I read The World All Around Me before reading Ellen Foster and, contrary to the smug opinion of the pretentious review in USA Today, the second book most decidedly does stand on its own. After later reading Ellen Foster, it seemed to me that her voice had matured in the second book, as one might expect of a child who has come into her own. Given that both books are, at their foundations, at least semi-autobiographical, that is not at all surprising.
