Extra! Extra! The Orphan Trains and Newsboys of New York delivers an outstanding composition about a little known epoch in American history. Inspired by Wendinger's mother, Sophia (Kaminsky) Hillesheim, 1917 orphan train rider from New York; the book is a reality of decades of researching the premise. The author's writing style functions in concert with authentic photography reaching across the spectrum to academic and universal readership. The volume chronicles children of the train and newsboys [who were collectively known as street children, orphans, urchins, waifs, and the dangerous classes] impart a skillful arrangement within a solitary volume.The fascination of this book can not be realized until this reserve is in the readers hands. Last Train Home, an orphan train story, is a historical faction(fiction based mostly on fact) novella depicting an American story about cultural identity and family history set during the nineteenth century at a time when America received an enormous influx of immigrants, and a quarter of a million children whose fates would be determined by pure luck were sent west from East Coast cities by orphan train. Would they be adopted by kind and loving families, or would they face a childhood and adolescence of hard labor and servitude? The story highlights the methods practiced by two agencies sending children West by tracing the individual journeys of two children, Johnny and Sophia. From a very young age, both children learn to adapt and inhabit new identities. Change has been the defining principle in the lives of these two children. As their personal stories unfold, the children learn triumph over tribulation building strength of mind and character into an incredible reserve.

A concentrated college level study course has been built exclusively on Extra! Extra! The Orphan Trains and Newsboys of New York. This book is heavily utilized by authors, and in Theatrical and Documentary productions as an authoritative resource book.
The 2010 and 2011 National Indie Excellence Winner Award in history goes to Extra! Extra! The Orphan Trains and Newsboys of New York, by author Renee Wendinger.

Renee Wendinger is the president of the Orphan Train Riders of New York Organization.

Renee Wendinger is the recipient of the New York Foundling award acknowledged by the Orphan Train Historical Society of America for history preservation.

Recipient of numerous history essayist awards.

2011 recipient of the Founders Award from the National Orphan Train Complex of Kansas.