Diary of a Stage Mother's Daughter

Diary of a Stage Mother's Daughter (2012) by Melissa Francis. Melissa Francis played the darling little girl named Cassandra that Michael Landon adopted in the TV series Little House on the Prairie. Unfortunately for her, this was probably the peak of her acting career. What is more significant for the book is her relationship with her mother, who is a stage mother of the worst kind -- investing her own worth in the success of her daughters, and relentlessly promoting her daughters' acting careers, then spending all the money they had earned instead of saving it for them when they became adults. In Melissa's case, she earned, as a child actor, a minimum of $250,000, none of which she ever saw. One of her mother's favorite abusive tricks was to push one of the girls (Melissa had an older sister named Tiffany) out of the car onto the side of the road, and then to drive off and leave her. The girls frequently had no idea what infraction they had committed to incur their mother's wrath, and ultimately, as an adult, Melissa cut off all ties to her mother. This is an interesting book, although it is a bit sketchy and lacking in depth. Francis' writing style is simplistic and not overly sophisticated, but it is clear and precise. I read this book with great interest, although it got less interesting after Melissa's acting career petered out and she went off to college. Still, a good book. Grade: B+