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"When I was little I would think of ways to kill my daddy." [P.1], says eleven-year-old Ellen. Thus the young narrator begins her life-story, in the process painting an extraordinary self-portrait. “” is a powerful story of a young girl growing ....

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... I believe that she uses this name because throughout the book Ellen is always taking care of someone beside herself: her colored friend, Starletta, and her dying mother. Ellen's parents die, and her grandmother dies, but this isn’t really a great loss for Ellen. Her mother was a frail and sick woman whom Ellen was constantly protecting from her drunken father. For a time, Ellen’s Art teacher, Julia, and her husband move Ellen into their home. She feels, for the first time, that she is apart of a loving family. She describes, in the book, “ the three of us could pass for a family on the street.” {P. 55} Unfortunately, the juvenile courts syst ...