Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Ellen Foster
Book Review: A wonderful novel.
Summary: 4 Stars
I recommend reading this novel, if you like reading about families living in a dysfunctional home. Ellen Foster is a short novel about a little girl Ellen living in a dysfunctional family. She is living with her drunken abusive father, since her mother lies peacefully in gods hands. She has her friend (Starletta) who really cares for her and so does Starletta's family. Ellen realizes that the friendship she has with Starletta helped her get on with her life. The best part of this book is that it describes everything that might happen in a broken home and I could just feel what she is going through. The worst was how she talks about killing her own father, but I would not blame her.Book Review: Adolescent innocence and understanding.
Summary: 5 Stars
As a college student, I rarely find the time to read good books not included in my class required reading. Ellen Foster looked appealing to me on amazon.com and the reviews looked great so I ordered it and read it, it was awesome. It is amazing that such a little book could leave such a great impression. I immediately gave it to my 14 year old sister to read because I think it tells an amazing story about the innocence and understanding of adolescence, a story not well told in many places today. The author truely captured the unique way in which we all used to view the world before we "grew up".Book Review: All the Impossible Shades of Grey
Summary: 5 Stars
Ellen Foster is a book whose true colors are not evident until the final sentence and even then they brightly dark shades still linger undisturbed. The book finds the compassion in each individual for the plight of a child who never truly had a childhood. From Ellen's first phrase of her recurring thoughts of killing her father the reader is hooked. Kaye Gibbons weaves a fabric incorporating many different ideas, from dealing with bereavement to the demands of a changing multi racial society with a great sense of compassion and without losing the sense of proportion. Stylistically she uses her lack of quotations marks to give the reader a sense that they are actually inside Ellen's mind seeing it as she would, but at the same time an omnipresent shadow. For a person whose attention span is described in centimeters, I was amazed at how fast I was enthralled in this book. After the first chapter which my English 3 Honors teacher read us ( Salutations Ms. Fuller!), I knew this would be an interesting book. Though painted in dark humor and shades of gray, Ellen's common sense and her drive to survive is inspiration to anyone. She showed that sometimes the best help comes from within. In times of turmoil for example, when her mother overdosed on drugs and died beside her, no one was there for "Old Ellen" but "Old Ellen" which aged her mentally as her body slowly caught up to her. The one thing that remained the same throughout the book was her friend, Starletta. Who happened to be black in a time when that was just recently being accepted. Though not even "Old Ellen" was immune from the social stereotypes that followed her times. In the beginning she would not even drink after Starletta for fear of germs. However, time, being the best teacher in the end sheds light on her mistakes. Though Ellen is passed from "family" to "family" when it is obvious that no one wants her there is one thing that never sways in the child, her determination to find a family. Although the book jumps from past to present the transition is made clear by the undertones in which Ellen speaks and sees things. For example it can go from her lying on her bed in her new mamma's house to working in the fields. Any way one views this book my opinion stays the same Kaye Gibbons has written a masterpiece. As I stated previously, I have a very short attention span, but this magnificent author had me riveted from start to finish and she is someone whose work I shall continue to follow. I recommend this book highly to anyone who is looking for something interesting to read. Ellen Foster is certainly worth the effort to find.Book Review: Amazing book!
Summary: 5 Stars
This book should be required reading for every school counselor or any counselor working with children. I was required to read it for a literature class in college and since then I have read it at least four more times. It is a wonderful work describing what foster care is like for this particular child and it offers some insight into her difficult life - leading one to think more about the foster care system in general.Book Review: Amazingly depictive and touching
Summary: 5 Stars
Ellen Foster, a girl orphaned at the tender age of approximately 9 or 10, is brought up in a house of turmoil and abuse. Ellen's mother, as described in the story, had rheumatic fever as a child and is frail and weak, and yet still under constant abuse of her husband, Ellen's father, who is a chronic alcoholic. When Ellen's mother committed suicide by taking an overwhelming amount of her heart pills, Ellen is left with great responsibilities on her young shoulders. Having already gone through her mother's death, and her father's eventually, Left with nowhere to go or turn to except a colored friend who she loves and yet looks down upon at the same time, and is constantly looking for someone to take her in. Some of the profound moments in the book includes when her own grandmother slaps her when she cries over her father's death, her aunt Betsy's mocking reaction towards Ellen's hope of staying with her, and her willingness to eventually put behind racial barriers when deciding her love for her colored friend, Starletta overwhelms anything else. The story constantly flashes back between present and past, the present being Ellen with her new mother, who eventually took her into her household and gave Ellen the love she needed, and the past being the life that permanently scarred Ellen.
The story is simply amazingly depicted. It touches my heart as a reader and takes me through dimensions of truth in Ellen's constant going back and forth from past to present. The book unveils the horrific reality in one young, determined girl's tumultorous life that at the same time can be symbolic for so many lives that exist now at this very moment.