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47th out of 73 books
—
967 voters
Ellen Foster
by
Kaye Gibbons
"When I was little I would think of ways to kill my daddy. I would figure out this or that way and run it down through my head until it got easy." So begins the tale of Ellen Foster, the brave and engaging heroine of Kay Gibbons's first novel, which won the Sue Kaufman Prize from the American Academy of Institute of Arts and Letters. Wise, funny, affectionate, and true, El...more
Paperback, 126 pages
Published
May 3rd 1990
by Vintage
(first published 1987)
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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 int...more
Incredibly written and heart-wrenching; beginning to end.
"When I was little I would think of ways to kill my daddy. I would figure it out this or that way and run it down through my head until it got easy. I did not go to the funeral but I imagined how bad the preacher must have felt to put my daddy in the same ground with good people born dead who get to be angels. And beside my mama. They shut the lid down hard on his and nail it nail it with the strongest nails. I say do all you can to keep...more
"When I was little I would think of ways to kill my daddy. I would figure it out this or that way and run it down through my head until it got easy. I did not go to the funeral but I imagined how bad the preacher must have felt to put my daddy in the same ground with good people born dead who get to be angels. And beside my mama. They shut the lid down hard on his and nail it nail it with the strongest nails. I say do all you can to keep...more
Dec 07, 2008
Kerrin
added it
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...more
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...more
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Ellen Foster VintageBooks,1990,126pp.,$13.56
ISBN 0-7383-0477-8
Kaye Gibbons
“ When I was little I would think of ways to kill my daddy.” Ellen foster is not a homicidal girl out to kill her father, but a girl with a troubled past. She has to endure a life with her alcoholic father after her mother passes away. She moves from house to house trying to find a better life.
If you have ever lived with an alcoholic father then you might know just what Ellen is going through. If you could imagine a fa...more
ISBN 0-7383-0477-8
Kaye Gibbons
“ When I was little I would think of ways to kill my daddy.” Ellen foster is not a homicidal girl out to kill her father, but a girl with a troubled past. She has to endure a life with her alcoholic father after her mother passes away. She moves from house to house trying to find a better life.
If you have ever lived with an alcoholic father then you might know just what Ellen is going through. If you could imagine a fa...more
This is often presented to middle or high schoolers to read, but most will not make it without adult guidance. And I believe it takes an adult mind to appreciate the voice (the dialogue is always without quotation marks) and understand the flashbacks and half-child, half-woman asides.
Abandoned, precocious Ellen suffers through being shifted from one uncaring relative to another until she finds a true home with foster parents.
If I remember correctly, Gibbons wrote this while she was in her late...more
Abandoned, precocious Ellen suffers through being shifted from one uncaring relative to another until she finds a true home with foster parents.
If I remember correctly, Gibbons wrote this while she was in her late...more
Jul 28, 2007
Patricia
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
people who don't think all movies should have a car chase
Shelves:
fiction,
re-read_every_couple_of_yrs
"Ellen Foster" is one of those books I have to re-read every few years. The understanding of a pre-pubescent and otherwise unlucky girl as she deals with the insanity of adult reality in the flatlandish southern US speaks of a seasoning beyond her years. Her transparent naivté is obviously predicated on the awareness of the writer herself, but then, the book is using the disingenuousness natural to a child to make observations about the adult world. This device, hardly new to the world when Kay...more
Ellen Foster is an incredible book. The story is told from the point of view of the protagonist, Ellen, who is a young girl living in the south before racial integration. Her family life is one marked by sorrow and despair. As a product of an abusive father, Ellen develops a sort of protective coating or an “emotional outershell” that is evident to the reader from almost the beginning. Her feigned apathy is endearing, but also disheartening, simply because Ellen is such an authentically genuine...more
Ellen Foster is a very depressing book. The book consist of many present time and flashback situations. At first it can be very confusing. Sometimes i became frustrated with the book and stopped reading because i did not understand it, and moments later i would come back and finish it. As a young child, Ellen went through many harsh situations. She had to take care of her mother and father, and she was disliked by her whole family. Both of her parents died, and she was blamed for it. She was tha...more
Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons is a story about a young girl whose name is Ellen. Her life is a roller coaster. From losing her mom to trying to find a home she she keeps on trying to be better even when the world comes crushing down on her. She decides to go on a journey, but, unfortunately, she's alone. Her dad is a hopeless case who spends most of his time drinking. Her mom, before she died, was afraid of her dad and didn't do much to create a better life and future for her daughter. Ellen also...more
Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons is a novel about an 11 year old girl named Ellen. It explains the struggles she goes through everyday and how she is a strong girl. She has a two way life, and old family and a new family. Her real family creates bad memories for her which causes her to have a bad life. Her dad is an alcoholic who abuses Ellen. Ellen's Mother. Commits suicide when she can't handle her husband anymore. Ellen is left suffering on her own. The harsh moments she passed through were, bein...more
Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons is a novel about an eleven year old girl who lives a harsh life all on her own. Ellen compares her old life with her new one and explains all her bad and good memories. The book is mostly about her life with a drunken dad who abuses her and her mother. She lives with her parents but when her mother can no longer handle her husband she ends up committing suicide. Ellen has to go through so many sad things on her own, because she has no one. She deals with her mother’s...more
Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons is a novel about a young girl. Throughout the book she goes from present to past. She goes through many tough times throughout her life. Ellen has to deal with her mother’s death and with an alcoholic father that doesn’t care for her at all. When she goes to the past it’s all about her real family and everything she had to go through. When she’s in the present, it’s all about her new foster family and how it’s all different there. Everything there is way better and...more
Ellen is a girl who has gone through a lot; Ellen is the protagonist of the book. She had to face the brutal attacks of her dad and life. ”Ellen Foster” by Kaye Gibbons is about the journey of a little girl named Ellen who is very brave emotionally during different moments in her life for a 11 year old. The book is mostly about the most memorable things she has even if it means they are negative. She is sexually abused by her alcoholic father, and, as he is unemployed and very mean at home, she...more
In the novel Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons, Ellen lives with her disoriented family. Her mama is always sick and her papa is a drunkard that could care less about his family. The beginning, Ellen tells about the ways that she planned to kill her father, but in the end, he dies of his alcohol addiction. They are around the table. Ellen’s father commands her mama to cook and that he had to cook while she was gone. That was a big fat lie and he talks to her like that when she gets home from the hosp...more
I picked this gem of a novel up at Borders' going out of business sale on my way home from work last night and devoured it -- cover to cover -- in a couple of hours. Eleven-year-old Ellen's uniquely insightful voice kept the tone of the novel from sinking into the saccharine sweetness of an annoyingly precocious child’s narrative. Her descriptions of attempted incest, rampant racism (often her own), and domestic violence are all the more horrific for the matter-of-fact way in which they are deta...more
Jul 27, 2011
Shannon
added it
I picked this book off the shelf, because the protagonist was compared to my beloved Holden Caulfield, because the novel was praised by my favorite professor's favorite author (Walker Percy), and because how does one NOT wish to read a book with an introduction like: "When I was little I would think of ways to kill my daddy"? A quick read easily completed in a solitary Saturday afternoon, I mark this as adequate, though I probably would have left dear Salinger out of it.
A simple slice of a much...more
A simple slice of a much...more
Mixed. Very good in parts, and in other ways it just didn't all hold together.
I didn't fall in love with the main character, Ellen, because despite her matter-of-fact narration and perspective on her own tormented childhood, she didn't feel like a real person to me. She had a voice I couldn't imagine a real 11 year old using, even one who had gone through what Ellen had. And at times she seemed far too adult to be plausible, while at others she seemed strangely naive (not knowing her new mama's...more
I didn't fall in love with the main character, Ellen, because despite her matter-of-fact narration and perspective on her own tormented childhood, she didn't feel like a real person to me. She had a voice I couldn't imagine a real 11 year old using, even one who had gone through what Ellen had. And at times she seemed far too adult to be plausible, while at others she seemed strangely naive (not knowing her new mama's...more
If you are looking for a book to take your breath away, this is the one.
If you are looking for an exceptionally well-written novel wherein each phrase, each sentence, each paragraph contains poetic beauty, then this is the one.
If you are looking for a book that resonates deep within your soul, leaving you laughing, crying and simply not wanting it to end, then this is the book to read.
And, I'll go out on a huge limb to say that if you choose to read only one of my recommendations this year, plea...more
If you are looking for an exceptionally well-written novel wherein each phrase, each sentence, each paragraph contains poetic beauty, then this is the one.
If you are looking for a book that resonates deep within your soul, leaving you laughing, crying and simply not wanting it to end, then this is the book to read.
And, I'll go out on a huge limb to say that if you choose to read only one of my recommendations this year, plea...more
Aug 31, 2010
Lisa (Harmonybites)
rated it
2 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Those Who Think Cormac McCarthy's the Bomb
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...more
That doesn't mean I found the novel a pleasure to...more
"When I was little I would think of ways to kill my daddy."
That's the first line of Kaye Gibbon's noel "Ellen Foster." How could you not read on?
"Ellen Foster" is the story of Ellen, a little girl with a hard childhood and how she finds her way to a safe place. Ellen lives with her ailing mother and abusive father. She watches as members of her family kill themselves or die of old age, leaving her more and more alone. But Ellen is an industrious little girl who is not about to let her future j...more
That's the first line of Kaye Gibbon's noel "Ellen Foster." How could you not read on?
