Old Ellen is how this 11 year old refers to herself, and as the reviewer on the back of the book cover says, "she's as much a part of the backwoods South as a Faulkner character--and a good deal more endearing". She tells her story in the first person and in the first sentence of the book she says, "When I was little I would think of ways to kill my Daddy". She meant it too, and believe me, he deserved it. Her family was about as rotten as any family I have come across in literature. What a read, I would recommend it to anyone. I give it 4.5 stars.

Ellen Foster was a joy. Her life starts with many traumas and eventually she becomes settled in a loving foster home. Her story is encapsulated by various events where she is minimized. This is juxtaposed with her minimizing her black friend, Starla simply because she is black and Ellen doesn't know any better. Once Ellen grows through the pain and neglect she has experienced and realizes that her circumstances don't define her, she realizes that the same is true of Starla.

I see this book as almost on par with "To Kill A Mockingbird" though without the multiple layers of morality or the scope.

Me gustó mucho. Es de esos libros que se leen fácilmente y que al terminarlos te dejan tanto en que pensar y tanto en la mente que simplemente empiezas a sentir muchísimo más de lo que sentiste al leer cada palabra. Es increíble.

Ellen, age ten or so, narrates. Her story begins with the suicide of her mother and goes on to relate her hardscrabble life till she ends up in a foster home of her choosing. The less said about Ellen's father the better: she couldn't remain with him. Neither her aunts nor maternal grandmother offers any kind of home for the girl. Ellen chooses her own path and makes it happen. Note best friend Starletta, a young black girl, lives down the road from Ellen and weaves in and out of the story.

Pro:
Ellen's voice
and her determination.

Con:
*No quotation marks whatsoever make determining the speaker difficult at times. (I'm not unduly bothered by lack of quotations marks but I have friends who consider it an affectation, on the part of an author, worth avoiding.) In addition, a sentence may or may not have a period denoting its end. I had to reread for understanding more than once. Adding to all that, the narrative jumps back and forth in time between the hardships Ellen endures in the interim year between death of her mother and her landing in a safe place.

*I had difficulty figuring out Ellen and only friend Starletta's ages. At times, Starletta seems much younger but hard to tell.

*Also Ellen's race: her grandmother throws racial slurs at Ellen's father. She puts Ellen out in the field with the black field hands. But Ellen refers to herself as white, as do others, and she has instilled prejudices against black neighbors and friends. Since her grandmother also screamed "white trash" (and yes "trash" fits no matter the race) at Ellen's no-account father, maybe that's closer to the mark. Just a little hard to figure out and it does play a part in the story.

Recommend: Sure, unless you're one of the correct-punctuation-necessary people.

*An early Oprah Winfrey book club book.

**Actually reading Ellen Foster makes me want to reread True Grit for some reason.

This was a beautiful tale about overcoming neglect, racism and a lesson that there’s still good people in the world. Absolutely enjoyed it.

This book was beautifully written. I cried at the end...it was so so touching.

Love Kaye Gibbon's books

I'm sorry, I'm just not feeling this book at all. While I am currently not done reading it I have read the majority and I find the story line to be severely lacking. Ellen is a young girl who lives in the segregated South. She watches her mother take too many heart pills, lie down, and die. Her alcoholic (and already abusive) father continues his spiral into destruction often leaving Ellen for days at a time alone at their house. Ellen is headstrong and takes it into her own to provide money for bills and food, and sometime during this time she is sexually assaulted by her father. Many people have written about this attack in their reviews, but it's not described vividly in the book at all (thankfully!). Ellen goes to live with her art teacher after another teacher notices bruises on her arm. Later in the book she bounces between her grandmothers house (who hates her because of her "nigger" father), and after her death her aunts house. Her only friend is her "colored" friend Scarletta, who I feel that Ellen looks down upon (especially in the beginning) due to her skin color. Despite this - and the poverty that her family lives in as they work in the fields - Scarletta has a loving nuclear family. That's about as much attention as I have paid to this book.

The writing style also irks me. The lack of quotations, the constant jumping from past to present between each chapter. It just bugs me. However, it is a required reading for a course that I am in right now, so I will suck it up until my final comes and goes. Thank God this is a short read!

I didn’t expect to be so impressed by this. I stumbled on it at my local habitat for humanity restore and it sat on my bookcase for months.

I love(d) Ellen - she’s resilient and wise and continuously delivers profound insights about life (often with humor); as I read this I frequently imagined my mom saying “out of the mouths of babes”. Ellen makes me want to do better, be better- despite all the drama and tragedy within her own life she still feels blessed and comes to realize there are others who are far less fortunate.

Well-written, engaging, and thought-provoking, ELLEN FOSTER is a good choice for book discussion groups and anyone looking for a novel starring a strong female protagonist who overcomes challenges posed by both her surroundings and her own attitudes.

I really enjoyed this book. It was a quick read and I was pulled in from the first page.

After I was no more than a fourth of the way through this shorty I remembered that I had read it before. Many years ago. Also remembered that there was a movie made out of the book too.

It's filled with a ironic humor and intrepid spirit. It was and is prime Hallmark Movie patterned- it was perfect for the film.

Southern brand of a Dickens catastrophe "orphan" but this one is far more interesting in surroundings and attitude. Both.

It was a debut novella length and I think it is overrated, but it is very good. Truthfully I like most of her other novels much more.

But this one is highly effusive and sets the emotions off far easier.