First Recorded Reading: May 9, 1999

I first read this short novel back in May of 1999, because it was an Oprah Book Club book; I thought at the time that it was a good book, but not a great book, and in re-reading the book some twelve years later, I still stand by my original assessment, that it’s good, but not great.

The narrator is a girl named Ellen (nine years old at the start of the book’s action), living somewhere in the rural South during the mid- or late-1970′s. The story is told on two levels; on one, eleven year old Ellen reflects on her life now, with her “new mama”, and the second level tells us what happened to Ellen chronologically since the story began. An only child, living in poverty, her mother is chronically ill and estranged from her family, and her father is an abusive alcoholic. After her mother’s death (for which Ellen feels responsible), she lives alone with her father for awhile. Her only friend is Scarletta, a “colored” girl who lives with her parents (who are caring, decent people) down the road; although Ellen fully qualifies as poor white trash, she cannot bring herself to eat at her friend’s house. After bruises her father left on her arm are noticed at school, Ellen ends up in a succession of homes; it does not give away too much of the plot to note that she is treated much better by strangers than by her own blood relatives.

Throughout the novel, Ellen comes to an awareness of her initial ignorance about the world and about the deep-seated prejudice against “colored” she was raised with in her dysfunctional home; her quest throughout the book is to find a family that she can be a part of, which to her means that she will be loved and supported. She herself may not realize that her attitudes towards others and towards the material things in life become more mature and more realistic as the book progresses, and that she finds her family when the right time comes.

Now that I have read this book, I can read the sequel, The Life All Around Me by Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons, but I think I will wait for a few books before reading the sequel.

So yeah, if you follow my reviews, you might have noticed I’m casually reading basically any and all of 80’s Vintage Contemporaries imprint releases that I can get my hands on. I haven’t read a bad one yet, and Kaye Gibbons’ Ellen Foster is no exception. It is a clear and concise little novel that wears its heart on its sleeve, and even though I’m left a little conflicted about the effectiveness of its moral, I ultimately enjoyed reading it.

On one hand we have a no-nonsense whip-smart little girl for a narrator (I’m a sucker for this set up) who fights all throughout this book to overcome her seemingly never ending adversity. It is at once heartbreaking and empowering and it manages to do this in a short period of time without mincing any words.

Also, In the books NYT review, Alice Hoffman called it an “old-fashioned novel about traditional values and inherited prejudices, taking place in a South where too little has changed too slowly,” which appropriately sums up the books simultaneous intention. 35 odd years on though, this book’s confrontation of generational racism seems a little hackneyed. It’s not that it doesn’t work (it does) or that confrontation of this subject isn’t important (it ABSOLUTELY is) but the way it unfolds, just felt a little obvious, and ultimately plays out a little too safe to feel completely realistic to me.

I suppose in it’s day, Ellen Foster maybe hit harder, but now it feels like an accomplished depiction of overcoming abuse, interwoven with a baby-steps confrontation of inherited racism. The latter being softened up enough for sensitive Caucasian stomachs to digest without having to swallow the pill of taking a harder look at themselves and their biases. If you ask me, it’s a perfect choice for Oprah’s book club given her crossover success with white audiences and her sway during her heyday, so, it’s no surprise that the book became just that.

I think this book has good intentions, and for that, I’m rounding this 3 up to a 4. While I wouldn’t call
It essential, I would probably recommend it to most people given how safe it ultimately feels, and because of it’s a relatively captivating and easy read. This said, don’t feel bad skipping it if the above description doesn’t appeal to you.

3 1/2 stars
Interesting style of telling, in the words of eleven-year-old Ellen. Her mother dies and her father is an unfit parent. She's knocked around from pillar to post until she finally finds a place where she is wanted and can enjoy being a kid.

What is a strong spirit? Ellen Foster, the eleven year old narrator of this book, exemplifies what such a spirit is. Through seemingly insurmountable hardships- a nearly loveless early childhood, rejection, an abusive father and a mentally ill mother, and poverty, she is able to find strength and courage to seek out the life she knows she deserves. She is a survivor, forthright and wise.

Ellen's narration is sometimes compared to that of Holden Caulfield in Catcher in The Rye and Scout's in To Kill a Mockingbird, and it is a valid comparison. All three young narrators are precocious, honest, and appealing. They have very different backgrounds, very different concerns, and very different family situations. All three are reliable narrators; all see things many adults are blind to or refuse to see. Ellen, Scout, and Holden are refreshing in their honesty and youth; their voices resonate with warmth and subtle humor.

