The Life All Around Me by Ellen Foster

by Kaye Gibbons

Book Overview

In this sequel to Gibbons's beloved classic Ellen Foster, Ellen, now fifteen, is settled into a permanent home with a new mother. Strengthened by adversity and blessed with enough intelligence to design a salvation for herself, she still feels ill at ease. But while she holds fast to the shreds of her child­hood--humoring her best friend, Stuart, who is determined to marry her; and protecting her old neighbor, slow-witted Starletta--she begins...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0156032902
• ISBN13: 9780156032902
• Release Date: November 2006
• Publisher: Mariner Books
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.2" x 8.0"
• Age Range: 14 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 9 and higher

Customer Reviews

Ellen Foster

The Life All Around Me by Ellen Foster is a very good novel. A great follow up to Ellen Foster. She's an enchanting human being who tells it like it is. I love Kaye Gibbons writing and look forward to reading her other novels.

A sequel that stands on its own.

You fall in love all over again with Ellen Foster and her observations and experiences of the "life around" her. Kaye Gibbons does not disappoint. As a reader of all of Gibbons work and a native of NC, I am continually amazed at her ability to bring the essence of the South in both historical and personal perspectives. The description of the Moravians at the fair and the isolation that she felt at John Hopkins ring true as do the wonderful characters that fill in Ellen's life. For those who felt the dialogue awkward, I suggest a second reading and yes people do burn tires (it was the early 70's) and sell bad poetry - teacher's wouldn't have believed good poetry.

Loved It

I loved this book. I listened to it on tape and am looking forward to listening to it again! Kaye Gibbons continued to develop the character of Ellen in a way that charmed and delighted me. I can't wait for the next sequel.

Angst: not just for teens

If you think that Kaye Gibbons' THE LIFE ALL AROUND ME BY ELLEN FOSTER is a novel for teens, you're sadly mistaken: Ellen Foster, the narrator and heroine in this novel, may be a teen but she's precocious and her witty and pointed observations of life and how to live it offer fresh, rewarding observations. Her movement from a difficult childhood in foster homes to an adulthood facing college and change continues to promise engrossing action in this unabridged presentation.

Recommended for mature teens

It's been twenty years since Gibbons' first novel Ellen Foster was published to acclaim as a classic coming of age story: The Life All Around Me By Ellen Foster continues the story of an adolescent who has here found a new mother and permanent home even though she still struggles with her mother's death and her father's abuse. She's aiming for Harvard but really trying to come to grips with her past in this moving story, recommended for mature teens.