"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 Gibbons's first novel, which won the Sue Kaufman Prize from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. Wise, funny, affectionate and true, Ellen Foster is, as Walker Percy called it, "The real thing. Which is to say, a lovely, sometimes heart/wrenching novel...[Ellen Foster] is as much a part of the backwoods South as a Faulkner character and a good deal more endearing."
...ContinuaEllen is a strong, wise and funny kid who tells about her story in such a way to result both joyful and sad. Lovely book
Unique in that this story of hardship is told entirely from the point of view of a child with no adult mirroring of what is occurring - very effective.