Books on the Bayou Booklist

If You Liked Ellen Foster . . .

Triumph over adversity is a popular subject in fiction and nonfiction.  Here are some books to consider if you enjoyed Ellen Foster’s story. The list below is linked to Houston Public Library's catalog. For other libraries please check your catalog for available copies : Fort Bend County Libraries, Harris County Public Library , Houston Community College, and Memorial County Memorial Library System.

 

The following annotations come from NextReads, a service of NoveList. To access NoveList’s extensive resources for readers, see your library’s web site (requires a library card number to log in).

For Adults—Fiction

Bastard out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison
Tired of being labeled white trash, Ruth Anne Boatwright longs to escape from her hometown, and especially from Daddy Glen and his mean-spirited jealousy.

Vinegar Hill by A. Manette Ansay
Ellen Grier returns with her husband and children to their Midwestern Catholic hometown to live with her narrow-minded in-laws, coping with the family's eccentricity and confronting a hidden secret festering in her husband's past.

The Life All Around Me by Kaye Gibbons
In the sequel to Ellen Foster, the now-fifteen-year-old Ellen settles into a permanent home with a new mother, where she manages her conflicted feelings with ritual visits to the county fair, by writing poetry, and developing a relationship with marriage-oriented Stuart. Gibbons  (Also available: CD audiobook  & large print.)

Tending to Virginia by Jill McCorkle
Virginia Suzanne Turner faces difficult times during her pregnancy while her cousin, Cindy turns to a psychiatrist.

Lullabies for Little Criminals by Heather O’Neill
Living with her heroin addict father, thirteen-year-old Baby catches the eye of the charismatic Alphonse, who possesses a string of girls who do his bidding. Baby is sent to reform school, but when she ultimately gains her freedom, she begins to discover that only she possesses the power to save herself.

The Darkest Child by Delores Phillips
Fourteen-year-old Tangy Mae tells of the brutal physical and mental abuse that her mother inflicts on her and her ten siblings

Also consider books by Elizabeth Berg, Carson McCullers, Robert Morgan, Anne Rivers Siddons, Alice Walker and Eudora Welty.

For Adults—Nonfiction

When Rabbit Howls by Truddi Chase
Truddi Chase, who struggled with a life impacted by child abuse and multiple personality disorder, writes a memoir that describes her therapy and the breakthroughs that led to her recovery.

Sickened by Julie Gregory
The author describes growing up as the victim of Munchausen by proxy, a form of child abuse in which her mother invented or caused a series of illnesses and ailments, and her struggle to escape her mother's problems to rebuild her life.

Somebody’s Someone by Regina Louise
A foster-care child recounts her abandonment by her parents, her victimization at the hands of more than thirty abusive foster caretakers, her rediscovery of her dysfunctional birth parents, and her ongoing quest to find love and acceptance.

Coming of Age in Mississippi by Anne Moody
Anne Moody provides a first person account of growing up black in the rural South during the nineteen forties and fifties.

A Child Called “It” by Dave Pelzer
Pelzer tells the story of his abuse as a child, at the hands of his alcoholic mother.  He continues the story of his life in The Lost Boy (1997) and A Man Named Dave (1999).  (Also available: ebook.)

For Teens—Fiction

Billie Standish Was Here by Nancy Crocker
When the river jeopardizes the levee and most of the town leaves, Miss Lydia, an elderly neighbor, and Billie form a friendship that withstands tragedy and time.

Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen
When she is abandoned by her alcoholic mother, high school senior Ruby winds up living with Cora, the sister she has not seen for ten years, and learns about Cora's new life, what makes a family, how to allow people to help her when she needs it, and that she too has something to offer others.

Scout by Christine Ford
After her mother dies, eleven-year-old Cecelia befriends a new boy at school, but soon realizes that the scruffy youth's home life is the reason for his introspective personality, which is so much like her own.

Surviving the Applewhites by Stephanie Tolan
Jake, a budding juvenile delinquent, is sent for home schooling to the arty and eccentric Applewhite family's Creative Academy, where he discovers talents and interests he never knew he had.

For Older Kids—Fiction

The Watsons Go to Birmingham by Christopher Paul Curtis
The ordinary interactions and everyday routines of the Watsons, an African American family living in Flint, Michigan, are drastically changed after they go to visit Grandma in Alabama in the summer of 1963. (Also available: CD audiobook , downloadable audiobook & large print)

Where I’d Like to Be by Frances Dowell
A group of foster children build a home of their own. Dowell (Also available: large print.)

The Road to Paris by Nikki Grimes
Inconsolable at being separated from her older brother, eight-year-old Paris is apprehensive about her new foster family but just as she learns to trust them, she faces a life-changing decision.

Way Down Deep by Ruth White
In the West Virginia town of Way Down Deep in the 1950s, a foundling called Ruby June is happily living with Miss Arbutus at the local boarding house when suddenly, after the arrival of a family of outsiders, the mystery of Ruby's past begins to unravel.

What I Call Life by Jill Wolfson
Placed in a group foster home, eleven-year-old Cal Lavender learns how to cope with life from the four other girls who live there and from their storytelling guardian, the Knitting Lady.

For Younger Kids—Fiction

One of the Problems of Everett Anderson by Lucille Clifton
Everett Anderson wonders how he can help his friend Greg, who appears to be a victim of child abuse.

The Piano by William Miller
A young black girl's love of music leads her to a job in the home of an older white woman who not only teaches her to play the piano but also about caring for others.

Freedom on the Menu by Carole Weatherford
The 1960 civil rights sit-ins at the Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, are seen through the eyes of a young Southern black girl.

Freedom Summer by Deborah Wiles
In 1964, Joe is pleased that a new law will allow his best friend John Henry to share the town pool and other public places with him, but he is dismayed to find that prejudice still exists.