The Great Gilly Hopkins by: Katherine Patterson

Genre: Contemporary Realistic Fiction
Publisher: HarperCollins
Copyright Date: 1978
Number of Pages: 148
Reading Level: 9-12

Summary:
This book is about an 11-year-old girl named Gilly Hopkins. She is a foster child who has been passed from foster home to foster home but it seems like no one can handle her. She was in a nice one for a while, but then they moved to Florida and left Gilly behind. That is when Gilly got mean. She was as unmanageable as a child could possibly be. She was also brilliant which makes her being unmanageable, even more unbearable! She is placed in a new home with a foster mom called Trotter is an uneducated unmarried woman who takes care of people. She is religious, she is overweight, she is messy, and she is experienced in raising foster kids. Trotter has another foster kid named William Ernest (W.E.). Gilly can't stand any of them. She soon finds out that Trotter feeds a black blind man every night, and not only is Gilly mean, but she is prejudice too. Not long after she moves there, she devises a plan to push every button she can to make her new family and her new teacher hate her. She is manipulative and often times cruel to the people that she is around, she swears just to shock people, she takes the Lord's name in vain, and she doesn't want any friends if they aren't useful to her.

However, behind this mean person, is a little girl who believes in fairy tales, but instead of believing that a prince will come for her, she believes that her mother will come get her. Her real mother. That is her only wish in life. She knows she is mean, she knows that she is cruel, but she is willing to give it up if Courtney (her mom) would come and rescue her from this awful situation that Gilly is in. She gets an occasional letter from her Mom and so Gilly knows her address. She writes Courtney a letter describing how awful it is to live with the people she is with and she tells her to send her money as soon as possible so that Gilly can go live with her.

In the process of getting a book down from the shelf at Mr. Randolph's(the blind, black next door neighbor) Gilly discovers money hidden between the books. She creates a plan to steal this money from Mr. Randolph so that she could buy a ticket to California where her mother lives. She steals the money but it is not nearly enough to get her to where she wants to go. She ends up stealing money from Trotter's purse (money that Trotter got from the collecting tin at church that she was going to take to the bank) and goes and buys her ticket. While she is waiting at the bus station Trotter gets called and she comes to take Gilly home again.

Throughout the next couple months, there is a change in Gilly. She starts to really care about the family that she is with. She teaches W.E. how to stand up for himself, she helps Trotter around the house, she loses her prejudice and cares deeply about Mr. Randolph too. Trotter was such a good influence and Gilly knew that. Right before Thanksgiving, everyone in the house got sick except for Gilly. So, she has to care for everyone in the house. She doesn't mind, but it doesn't make her tired. Come Thanksgiving day there is a knock on the door, and Gilly answers. Come to find out, this woman is her grandmother who didn't even know she had a granddaughter. She promises to take Gilly out of Trotter's home at once thinking that Gilly must hate it there. Gilly doesn't understand why she would think that. But then her grandmother refers to the letter that Gilly sent to her real mother and realizes that she made this happen. She finally found a place that she belonged and was loved and she ruined it because of a letter that she wrote.

By law, she has to go live with her grandma. She is unhappy to leave, but Trotter has taught her well enough that she is polite about it. Around Christmas time Gilly finds out that her mother is coming! Her dreams are coming true! Her mother was going to come and take her away! But, when her mother comes nothing goes as planned. Apparently, Gilly's grandma paid her mother to come and visit. She doesn't even want to be there. Most of all, she doesn't want Gilly. Gilly called Trotter to tell her that she wants to return to live with her, but Trotter said no. She explained that her grandmother needed her now. For probably the first time in Gilly's life she tells someone that she loves her; Trotter of course. Then, she returns to her grandmother and her mom an decides that whatever she does, she wants to make Trotter proud.

Ultimately Gilly learns that life is only happy when there is someone you can love and who loves you in return. She realizes that as long as there is a place to call home and people there who care abut you, it is OK to open up and love people.

Who would benefit from reading this book/Who would I recommend this book to?
From what I heard, this book accurately portrays a lot of foster kids. It is a very realistic book. It is definitley something that I can believe happens. I actually don't know who I would recommend this book to. I think that it is a good book to use in teaching people the real meaning of life. I would recommend it to a high school teacher who wants to teach kids that it is important to love people and to care and be cared for.

What problems/conflicts could this book potentially cause?
Well, there is swearing, stealing, racism, using, religion, etc... This didn't get placed on the most banned book list for nothing. This is a dangerous book to give to little children. I wouldn't want my young children to learn the words that Gilly knows, and most of all to start using them. I know that it has a good moral, but a lot of kids don't think of a moral they just like the story. I would definitely only give this to people who are old enough to understand and have made decisions on what is right and wrong. There are a lot of parents, I am sure, that wouldn't even let their kids read this book based on the content. I will let my kids read this when they are old enough.

My Reaction:

When I first started reading this book, it made me mad. I didn't like Gilly at all. She was just a bratty kid who wanted her way. Maybe it reminded me too much of babysitting.... I actually told my husband that I was mad that I had to be reading this. But, Whenever that happens, I know that means that I am reading a superbly written book. As I was reading I kept thinking it was a real story. Of course, by the end, I loved it and loved the moral that it teaches. But I do believe that this actually happens, and that there are kids out there who feel the same way Gilly did about being shunted from house to house.... I can understand the great need and desire to be loved. It is a very believable book that I feel lucky to have read.