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Summary: A heart-worming book about an amazing little girl!
Review: The book Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons is a heart-worming story about an amazing little girl. Her parents, who were not much of parents anyhow, died and left her an orphan. During her life, she had no one to rely on but herself. She was put down, abused and left without help. Even though, she has a dream about the family she wishes to be part of and makes it past an incredulous struggle to get there. Throughout the story she shows great strength, courage, maturity and even hope and love through it all. All of Ellen's courage and strength is what gave the reader hope for her. After losing everything, she is sent to live with her bitter grandmother. She has courage enough to put up with the cruelness she is shown and the way that her grandmother cannot even stand the sight of her. Still, she has strength to work in the cotton fields where her grandmother placed her. She shows this same courage and strength when she lives with her aunt, and mostly when she walks right up to the Foster's place and asks if she can live there. Ellen shows an amazing amount of maturity in her views of things and in her actions. She takes complete care of her mother until she dies, without ever asking for help from anyone. She comprehends so much for her age that sometimes her ideas seem more reasonable than most adults. When her mother dies, she is the one who does all the shopping, cooking, cleaning and dressing that concerns her. She maturely approaches the deaths in her family, her many moves and all of her side problems. Other than all of this, I think that the most amazing thing about this book and the character in it is the amount of hope and love Ellen is able to give. In every disappointment, she still looks ahead in hopes of a better life. She is very bruised but still has the time to love her friend Starletta. She has been through so much, and in the end, she even says that she thinks Starletta has been through more because she is black. Now that is something to get a person thinking about how much they take the time to think of others. As a quote by Theodore Parker says, "The books that helps you the most are those which make you think the most."
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Summary: Crystal 's Review for Mrs. Fuller
Review: The book Ellen Foster is a powerful story of a young girl growing up in a burdensome world. As one reads this work presented by Kaye Gibbons, a chill runs down their back. Ellen, the main character is faced with a hard life dealing with endless losses, with the deaths of both her parents and her grandmother being included. Why would one get a chill you wonder? This individual has thoughts and feelings that many have never experienced and cannot express. Ellen is merely a child no older then the age of ten but if not knowing this fact, readers would think she was an aged woman who has lived their life sufficiently. The content this book holds is expressed so strongly that you can feel it through your body. Gibbons has created a character that is pure and true, which is rare. Ellen has said to be a woman trapped in the body of young girl's body because of her nature and conduct. Ellen expresses extraordinary, "Human triumph," says well-endowed, Jessie A. She is faced with many problems, one of the worst being her mother's death. While her mother was deathly sick in bed, Ellen's father drank his life away dying the year following his wife's death. This young daughter of theirs was shipped to grandma's, leaving grandma to die inevitably. Throughout all of this chaos, Ellen matures wondering why her life and other's is the way they are. In the end of this touching book, Ellen is united with a family that she belongs with, a foster family which takes Ellen in and loves her. The somewhat amusing irony of this story is that throughout reading one thinks that Ellen's name is Ellen Foster. However this is only because Ellen thought that was the foster family's household name. Ellen named herself Ellen Foster because she wanted to fit in. Kaye Gibbons is definitely a talented writer and knows what goes through the minds of real people. If there are any English teachers out there that are debating to read this book in theri classroom or not, take Michael's and my own opinion, it is wonderful book.
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Summary: Ellen Foster Fab or Flop
Review: Was the story Ellen Foster a Fabulous story or a flop? I say the story was o.k. The story started out great, but slowly my interest started to deteriorate. The story was so confusing that no matter how hard you try to keep an understanding you somehow end up getting lost. Then she would get back on an understandable topic again and you would find yourself consumed in the book. Starting out only reading one chapter at a time made me want to read more but somehow my interest did a 180 and I wasn't so thrilled about reading the book. Ellen jumped around from topic to topic so when someone was reading to you wouldn't know what was going on and what time zone she was in. One good thing about this book is that through all the pain that Ellen went through she still managed to see that no ones life is perfect. She found that Starletta had just as tough a life because she had no indoor facilities and she was colored. Ellen didn't believe that all the difficult things she had gone through were as bad as what Starletta went through. Ellen had to grow up very quickly in her life. She had no time to be a child because she had to take care of her mother and her house. She realized that being an adult is not all it is cracked up to be. Ellen desperately needed to have a shoulder to cry on, only to end up getting one after going through too much pain to bear. Ellen never learned to cry after her Grand mother traumatized her with her threat to hurt her if she ever cried again. Not only did that traumatize her but also the fact that she saw both her mother and grandmother die. Ellen had a terrible life being shucked around as if she was not human and had no feelings. She had no one to turn to and everyone she did turn to just shunned her and sent her away. In conclusion the story Ellen Foster was o.k. but needed to be more organized.
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Summary: Michael Hilliard's Review of Ellen Foster
Review: I thought this was a good book, and that all English Teachers should make their students read it. Even though it was basically a long homework assignment for me, I still enjoyed it. It had a good plot, and a great meaning to it. It showed how sturdy one child could be when faced with many adversities. It was a pleasure reading this book!