Ellen Foster was written in 1987. Unfortunately, many of the problems Ellen faced are still very prevalent. Not all children in similar situations have the perception of this young girl nor the indomitable spirit to rise above. Too many never have the opportunity to encounter a less cruel world. I cheered for Ellen, but I remain saddened by the fact that many children today will not have the chance to escape their impoverished and/or abusive childhoods. Our society can do better.

I just finished reading this book and I'm already forgetting anything that happened in it.

Ellen Foster is the kind of book whose narrator never displays any emotion which I guess is part of the style but it means that the author is counting on the reader to have all the feelings. And if you do have all the feelings that you're supposed to because oh no that poor child then I'm sure it's a very nice book, but I for one am very much over shock value literature. And this was the definition of shock value literature.

So during all the horrible parts where you're supposed to be going "oh no!! is poor Ellen going to be okay?" I was just sitting there waiting for her to display any kind of emotion that I could connect with, and she just did not. I mean that definitely made it easier to read, and I'm glad that I didn't have to read about anything resembling an actual 11-year old's response to any of these awful traumatic events, but, lacking that, there was just so little else in the narrative.

Ellen wasn't really a character as much as a cardboard cutout of a Sad But So Brave Little Girl. She has the vague impression of a character arc where she learns that racism is bad, which at least would have been something, but even that isn't so much an arc as it is a straight line connecting two points. A: Ellen is racist; B: Ellen is not racist and is ashamed of herself for having been racist. There isn't really anything in the middle, or if there was, then it was never explicitly addressed in the narrative the way I would expect. I'm not one of those readers who needs absolutely everything spelled out for me but I do think that for a change as drastic as "I am racist" to "I am not racist" we would have at least some reflection in the middle.

In conclusion read this if you want a dully narrated list of bad things happening to a person who behaves like an adult but who is ostensibly an 11-year old. Three stars because the narration was kind of fun plus it was short.

The first line of Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons reads: "When I was little I would think of ways to kill my daddy." Wow! Talk about a powerful hook! Eleven year old Ellen has been through more than any child should experience. Her father is alcoholic and abusive toward Ellen's mother. Ellen just about raises herself in this dysfunctional household, the "hero" in the alcoholic family. After her mother dies, she goes to live with her teacher and things would have been fine except her grandmother interferes and gets custody of her. The grandmother blames her for the death of her mother, grandma's daughter...as if the poor kid hasn't been through enough as it is. To add to the misery, grandma dies and Helen has to move on yet again, this time to an aunt that doesn't really want her. Ellen sets about finding herself a new family. She has a refreshing voice. I read that she has been compared to Holden Caulfield but I wouldn't go that far. She's a lot more resourceful and "together" than Holden was, a truly admirable character. Now I want to read Gibbons' other books!

Gibbons' style reminds me of Cormac McCarthy. For me, that's no compliment. There are no quotation marks around the dialogue, making it harder to keep track of, and almost no commas as far as the eye can see. Gibbons at least could claim a rationale for what in McCarthy I can only see as an affectation. The first person narrator, Ellen Foster, is a child, poor and uneducated, so at least one could say the punctuation impoverished style fits her.

That doesn't mean I found the novel a pleasure to read, and not just for stylistic reasons (though it's my biggest issue). Although it's at least short--I'd estimate the novel is only about 50 thousand words. But it's fairly bleak, even if shot through with hope since right from the beginning Ellen intersperses the story of her happy new home with her uber dysfunctional biological family (her father isn't sure if his own daughter is 9 or 10, Ellen keeps the home, even pays bills and gets herself her own Christmas gift--and that's the small stuff). There is a dark humor threaded throughout and not a bit of self-pity, but the style kept me from ever connecting with the story.

In the fiction book I read Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons, the main theme is determaination. This book revolves around a ten year old girl who learns is looking for a family to love her. The main character is Ellen Foster. She struggles with trama and abuse after her mother commits suicide.

The novel Ellen Foster focuses on a girl Ellen who struggles with abuse by her father After her mother commits suicide by overdosing on her pills. Ellen must find herself a loving home and family to take her in. after her mother's death, Ellen goes through abuse by her alcoholic dad and, because of her father's addiction, Ellen has to pay the bills, go foodshopping, and cook for herself. Ellen goes away to her friend Starletta's house for protection from her father and his piggy friends. Starletta and her parents are black and live in a worn out cabin without a bathroom. After struggling to stay with relitave to relitave she finally comfronts to her school and her art teacher takes her in. At christmas, ellen is disrespectful and gets kicked out of the place she stays. Finally after all the things shes been through, ellen finally finds a loving family, that took her in.

