Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons

Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

2.5 rounded to 3.0 stars - At first, I hated this book and wasn't going to finish it. There was racism that made me uncomfortable. I couldn't imagine why the library hadn't purged this book. So I came on and read some reviews, and saw that it won literary awards and even that it was an Oprah Winfrey Book Club pick. I ended up finishing the book, and while it's not one that I'd recommend to anyone, I finally understood that the racism and Ellen overcoming the racism was an important part of the plot. Ellen is an eleven year old child living in the South, whose mother commits suicide and whose father is an abusive alcoholic. She shows resilience and ingenuity as she is shuffled from one bad home to another, until she finally ends up in a loving foster home (now there are three words you don't often hear together). In fact, that is how she ends up with her name - she wants to take the name of her new family, which she believes is Foster.
Last book of 2020 - #220

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