Henningfeld is a professor at Adrian College and has written widely for academic journals and educational publishers. In the following essay, she applies reader-response theory to Ellen Foster in order to explore how Ellen's reading of her life parallels a reading of Ellen Foster.
Ellen Foster is Kaye Gibbon's first novel. Published in 1987, the novel has been well received by Critics and readers alike. Set in a rural Southern community, it is the story of an eleven-year-old child who endures grief and abuse before settling herself in a loving foster family.
The novel can be read as a coming-of-age story, a genre in which the main character passes from a child-like understanding of the world to an adult maturity. Books such as Huckleberry Finn and Catcher in the Rye represent this genre and are two.....
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