Life In The Orphanage [Paperback]

Dave Foster (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 28, 1997

This book offers the reader a moving story as seen from inside a mid-century orphanage. After the death of his father, the author goes with his mother, two sisters and brother to live in an orphanage. Their mother planned to live there until a conflict with the superintendent caused her to leave. Foster tells how the four siblings then devise a tight family bond of kinship. He employs a dozen broad topics to describe the orphanage, and opens the entire range of emotions he experienced while growing up.

Editorial Reviews

From the Author

The author dedicates this book to anyone who has lived in an orphanage or who has traveled through childhood without the guidance and care of a loving parent.

About the Author

Dave was born in Knoxville and lived 15 years at the Odd Fellows Home near Clarksville. He later earned a mechanical engineering degree at the University of Tennessee.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 168 pages
• Publisher: Top Tenn Press, Incorporated (November 28, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0964461315
• ISBN-13: 978-0964461314
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,827,903 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars History book and Family Memoir, February 26, 2000

By 

Colleen M. McDonald - See all my reviews

This review is from: Life In The Orphanage (Paperback)

This book is the inspiring story of a young man who lived in an orphanage (despite the fact that his mother was still living)between the ages of 4 and 18,during the Depression and World War II. Foster chronicles the details of institutional life and the minuses and pluses of being raised in the "Odd Fellows Home"-- the hardships that made his life difficult there (i.e., physical abuse by the superintendent, separation from his mother, hard physical labor*)and the positive lessons he learned that helped him succeed in the "outside world" after he left the Home (i.e., a commitment to earning a living through his brains rather than his muscle, a solid work ethic and sense of self-discipline, many useful skills).

Because the author's focus is on his own past,I believe this book is of primary interest as a family memoir (There was occasionally excessive detail for the average reader-- i.e., in "Chapter 4, Work Detail). and historical document. (The book's dedication-- to those "who have lived in an orphanage" suggests this perspective, as well.) The book does NOT concern itself with the issue of child welfare TODAY;I wondered what conclusions the author might have drawn from his own experience that might be useful for those who establish policies for foster care and group home living for children and youth today.

* The heavy schedule of chores for children as young as 6 comes across as exploitative, and perhaps it truly was. At the same time, child labor standards and expectations have changed enormously since Foster's childhood, and I wondered how Foster's work life as a youngster compared with that of kids raised in "ordinary" farm families during the Depression.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Politicians are wrong, December 7, 1999

By 

Dean Warren (Orlando, Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Life In The Orphanage (Paperback)

"Orphanage" is a moving account of an intelligent, moral boy who loses his parents at the age of four and grows up in an orphanage. The reviewer wonders how Mr. Foster came through so well. Recently, a few politicians have advocated we tear children from their single mothers on welfare and slip them into "institutions." When we read this account of cruel superintendents, of child labor in the fields, and of brutal loneliness, we shudder at the proposal. The reviewer congratulates Mr. Foster on a well written and emotionally true book.