Rating: 
Summary: A Depressing but Good Book!!!
Review: I recently read this book and was very impressed.
Ellen is born into a difficult family.When her mother dies, and her father continues to drink Ellen sees how unhappy she is. Instead of suffering painfully, she goes out to find her own happiness. I would clearly recommend this book:)
Rating:
Summary: Ellen Foster
Review: This is a wonderful piece of autobiographical fiction. Ellen comes from the dysfunctional home of a too-sick mother and a drunken, abusive father. She has learned early to take care, rather than be cared for. Ellen encounters other relatives as well, who should be her champions but are not. There are also many characters who give Ellen a glimpse at a better life: the librarian who helps her find books "of some account". Julia, the art teacher, who takes her into her happy but unconventional home, the mother of her black friend (in a very prejudiced South), and the foster mother, who understands the need for order and accepting love. All of these folks help Ellen to see a different, more desirable side to life.Through the first person narrative approach Gibbon's gives readers a good look at the life of an 11 year old girl. While confusing for some, the book is written in a style (vernacular, often without punctuation and quotation marks) that makes readers understand Ellen's story from her unique point of view. Gibbon's is successful in leading the reader to examine old themes, such as prejudice, from a very fresh perspective.
Rating: 
Summary: A great short book, but quite involving
Review: If you are picking up this book because it is short, that's fine, but if you don't want to get a book where you're involved, a book where you actually feel things, then don't read Ellen Foster.
Ellen Foster has experienced her mother's, grandmother's and father's deaths. She is jumping around from leaf to leaf and looking for a permanant family.
This book jumps between time periods, when she is looking for a new family and when she has found a new family.
Ellen obviously can survive this because of her witty, aridly humorous take on life.
You can really understand her life because of Kaye Gibbons's brilliant depictions of what it is like to be misunderstood, to not know where you belong.
You will enjoy this book if you're looking for a book you can really get into, feel, and love. You will also find a laugh or two inside of the book, but you might have to look real hard!
Rating:
Summary: Short but impressive
Review: This is a short but engaging book that can easily be read in one sitting. Ellen Foster, the main character and narrator, is an 11 year old girl who has experienced more death and dysfunction than most people do in a lifetime. Her mother dies, her father is terribly abusive, and the remainder of the story chronicles her jostling from one relative's house to another- until she finally finds a home where she is truly cared for. Kaye Gibbons writes in choppy, incomplete sentences as one can imagine the grounded and brutually-honest Ellen might speak. The book flashes back from past to present, but Ellen's child-like yet suprisingly mature tone remains the same throughout. She is a strong and lovable character. Her relationship with a "colored" girl Starletta is another high point of the book, and Gibbons manages to hit on the subjects of society's "rules" and racial prejudice without seeming redundant. This book alerted me to not only Ellen's plight but the plight of all children who fall subject to the court, social services, and the foster care system.
Rating: 
Summary: seemed dated
Review: I appreciated the humor and wisdom in Ellen's voice. I applauded her spunk. The subject matter is enormous in its own right, so I was mystified by what seemed a twist in focus at the end. Almost as though Ellen's living hell needed more weight to be of import. Possibly I'd have been more moved in 1987, when this book was first published.
Rating:
Summary: deeply moving, creatively written
Review: I read this book starting out as an assignment, but ended up adding it to the list of my favorites. The amount of levels Gibbons writes on is amazing; she can make you laugh and cry in one sentence. The book is made even better, in my opinion, by the fact that it is written from Ellen's point of view; this creates a certain innocent charm that adds to the emotional depth. She also makes light on topics such as racial equality and poor vs. rich. Overall, I would avidly recommend this book to anybody who loves a deeply moving read.
Rating:
Summary: Ellen is fabulous!
Review: The voice of this little girl is amazingly clear. How often do you laugh out loud? For a book that is not so funny... but oh, what a voice she has. Brilliantly written. Depressing- no. Sad- yes, orphanstories tend to be sad. Uplifting - very much so. Beautiful- without a doubt. I tend to shy away from Oprah because of the glitz, but I may take another look at her lists. I missed out on this wonder for too long because it was dubbed an "Oprah book."
Rating:
Summary: As good as it gets
Review: My first Kaye Gibbons book was "On the Occasion of my Last Afternnon," and I was hooked at that point. I can honestly say that the woman simply does not write bad books. You may not like all the characters and you might not like some of her subject material, but boy, does she know how to write! "Ellen Foster" has all the brilliance and style of Jackson McCrae's "The Bark of the Dogwood," with the great storytelling of "To Kill a Mockingbird." A great story about the conflicts within the human heart, "Ellen Foster" will stay with you long after you're done.
Rating:
Summary: It is All in How You Look At It
Review: Ellen Foster won't take you more than a few hours to read: It will be a few hours well spent. This slim volume provides a reminder that it is really up to each of us as individuals to decide how we will respond to what life throws at us. None of us would choose to have Ellen Foster's life: She is given little comfort anywhere. Yet while her lot is hard she has resilience. She is a child who discovers what's possible to use in a positive way even in the worst of situations. She doesn't fall victim to sorrowful self-pity, which would be easy enough to do given her lot. She judges people and situations based on the humanity (or lack there of) available and proves that she can make the best of what's available -- and eventually how she can bring humanity to others through the simplest of acts. She thus is able, on her own, to see the lie that allows racism to exist; understands the value of giving and receiving; finds love in the act of sitting in silence with a friend. I suspect that anyone can learn something from reading Ellen Foster's story--or at least they can be reminded of what really matters in human relations.
Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Book!!!
Review: An 11 year old girl is born into a bad life. Her mother dies and her father drinks constantly. The poor girl drifts from one
foster home to another, in search of someone who really wants her. Finally, this brave young girl finds the perfect place to
stay. I read this book in one night and all I can say is WOW!!!
What I liked about Ellen Foster is that it portrays a terrible
life without being graphic. She isn't happy with her life, so
unlike so many other books in which the main character suffers through the misery,she proves herself to be worthy of more and
takes action to change things:)
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