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Diary of a Stage Mother's Daughter: A Memoir
by Melissa Francis
Published: 2012-11-06
Hardcover : 304 pages
Hardcover : 304 pages
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2 clubs reading this now
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The Glass Castle meets The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother in this dazzlingly honest and provocative family memoir by former child actress and current Fox Business Network anchor Melissa Francis.
When Melissa Francis was eight years old, she won the role of lifetime: playing Cassandra ...
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Introduction
The Glass Castle meets The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother in this dazzlingly honest and provocative family memoir by former child actress and current Fox Business Network anchor Melissa Francis.
When Melissa Francis was eight years old, she won the role of lifetime: playing Cassandra Cooper Ingalls, the little girl who was adopted with her brother (played by young Jason Bateman) by the Ingalls family on the world’s most famous primetime soap opera, Little House on the Prairie. Despite her age, she was already a veteran actress, living a charmed life, moving from one Hollywood set to the next. But behind the scenes, her success was fueled by the pride, pressure, and sometimes grinding cruelty of her stage mother, as fame and a mother’s ambition pushed her older sister deeper into the shadows.
Diary of a Stage Mother’s Daughter is a fascinating account of life as a child star in the 1980’s, and also a startling tale of a family under the care of a highly neurotic, dangerously competitive “tiger mother.” But perhaps most importantly, now that Melissa has two sons of her own, it’s a meditation on motherhood, and the value of pushing your children: how hard should you push a child to succeed, and at what point does your help turn into harm?
Excerpt
“Is this her sister?” the director asked.I smiled, ?aunting my two new teeth.
“Yes, I’m sorry,” Mom said. “My sitter fell through. I can take her in another room . . .”
“How do you feel about putting her in the tub with the other one? Does she sit up well?”
Mom lit up. “Oh, yes! She’d just love it. They usually bathe together, that’s why Tiffany isn’t smiling.” That and the thirty-?ve fully clothed strangers watching her.
Mom said that before she could ?nish her sentence, six hands had stripped me down and plopped me in the warm sudsy water. I let out a big laugh and slapped the surface of the water, catapulting a perfectly formed bubble to the tip of Tiffany’s round nose. She giggled. ...
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Discussion Questions
“Whether it was the achievements of her children or the cars in the driveway, Mom was determined to project an image of success, despite what was going on at home.”- Are there moments when the private and public image of the Francis family come into conflict?
- How were problems or arguments typically handled in the Francis home?
- What are the biggest differences between Melissa and Tiffany and when do they start to emerge?
- Mom tells Melissa she loves her at several points, yet one of Melissa’s final thoughts in the book is “I can love, even though I was not ultimately loved myself.” How are their two versions of love different? What has Melissa learned from her difficult childhood?
- What lessons might parents take from this book? If you’re a parent, were there moments that particularly resonated for you?
Weblinks
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Notes From the Author to the Bookclub
Melissa Francis enjoys discussing her book with her readers and is available for book club meetings as her schedule permits. If your book club would like to schedule a phone or Skype interview with her, please direct your request here: http://www.melissafrancisofficial.com/contact.php Melissa Francis is available to meet book groups in the NYC area.Book Club Recommendations
Recommended to book clubs by 1 of 2 members.
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