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Summary: Ellen Foster
Review: Ellen Foster is a teenage girl who has been through some rough times. But from those rough times come the good times and from the good times come a new Ellen. When reading this book you will see that Ellen is couragous and smart. She was able to put her past behind her and look towards the future. Yet her past is reflected in the present. Kaye Gibbons showes her tallent as a writer by weaving Ellen's story in and out through her two lives. Her past life and her present life. Each life (commonly refered to as "my new life" and "my old life") is often symbolized by the houses in which she lived in each life. You often hear Ellen say, "In my old house..." or "In my new house..." I liked this book for many reasons. One is that the author gets the reader into the book because she makes the reader feel present. I also liked the way the book showed me a sense of self pride that one can have in one's self. Ellen develops this sense of pride throughout the book. I loved the way the book ended. It did not leave me hanging. When I finished the book I was very happy. I did not need to question anything for it was all explained. I could not think of a better way to end the book. I give this book an eleven on a scale of ten. I highly recommend it for teenagers and adults.
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Summary: Ellen Foster was dissappointing.....to say the least...
Review: Ellen Foster wasn't well written, in my opinion. Not only were Kaye Gibbons' thoughts abstract and random as they were written, but they were disorganized and confusing to read. The subject material and the focus of the story with its many themes was not original (however fine). As another reviewer mentioned, "there is not a quotation mark to be found". This I agree with completely. This makes the dialouge hard to follow. Without at least a slight sense of order, the story loses its power, influence, and impact.
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Summary: Review For Ellen Foster
Review: I didn't think that this book was so great, it was mediocre and I had really high expectations for it and came off disappointed. I didn't see Ellen as a female Holden, this book just wasn't as good as Catcher in the Rye and it shouldn't be compared to it. It seems like every time a book comes out with a young character they have to compare it with Catcher in the Rye.Kaye Gibbons doesn't go into much deph or complexity with most of her characters, especially Ellens relatives. Also, I couldn't really figure out when the story was set. I just don't like Kaye Gibbons writing style and I really should have known better since I've never liked any of Oprahs picks.
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Summary: A Must Read!
Review: "When I was little I would think of ways to kill my daddy". This is the first sentence in the beginning of the book Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons. Who could put the book down after reading this sentence? I thought this book would be great just from that single sentence. In this book Ellen refers to herself many times as "Old Ellen." I believe that she uses this name because in the whole context of this book Ellen is always taking care of someone beside herself when she is the one who is supposed to be taken care of. Ellen's parents die, and her grandmother dies. Nobody else wanted to take in Ellen and take care of her after they died. Ellen goes through a lot in this book. I think this is a lot more than a ten-year old little girl should be going through. Before her grandmother dies, Ellen stays at her house, and she stays in the room that used to be her mother's when she was a little girl, except all of her mother's possessions are not in the room. Her grandmother treats her badly. She acts as if Ellen is to blame for her daughter's death. She's always suspicious of everyone, mostly Ellen, stealing from her. Ellen's grandmother gets sick of her being around the house so she sends Ellen the to work on her cotton fields with all the slaves. While working her first day on the cotton field, Ellen meets a lady named Mavis. Ellen gets help from her a lot of during the time she's working. The first couple of days were hard for Ellen because of the heat and the cotton plants cutting her fingers when she would go to pick them. Ellen is my favorite character in this book. She is always doing something new. This book was kind of hard to keep up with because the author jumps around from one of Ellen's memories to the next. I kept myself focused though and then I finally understood what was going on. I enjoyed reading this book because of that. This book made me make myself understand what was going on. My favorite scene in this book is when Ellen invites her friend Starletta over to visit, and the two go in Ellen's bedroom and Starletta lays on her stomach and crawls around on the carpet. She rubs her whole body all over Ellen's rug, because she says she likes how the rug is scratchy. I think Ellen is very prejudice of colored people in the beginning of this book and her friend Starletta happens to be colored. Ellen will visit Starletta and her parents at their house, but she won't eat any of the food that Starletta's parents make because she is afraid that she might contract some kind of disease that only colored people supposedly have. Towards the end of the book Ellen goes back and reads a list that she made after her parents died and she reads the part where she wrote she wants a normal family and she wants them to be white. She finally realizes that she had indeed been prejudice of Starletta and her family for that matter, all the colored people in the world. From that day forward Ellen wants to spend all her time with Starletta. I think that this teaches a very good moral ethic. That even if you are colored you're just as much of a human being then any one else is. This is a great book, and I don't see how anyone could put this down. I would recommend this book to anyone that asked how the book was. I am even considering reading more of Kaye Gibbons's books. I figured if the first book that I read was this great then, all of the other books that she has written must be of equal quality or even better then this one.
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Summary: Good, but read A Virtuous Woman first
Review: If you have never read anything by Kaye Gibbons, start with A Virtuous Woman. It is a great introduction. Ellen Foster was a little hard to follow at times since it jumped between past and present, plus there isn't a quotation mark to be found. However, I enjoyed this sad, bittersweet story and the ending is wonderfully redeeming. Ellen is quite mature for her 10 years, but I guess that's what happens when you grow up in her world. Recommended to the busy body who doesn't have time to read a book.
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Summary: This is the saddest book ever written, but also the best!
Review: When I read this book, I was in tears. It is written beautifully, and is so touching. It is very powerful. It is a must read.
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