Ellen's Book of Life (Ellen Fremedon) [Hardcover]

Joan Givner (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 9 and up | Grade Level: 4 and up | Series: Ellen Fremedon

Ellen is excited. She's just won a provincial public speaking contest, and her new friends Dimsie and Catriona have invited her to visit them in Toronto for a month. She can't wait to sample all the fun of the big city, but she vows to write her mother, now bed-bound with MS, every day. Then, while she's away, the unthinkable happens: her mom dies. As a traumatized Ellen shuts out her best friend, Jenny, her father, brothers, and grandmother all try to cope with their grief and loss — sometimes in infuriating ways. Then she finds a letter her mother has left her, which piques her natural curiosity and sets her on a new mission. Ellen knew that she was adopted, but now she's received the tools she needs to find her birth mother. And she does, though the results are surprising. In Ellen's Book of Life, Joan Givner creates a moving and optimistic story about tolerance, compassion, and the power of family ties. And, as always, Ellen's cheeky twin brothers lighten the mood whenever discussions at the family dining table start getting a little too serious.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 5–7—In this adventure, events in Ellen's life move at such a dizzying pace that it's hard for readers to keep up. Ellen is asked to fill in for someone at a debating tournament, and although she has never competed before and the judge berates her for her sloppy appearance, she wins first place. As summer begins, she visits a friend in Toronto, but is quickly called home to Partridge Cove with the news that her mother, who suffered from MS, has died. Mum left a letter encouraging Ellen to find and get to know her birth mother. Although resistant at first, Ellen pursues the matter and discovers that her birth mother is Sarah, the abrasive Vancouver lawyer who judged the debate. As Ellen meets her previously unknown relatives, she is introduced to Judaism and finds her faith deepening. A subplot about a large corporation trying to build up the town's waterfront adds an environmental element, and as Sarah helps Ellen's dad fight the developer, a romantic bond blossoms. Givner portrays Ellen's anger after her mother's death and the family upheaval quite realistically, but the way that the rest of the events unfold so conveniently detracts from what could have been a powerful novel. Purchase only where the earlier books are popular.—Kim Dare, Fairfax County Public Schools, VA
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From Booklist

Continuing the story begun in Ellen Fremedon (2004), Ellen Fremedon, Journalist (2005), and Ellen Fremedon, Volunteer (2007), this first-person narrative deals with weightier matters than those in the earlier books. After the death of Ellen’s mother in an early chapter, she discovers the identity of her birth mother, Sarah, who seems reluctant to get to know her. In contrast, Sarah’s mother Rebecca welcomes Ellen warmly and enjoys introducing her to the family’s Jewish heritage. Though the novel takes on more issues than it (or Ellen) can handle convincingly, it is bolstered by the clarity and emotional candor of the writing. Grades 5-8. --Carolyn Phelan

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9 and up
  
• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: Groundwood Books (September 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0888998538
• ISBN-13: 978-0888998538
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,655,774 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Parents should read for perspective... not children, May 25, 2011

By 

parent-in-bloom - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ellen's Book of Life (Ellen Fremedon) (Paperback)

While at the library with my 10 year old daughter, we were looking ahead to summer reading and I suggested that this book looked interesting. I had read the back cover but not the inside dust jacket info. We got into the car and she was anxious to begin reading the book while we waited for her brother's baseball practice to end... She knew right away it was not a good fit for her because her mother (me) has MS like Ellen's mother in the book, and seeing that the book dealt with Ellen's mother's death from the disease was an automatic NO WAY for my daughter. I had not read through any part of carefully and I was suddenly kicking myself in disbelief that of all books in the library I randomly chose this one...
Thank goodness she read the inside cover before beginning. The concepts and emotion would have been way too much for her to handle with our own family's newness to life with a Mommy with MS.
Even if she didn't have a mother suffering the same debilitating disease this book and its severe issues (adoption, sickness,and death) are too much in one place. The author was on a role with having it be about a child deals with a parents sickness. Describing how it can alter and negatively affect their day to day lives and perspective, but having the mother die right away and then delving into the adoptive mother issue is just simply too much to handle for anyone.
I do think that the main characters vivid emotions and reactions to her mother's death are clear and true to the real emotions of anyone grieving the loss of a loved one (especially a preteen child) and I think all parents going through a terrible loss with their children would benefit from reading these parts ofthis book so that they could gain perspective into the thought process of theiri child and be able to see it from their angle.