Why am I passionate about this?

A former special assistant to Maryland’s attorney general, I reluctantly gave up my three-decade legal career to tell two remarkable stories I was uniquely qualified to tell. Orphaned at age 11, I grew up in New Orleans as a foster care client of the Jewish Children’s Regional Service, the agency that formerly ran the orphanage in which my mentor, legal trailblazer Bessie Margolin, was raised. It was also the orphanage in which I would've been raised had it not closed in 1946. During the time I spent with Bessie Margolin she inspired me to both become her future biographer and go on to write the first comprehensive history of the nation’s earliest purpose-built Jewish orphanage.


I wrote

Most Fortunate Unfortunates: The Jewish Orphans' Home of New Orleans

By Marlene Trestman,

Book cover of Most Fortunate Unfortunates: The Jewish Orphans' Home of New Orleans

What is my book about?

Most Fortunate Unfortunates is the first comprehensive history of the Jewish Orphans’ Home of New Orleans. Founded in 1855 in…

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

The books I picked & why

Book cover of Dave at Night

Marlene Trestman Why did I love this book?

Newberry Honor book winner Gail Carson Levine beautifully captures the life of eleven-year-old Dave, a troublemaking orphan in 1926, and his time in New York’s Hebrew Home for Boys.

When I years ago read this book to my son, who was abut Dave’s age, both of us became enthralled with not only the vivid description of the sometimes tough and rigid orphanage in the Lower East Side, but also Dave’s late-night adventures into the beautiful music and among the kind strangers and leading figures of the Harlem Renaissance.

Loosely based on her father’s time in New York’s Hebrew Orphan Asylum, Levine opens a window and lets us hear the Yiddish sounds and lets us peak into the early twentieth-century world of Jewish orphanages, while also celebrating the boisterous joys of friendship with unlikely partners.

By Gail Carson Levine,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Dave at Night as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 8, 9, 10, and 11.

What is this book about?

If nobody wants him, that's fine.He'll just take care of himself.

When his father dies, Dave knows nothing will ever be thesame. And then it happens. Dave lands in an orphanage—the cold and strict Hebrew Home for Boys in Harlem—far from the life he knew on the Lower East Side. But he's not so worried. He knows he'll be okay. He always is. If it doesn't work out, he'll just leave, find a better place to stay. But it's not that simple.

Outside the gates of the orphanage, the nighttime streets of Harlem buzz with jazz musicians and swindlers; exclusive…


Book cover of Alone in the World: Orphans And Orphanages In America

Marlene Trestman Why did I love this book?

The author of nearly three dozen nonfiction books for young people, Catherine Reef reveals through her clear writing, first-hand accounts, and photographs what it was really like for a child to grow up in an orphanage in America from the mid-1850s to the early 20th century when nearly all of these congregate dependent childcare institutions closed.

Reef also includes a satisfying Afterword that lets us know “where life led some of the children” who appeared in her book. Although intended for a young reader, Alone in the World also proved a strong resource to me in writing my book and will interest anyone who wants a thoughtful and deeply-researched overview of this topic.

By Catherine Reef,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Alone in the World as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Uncovers the true history of American orphanages, revealing what it was like to eat, sleep, study, and play in such institutions, why children were sent to live there in the first place, what happened to them after they left, and more.


Book cover of Orphan #8

Marlene Trestman Why did I love this book?

Kim Van Alkemade wrote this New York Times bestselling novel based upon a series of real-life experiences, including those of her great-grandmother who worked as a counselor in New York’s Hebrew Orphan Asylum.

Orphan #8 is a powerful and unforgettable book about Rachel, who after being placed in New York’s Hebrew Infant Home, is subjected to experimental radiation treatments as Dr. Mildred Solomon bolsters her medical reputation at the expense of the little girl’s health.

The story focuses on Rachel, now an adult nurse, when Dr. Solomon becomes her patient. Given the widespread popularity of this book, I know I was not the only reader riveted by Rachel’s choice between compassion and retribution, and the extraordinary human capacity to cause harm and to love. 

By Kim van Alkemade,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Orphan #8 as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In this stunning new historical novel inspired by true events, Kim van Alkemade tells the fascinating story of a woman who must choose between revenge and mercy when she encounters the doctor who subjected her to dangerous medical experiments in a New York City Jewish orphanage years before. In 1919, Rachel Rabinowitz is a vivacious four-year-old living with her family in a crowded tenement on New York City's Lower Eastside. When tragedy strikes, Rachel is separated from her brother Sam and sent to a Jewish orphanage where Dr. Mildred Solomon is conducting medical research. Subjected to X-ray treatments that leave…


Book cover of Second Home: Orphan Asylums and Poor Families in America

Marlene Trestman Why did I love this book?

