Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons (1990, Trade Paperback).

An eleven-year-old girl must rely on wit and courage to survive in this award-winning debut novel, an Oprah Book Club selection.  Filled with lively humor, compassion, and intimacy. . . . Ellen Foster may be the most trustworthy character in recent fiction. —Alice Hoffman, The New York Times Book Review  When I was little, I would think of ways to kill my daddy. With that opening sentence we enter the childhood world of one of the most appealing young heroines in contemporary fiction. Her courage, her humor, and her wisdom are unforgettable as she tells her own story with stunning honesty and insight. This powerful novel, first published in 1987, has become an American classic.  Winner of the American Academy of Arts and Letters's Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction and the Ernest Hemingway Foundation's Citation for Fiction.  The life in this novel, the honesty of thought and eye and feeling and word! —Eudora Welty  The story of a redoubtable girl who overcomes adversity with humor, spunk, and determination. . . . She is a terrific kid, and Ellen Foster is a terrific book. —Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post Book World  [A] beautifully written story, compelling in its innocence, is sweet, funny, and sad. — Library Journal