process as well as unpredictable. She and the reader are not certain what will happen.

Rodzina does not consider herself pretty and is rather big for her age. She is, moreover, willing to defend herself, a character trait that at the time was considered abrasive, rude, and generally objectionable. She also has a sharp, direct way of expressing herself, not shrinking from seeking the truth or telling the truth. What is so cool about the story is that Rodzina emerges as a most appealing girl.

For Rodzina is smart. And, as we learn more about her, and get to know her, her negative traits become quite endearing. She is all about survival and strength. While tough, she can also be funny. She can be insightful too, not just about the people she meets, but about herself. All of which is to say that we get to understand Rodzina and care about her, until finally we have nothing but admiration (and affection) for the way she endures and persists in finding what is right—and good—for her.

Along the long, long, often cold and hungry railroad journey from Chicago to San Francisco, we get to meet the other orphan children with whom she travels and see them placed with families. They too are fully developed characters, some of them endearing. We also learn, as does Rodzina, about Miss Doctor, a rather mysterious young woman, who, quite unusual for the time, is indeed a medical doctor. She too is seeking a place where she can survive and thrive. The notion of a woman doctor in the 1880s is most rare, and, like Rodzina, Miss Doctor is not easily accepted. She is—though an adult—in her own way also an orphan. As my own mother once told me, You are never too old to become an orphan.

In the course of Rodzina’s long journey, we get glimpses of what the nineteenth-century American west was really like. It’s not the heroic west of movie and TV cowboys, but the west of tiny ramshackle towns and the hard struggle to survive, with families who took the risk and planted themselves there.

For, beyond all else, this is a book about family. But what is a family? To be sure, most often, mother, father, and children. But is that the only kind of family? Can a group of friends be a family? Can there be a family with just one parent? Can there be a family with no parent? No children? Can a family consist of just a brother and a sister? Is it a family if there is only one adult and one orphan?

You will meet all these kinds of families in this book.

After all, what Rodzina is searching for is family. A mother and father would be nice, but that would not be enough. There must be understanding, and yes, even friendship. Most important is caring and love. Nor is it just the love of an adult for a child, but, equally important, the love of a child for that adult.

This is not one of those teaching stories, though you will learn some things. But you will be moved and entertained, and Rodzina, I suspect, will become a treasured part of your reading family.

1

Chicago, 1881

On a cold Monday morning in March, when a weak, pale sun struggled to shine and ice glistened in the cracks in the wooden street, a company of some twenty-two orphan children with stiff new clothes and little cardboard suitcases boarded a special railway car at the station near the Chicago River. I know, because I was one of them.

The station was noisier and more confused than Halsted Street on market day. Travelers carrying featherbeds and bundles wrapped in blue gingham cloth shoved me aside in their hurry to get here or there. A man in a bright red jacket bumped into me and apologized in a language I did not know. At least I assumed it was an apology, because of all the bowing and tipping of his hat, so I said, It’s all right, mister, but I’d say you should know a little English if you expect to get wherever you’re going. He tipped his hat again.

One woman, burdened with children, blankets, a tin kettle, and a three-legged stove, finally put that stove right down on the platform, sat herself atop it, and began to cry. I knew how she felt. I myself was a mite worried—not scared, being twelve and no baby like Evelyn or Gertie to be afraid of every little thing, but worried, yes. It was all so loud and disorderly and unfamiliar.

I forced my way through the crowd and grabbed on to a belt in front of me. The boy it belonged to said, Hang on tight, Rodzina, afore we’re swept into the lake like sewage. It was Spud, whom I knew from the Little Wanderers’ Refuge. He and Chester, Gertie, Horton, Rose and Pearl Lubnitz, the baby Evelyn, and I—we had been there together. The others were from the Infant Hospital and the Orphan Asylum near Hyde Park. Orphans, all of us, carrying all we owned in our two hands, pushing and shoving like everyone else.

