Welcome to BookCrossing!

Please make a journal entry to let me know that this book has been caught so I know that it has found a good home with you. If you are new to BookCrossing and decide to join, please indicate that you were referred by InvisibleAng. I hope you like the book, but that whatever you think of it, you'll let me know by making another journal entry to comment when you finish reading it.

Then, whenever you are ready to send it on its way, make a journal entry if you are giving or sending this book to a known person, or a release note if you are leaving it “in the wild” again for anyone to catch. Then watch its journey. You’ll be alerted by e-mail each time someone makes another journal entry. And it’s confidential (you are known only by your screen name and no one is ever given your e-mail address), free, and spam-free.

Have fun!

I tried to read this one a while back, but didn't get into it or find the narrative voice believable...

RELEASE NOTES:

Bringing this to the Belfast/Dublin BookCrossing get-together.

Picked up at from the Belfast book crossers at during meetup a few months back. Will release soon.

Picked up this wee book at the Dublin book crossing meet up in Sept 08

Ellen Foster is the story of an eleven year old orphan, driven to desperation by some of the wickedest relatives in literary history, this is the story of her battle for survival.

I liked the writing style, and how the story unfolds from the death of Ellen's mother and father through the range of places she lives and her reactions to them all.

I found it hard to figure out what time the book was set in, originally thinking it was the 1940's until two characters claim to be children of the 60's. Perhaps it is set in the late 1970s?

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

passed on to my mother

Received form my daughter.
A book which sets out from a childs perspective the difficulties of foster care, a situation that a large number of children find themselves in , often through no fault of their own.
A worthwhile read.

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

Taking to a meet up at the Museum cafe of book crossers.

Intriguing - apparently an American classic, but I've never heard of the book or the author. I look forward to reading it! Thanks!

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

I quite enjoyed this book, although I agree that the narrative voice didn't always ring true. I too struggled with the setting, I had it picked as Depression era and then later in the book it became clear it was much later, which really threw me. It would be interesting to re-read it and see if I can figure out exactly why you are mislead over this. Life is too short and there are too many other books to read though! Will take this to a meet up with FutureCat and maybe others at lunchtime today.

Ok, so I released a copy of this book unread just a few days ago, so it's probably a bit silly now wanting to read it, but I saw the release alert and read the journal entries, and was intrigued by the totally different opinions everyone had of it.

So I nabbed it off the table at lunch today.

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Quite a moving story, though at times the narrative voice was hard to follow. Because I'd read the other journal entries before I read the book, I kept an eye out to see what it was that had fooled the other readers about the time period. I think what made it seem older to me was mainly the racist attitudes of so many of the characters, and the way their attitudes were made to seem commonplace. Because this kind of overt racism is so unusual in this part of the world (which is not to say other forms of racism don't exist here!), we think of it as a relic of the past, and forget that in other places such attitudes were acceptable well within our lifetimes.

An interesting read, anyway.

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WILD RELEASE NOTES:

Left in the OBCZ after a meetup with the Wellington bookcrossers. Great to see you all again!

Happy bookcrossing to the finder!

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P.S. If you live in Christchurch, you might like to join us at our monthly bookcrossing meetups. For details, see the BCNZ Yahoo Group.

Did you know that in April 2009, the World Bookcrossing Convention will be held in Christchurch? Check out the convention website for more details.