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Wanderville Series

Wendy McClure
A historically rooted middle-grade series about children who step off an orphan train into a world of adventure.
Wanderville by Wendy McClure
On Track for Treasure by Wendy McClure
Escape to the World's Fair by Wendy McClure

Wanderville Series : Titles in Order

Book 3
Catch a ferry to the 1904 World’s Fair with the orphans of Wanderville!

The orphans of Wanderville have decided to never again let themselves be confused by adults offering them shiny red apples and warm beds. They’re going to make their way to California and establish a more permanent spot for Wanderville.

But when they’re suddenly left without means of transportation, the orphans must find a new way of getting to their “town.” Enter a dandy motorist with a proposition: If the orphans agree to take a mysterious artifact to the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair on his behalf, they will receive a handsome reward that will allow them to book passage west.

The citizens of Wanderville conclude that this is their best bet. What they don’t realize, however, is just how treacherous the journey to the fair will be and how much they will need to sacrifice to finally find themselves a new home.
Book 2
Book two in a historically rooted series that’s The Boxcar Children for a new era!

When the town sheriff discovers the exact location of “Wanderville,” the orphans who live there—Jack, Frances, Harold, Alexander, and their new friends—must flee their home in the woods. They take to the rails and, after nearly being caught, are rescued by a seemingly kind reverend and his wife. The pair brings the children to their home, telling them that if they help the sharecroppers who run their farm, they will eventually be adopted. But Frances can’t stop thinking about a mysterious treasure mentioned to her by a hobo they met during their travels, and when a young African-American sharecropper is blamed for stealing a fiddle her brother Harold actually nabbed, the citizens of Wanderville will have to decide whether their community is heading in the right direction or whether they need to get their “town” back on track.
Book 1
THE FIRST BOOK IN A HISTORICAL SERIES THAT’S PERFECT FOR FANS OF THE BOXCAR CHILDREN!

Jack, Frances, and Frances’s younger brother Harold have been ripped from the world they knew in New York and sent to Kansas on an orphan train at the turn of the century. As the train chugs closer and closer to its destination, the children begin to hear terrible rumors about the lives that await them. And so they decide to change their fate the only way they know how. . . .

They jump off the train.

There, in the middle of the woods, they meet a boy who will transform their lives forever. His name is Alexander, and he tells them they’ve come to a place nobody knows about—especially not adults—and “where all children in need of freedom are accepted.” It’s a place called Wanderville, Alexander says, and now Jack, Frances, and Harold are its very first citizens.
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