A lady, standing straight and tall in a black suit and stiff white shirtwaist, put her hands up to her mouth and shouted, but I could not hear much over the din. I finally gathered that she was from the Orphan Asylum and was calling us all together. Letting go of Spud’s belt, I stretched myself even taller so I could get a better look at her over that expanse of heads. She was pale and thin, her mouth ill-humored, and her gray eyes as cold and sharp as the wire rims of her spectacles. I should have known they would not send someone kind and good-natured to accompany a carload of orphans.

Roaring and cursing, a short, barrel-shaped man togged out in a checked jacket and yellow shoes pushed his way through the crowd. You! Orphans! he shouted, the cigar in the corner of his mouth waving and waggling with his words. Pipe down! I am Mr. Szprot, the placing-out agent for the Association of Aid Societies. That means I am the boss and you do what I tell you. You are, you know, none of you, too young to go to Hell. Or to jail. So shut your mugs and line up. After my time on the street I was used to being threatened with Hell, so it didn’t bother me much, but still I shut my mug. There was silence from the other orphans too, and we walked noiselessly to the train.

Trains had hooted and rumbled behind our house on Honore Street, but I had never seen a locomotive up so close, looming like the fearful dragon of Wawel Hill in the story Auntie Manya used to tell, its smokestack belching sparks, and a line of cars trailing behind like a tail of wood and iron. If I had been younger or smaller, even I might have been scared.

Getting on this train had not been my idea. I wanted to go home. But I had no home anymore, except the Little Wanderers’ Refuge, and they had sent me away to be sold as a slave. I knew that because a kid on the street, Melvin, had told me. That orphanage ships kids on trains to the west, he said. In freight cars. Don’t feed ’em or nothin’. Sells ’em to families that want slaves. He shook his head. Orphans never come to no good end. I found that easy to believe, so I believed every word.

No, I surely did not want to get on the train, but the crowd of orphans shoved me onward. The long black wool stockings they’d given me at the orphan home itched something fierce, and pausing midway up the iron steps, I bent down to scratch my knees. Three orphans knocked right into me.

You, Polish girl, said Mr. Szprot, his voice even louder than his jacket, try not to be so clumsy.

A big boy behind me snickered. Clumsy Polish girl, he said. Ugly cabbage eater. Accidentally on purpose I swung my suitcase and cracked him on the knee. I knew he wouldn’t try to get even with Mr. Szprot so close.

Once up the steps, I looked back. This was the last I’d ever see of Chicago, this view of soot and ice and metal tracks. On such a cold, gray, blustery morning, it looked like a dead place, but at least it was familiar. Chicago had always meant Mama and Papa and the boys. Now Mama and Papa and the boys were gone, home was gone, and soon Chicago would be gone. I felt like

Reviews for Rodzina

[jennybeast · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I'm a sucker for orphan train stories, and boy, is this a great one. Rodzina is such a forthright, grumpy, kindly character. It's great to get to know her and cheer her on.

[mutantpudding · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Interesting historical topic with a memorable main character. A bit heavy but a great book.

[kate_schulte078 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This would be a good book to use when talking about the old west and the orphan trains. I think students will enjoy this book because they will be able to feel the loneliness of the main character.

[marciaskidslit · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The book Rodzina tells the coming-of-age story of a strong female character and her resilience to never give up her search for a family. The story shows Rodzina’s strong will, hope, and personal integrity. Rodzina gave fate a fighting chance. Rodzina is an excellent historical fiction book for upper elementary students. It tells a good story and gives the image of the hardship, loneliness, fear, and struggles of these orphaned children. The author’s note provides additional information on the origin of orphanages, orphan trains, and a bibliography of selected resources for students to read or view. The author included Polish culture and customs throughout the story. A glossary of Polish words and pronunciations is also provided.

[eduscapes · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book for middle-schoolers explores the life of children who ride the orphan train in 1881. I love all the books by Cushman including Midwife's Apprentice and Catherine Called Birdy.

[librarianlou · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Rodzina at 12 is the oldest child on the Orphan Train and the least likely to get adopted. This colorful character narrates her adventures. The humor keeps this book from being overly sad.