Gibbons wrote Ellen Foster at age 26 while studying American literature at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

[1] Reportedly, at age 25 she approached professor Louis Rubin, who had just started the publishing company Algonquin Books, and presented him with the first 30 pages of the novel.

[1] The novel follows the story of Ellen, the first person narrator, a young white American girl living under unfavorable conditions somewhere in the rural South.

The novel is most likely set in the late 1970s, due to the fact that Ellen states the following on page 48 when talking about her teacher-"She lived in the sixties.

After her mother's premature death, Ellen, who is only eleven years of age, takes charge of the meager household finances, and she starts accumulating savings to improve her prospects.

In spite of her unhappy childhood, Ellen is a smart girl; she borrows books from the library and is rather creative when it comes to spending her spare time.

The following morning, having decided to leave her father for good, she packs her belongings and goes to her Aunt Betsy's, who has no children and whose husband has recently died.

When he starts beating her, her bruises are noticed at school and, as a temporary solution, her free spirited art teacher, Julia, invites Ellen to live with her and her husband, Roy.

A quarrel occurs on Christmas Day, when Dora gets many presents and Ellen receives a single pack of white drawing paper, which she throws at Nadine's feet.

[6] Kirkus Reviews also praised the book: "A child's-eye tale of evil giving way to goodness -- and happily far more spunky than sweet.

[4] On December 14, 1997, a made-for-television film based on the book was aired on CBS as a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie, and is now on DVD.