Perhaps the standard bearer in scholarly research about the history of orphanages in America, U Mass Boston Professor Timothy Hacsi’s Second Home is essential reading for anyone seriously studying the subject.

Armed with tables that cogently summarize – by decade - the number and types of orphanages, their populations, funding sources, and staffing ratios, Hacsi surveys the landscape of American public policy in the 19th and 20th centuries as religious groups, Progressives, and ultimately government responded to the needs of dependent children and families. 

By Timothy A. Hacsi,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Second Home as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

As orphan asylums ceased to exist in the late 20th century, interest in them dwindled as well. Yet, from the Civil War to the Great Depression, America's dependent children - children whose families were unable to care for them - received more aid from orphan asylums than from any other means. This omission in the growing literature on poverty in America is addressed in this book. As Timothy Hacsi shows, most children in 19th-century orphan asylums were half-orphans, children with one living parent who was unable to provide for them. The asylums spread widely and endured because different groups -…


Book cover of Orphans: Real and Imaginary

Marlene Trestman Why did I love this book?

In this engaging book, Eileen Simpson, herself orphaned at by age seven, offers both memoir and essays on the concept of orphanhood in history, culture, and society.

Of particular interest to me were the discussions of orphans in popular culture – such as Jane Eyre and Little Orphan Annie – and why orphanhood offers timeless intrigue into a universal human condition that at once represents both loss and possibility.

By Eileen Simpson,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Orphans as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In this memoir the author provides an account of orphanhood, and in a series of essays, examines the role and meaning of orphanhood in literature, history, and culture


Explore my book 😀

Most Fortunate Unfortunates: The Jewish Orphans' Home of New Orleans

By Marlene Trestman,

Book cover of Most Fortunate Unfortunates: The Jewish Orphans' Home of New Orleans

What is my book about?

Most Fortunate Unfortunates is the first comprehensive history of the Jewish Orphans’ Home of New Orleans. Founded in 1855 in the aftermath of yellow fever epidemics, the Home was the first purpose-built Jewish orphanage in the nation. It reflected the city’s affinity for religiously operated orphanages and the growing prosperity of its Jewish community. In 1904, the Home opened the Isidore Newman School, a coed, non-sectarian school that also admitted children, regardless of religion, whose parents paid tuition. By the time the Home closed in 1946, it had sheltered more than 1600 parentless children and 24 widows from across the mid-South. A “warts-and-all” history featuring personal stories of the children and their caregivers, Most Fortunate Unfortunates also broadly explores the evolution of childcare, education, social work, and philanthropy in America.

Book cover of Dave at Night
Book cover of Alone in the World: Orphans And Orphanages In America
Book cover of Orphan #8

Share your top 3 reads of 2024!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,437

readers submitted
so far, will you?

You might also like...

Christmas Actually

By Lisa Darcy,

Book cover of Christmas Actually

Lisa Darcy Author Of The Pact

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Cat lover Traveler Reader Amateur tennis player Foodie

Lisa's 3 favorite reads in 2023

What is my book about?

Every picture tells a story, but it’s not always the one we expect or remember. Christmas Actually is a festive drama about family and forgiveness and a snapshot of modern family life, addressing Instagram to motherhood and everything in between.

Why Christmas? My publisher wanted my new novel to have a festive theme, specifically set in Australia–sun, surf, sunburn, and prawns. Christmas in Australia is very different from Christmas in the UK, USA, and Canada. We typically wear shorts and t-shirts, eat salad and seafood for Christmas lunch, and play beach cricket in the afternoon. Despite the season, conflicts, secrets,…

Christmas Actually

By Lisa Darcy,

What is this book about?

Time spent with family can be challenging, especially at Christmas actually…

Kate Cavendish is stuck in a rut. That is until a former colleague contacts her and offers her a chance to fulfil her lifelong dream of becoming a successful photographer.

With her focus pulled in all directions by her children, her pregnant sister, her newly-dating mother, and the niggling worry that her husband might be having an affair, Kate is filled with self-doubt.

Then as the countdown to Christmas begins, and memories of her own childhood resurface, Kate’s anxiety deepens – both personally and professionally. Can she move on…


5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in orphans, orphanages, and human subject research?

Orphans 178 books
Orphanages 27 books