"Ellen Foster" is the story of Ellen, a little girl with a hard childhood and how she finds her way to a safe place. Ellen lives with her ailing mother and abusive father. She watches as members of her family kill themselves or die of old age, leaving her more and more alone. But Ellen is an industrious little girl who is not about to let her future j...more
The deck is stacked against Ellen Foster, an 11-year-old girl. Her father is an abusive alcoholic, her mother dies and then her father, and her grandmother and aunts verbally and otherwise abuse her. The family members are not merely insensitive but actually full of hatred and abuse. Ellen strives to survive and to find a surrogate family that will give her some measure of love.
Tear jerker? Well, that’s the risk, isn’t it, pulpy sentimentality? In 1913, Eleanor H. Porter published a novel calle...more
Tear jerker? Well, that’s the risk, isn’t it, pulpy sentimentality? In 1913, Eleanor H. Porter published a novel calle...more
I would have never chosen this book- but the libray had "blind date with a book" week. A bunch of books wapped up, you pick one, check it out, and unwrap your blind date book. So, I chose the smallest book I could find.
I liked it, and i would recommend it to friends. I actually think this WOULD make a good book club read, there were alot of issues going on here that didn't have closure- so I think a good discussion could be had.
Negatives:
The narrator, who was supposed to be an 11 year old girl,...more
I liked it, and i would recommend it to friends. I actually think this WOULD make a good book club read, there were alot of issues going on here that didn't have closure- so I think a good discussion could be had.
Negatives:
The narrator, who was supposed to be an 11 year old girl,...more
Ellen Foster is a quick and satisfying read that is rich in character yet slightly lacking in big ideas. There's the typical abusive-father dead-mother aspect that's seen in loads of literature, from Secret Life of Bees to Shakespeare (although this stuff really happens, so perhaps I should be light in my criticism). The book certainly starts out strongly from the first line. My biggest peeve about a book is when it weaves the present with the past, and doesn't explain the present situation unti...more
I've read lots of reviews of this book that were really positive. All the quotes on the book itself are of course glowing with praise. It was an Oprah's Book Club selection. It got published. A friend chose it for book club. Many people apparently think this is a really amazing book. I'm not exactly sure what I'm missing here. I didn't hate it, but I was just kind of bored and not impressed. The good thing is that it was a very short and easy book to read so I didn't feel like I wasted a lot of...more
Oh Ellen Foster. I so wanted to like this book. In the end it was one big disappointment. One of my biggest issues is the way the book is the attempt at a Southern Dialect. It comes across as a Southern Yoda.
This quote sums up the way Ellen talks through the whole book:
"And each day I was not exactly him but just enough of his eyes or nose to tease her oh she boiled violent inside. It must have been hard for her to keep in mind that I was a girl Ellen and not a man she wanted to be alive by her...more
This quote sums up the way Ellen talks through the whole book:
"And each day I was not exactly him but just enough of his eyes or nose to tease her oh she boiled violent inside. It must have been hard for her to keep in mind that I was a girl Ellen and not a man she wanted to be alive by her...more
I struggled to begin this book, afraid the subject matter would feel too close to home and bring up those painful childhood memories I've tried to move past. I eventually jumped in whole heartedly as I was immediately captivated by the young voice of Miss Ellen Foster - so full of spirit and determination. A reasonable, honest voice amidst terrible circumstance. In some ways her tale was familiar and yet so very much her own, and I regret having waited to read this for so long. It is a short boo...more
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 le...more
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 le...more
Mar 06, 2012
Zoie
rated it
1 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
no one
Recommended to Zoie by:
required reading
Shelves:
class-assignments
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
"When I was little I would think of ways to kill my daddy. I would figure out this or that way and run it down through my head until it got easy." So begins the tale of Ellen Foster, the brave and engaging heroine of Kaye Gibbon's first novel.
It was that first sentence that enticed me to buy this book. It turned out to be not what I was expecting at all. It's a strange little book, an easy and quick read, but not one I couldn't put down. I wasn't even sure at first that I wanted to bother finish...more
It was that first sentence that enticed me to buy this book. It turned out to be not what I was expecting at all. It's a strange little book, an easy and quick read, but not one I couldn't put down. I wasn't even sure at first that I wanted to bother finish...more
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| The magician | 1 | 11 | Oct 29, 2012 11:07am |
Kaye Gibbons was born in 1960 in Nash County, North Carolina, on Bend of the River Road. She attended North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, studying American and English literature. At twenty-six years old, she wrote her first novel, Ellen Foster. Praised as an extraordinary debut, Eudora Welty said that "the honesty of thought and eye and feeling and...more
More about Kaye Gibbons...
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“I might be confused sometimes in my head but it is not something you need to talk about. Before you can talk you have to line it all up in order and I had rather just let it swirl around until I am too tired to think. You just let the motion in your head wear you out. Never think about it. You just make a bigger mess that way.”
—
31 people liked it
“Have you ever felt like you could cry because you know you just heard the most important thing anybody in the world could have spoke at that second?”
—
10 people liked it
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