I thought Ellen Foster was an interesting and sad book about how a young girl had so much determaination to look for a loving family. A scene I specifically liked was in chapter 4 when ellen is riding her horse dolphin and she is describing the freedom and everything. I liked it because she was talking about how free she is with her new loving family. My favorite quote is I do not have to worry about snakes anymore here. “My heart can be the one that beats, hers has stopped”. I feel that this is when Ellen really feels like shes had enough of her father. Her mother has just died and she feels that her mother couldn’t handle him but she will be able to leave instead of dying.

I would greatly recommend this book to teenagers. Parents should read this book too because it can show how kids are struggling through abuse and struggling through searching for familys who actually do care. I wouldn’t recommend Speak to kids because of the difficulty. If you liked Ellen Foster, you might like A Child Called It. It talks about a boy who struggles through abuse by his mother and how he gets through it.

The plot was good, but the writing style was not something I could get used to.

When I was eleven years old, and in sixth grade, I remember getting a bloody nose during school. While I was holding the tissue to my hemorrhaging nostril, a mean-spirited girl, whose mom had already picked a fight with my mom because I didn't invite her daughter to my birthday party that summer, commented loudly to the rest of the class, "I bet she was picking her nose!"

I still remember the humiliation I felt as several people started chanting "nose picker! nose picker!" Humiliation remembered, 22 years later, even though mixed with that memory is a sixth grade full of good friends, a wonderful home to go home to, and eleven, equally drama-free years preceding it.

This memory of mine was triggered last night after reading this short book (only 144 pages) and I was left wondering what Ellen Foster would categorize as "humiliating" from her eleventh year, twenty-two years later.

Eleven year-old Ellen's entire family existence is the very definition of dysfunctional. Alcoholic and mean spirited father. Helpless, sad and sick mother. Cruel, angry and spiteful grandmother. Ellen finds a way to survive in each and every situation she unwillingly finds herself in, without any friends to lean on for support except a young black girl named Starletta.

Confused by the racial segregation and stereotypes that, while no longer enforced by law, are still enforced by popular belief in the South, Ellen observes a loving family in action while spending time with Starletta's family, her hippie art teacher and husband and later with the woman she calls her "new mama" - a foster parent.

Even though it created some frustration for me when normal details, like the names of the story's supporting characters, were left out, the author, Kaye Gibbons, never veers from her narrator's eleven year-old perspective. We readers are never privy to the background story of her parent's eroded marriage, the subsequent abuse and health problems, or what Ellen's world looked outside of Ellen's own view. It is Ellen's story, and she tells what matters to her - holes and all.

We stand by and watch Ellen going to more than her fair share of funerals, being made of fun of for her dirty clothes, uncombed hair, and crazy father who shows up for school drunk, holding money and shouting, "I'll pay you for it!", being forced by the court to go live with her grandmother who makes her go work the fields picking rows of cotton alongside her other "niggers" and then, finally cheer for her as she learns what it means to be loved and safe.

Honest, tragic, triumphant and heartbreaking - if only Ellen knew that she was supposed to be heartbroken, this is a fantastic glimpse into a young girl's horrifying world and how she fights to find a better one.

"Cuando era pequeña pensaba cómo podía matar a mi padre."

Así empieza esta historia que desde el renglón uno te atrapa y es que la frase inicial es muy fuerte. Ellen Foster hace un huequito en tu corazón y ahí se queda. Ella solo tiene once años pero ya ha vivido cosas que muchos adultos no. El libro está narrado por una niña y quizás al principio y en muchas partes no es del todo explícito y sin embargo, lo entiendes.

Es una historia que me puso muy triste y que al mismo tiempo está escrito de forma preciosa. Si quieren adentrarse en un libro no tan conocido y en una historia que merece darse por conocida lo recomiendo muchísimo.

The opening sentence grabs you into the world of Ellen, a young 11 year old that has had more than her share of life's troubles. If you can get past the fact there are no quotation marks during conversations and the southern dialect(not a problem of you are Southern, like me), then you might can see what a great read this is. Read the book in 2 days- it pulls you in quick and its hard to put down. Very difficult to read at times, but goes to show what determination can get you through.