The Life All Around Me by Ellen Foster

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 to negotiate her way into a larger world. With a singular mix of perspicacity naïveté and compas­sion Ellen draws us into her life and makes us fall in love with her all over again.