The Great Gilly Hopkins

Author: Katherine Paterson

Publishing:  HarperCollins Publishers

Number of Pages: Paperback—178 pages

Genre:  Realistic Fiction

Reading Level:  Ages 9-12

Summary: This book is about Gilly Hopkins, an eleven-year-old girl who is without her parents.  For most of her life she has gone from Foster home to foster home.   Gilly believes, though, that her mother Courtney will come get her and care for her someday.  At the start of the book we see Gilly arrive at her new foster mothers house, Maime Trotter.  William Ernest lives with Trotter and this is whom Gilly finds pleasure in bullying (Gilly is often angry and cynical, although she is also very smart and self-reliant).  Gilly is forced to deal with her problem of racism, as her teacher and Trotter’s blind friend are both African American.  When Gilly gets a postcard from her mother with a return address she writes back and says how horrible the foster home is that she is at and she begs to be rescued.  Shortly after, Gilly makes the plan to escape and go to her mother and be with her.  Gilly makes a plan to steal some money that she discovered at Mr. Randolph’s house.  She tries to leave but is caught by a police officer, and then she returns home with Trotter.  After a while, Gilly realizes that she likes living with Trotter and William Ernest.  Just as Gilly is finally settled in, her biological grandmother comes to get her because of the desperate plea that she put in her letter to her mother.  She is sad to leave Trotter and wishes that she doesn’t have to but she goes with her grandmother anyway.  That Christmas she finds out that her mother is coming to visit and Gilly gets really excited.  When she meets her mother though, she finds out that the only reason she came is because her mom bought the ticket for her and asked her to come.  This makes Gilly sad and angry so she calls Trotter and begs her to come get her and take her home.  Trotter explains that she is at home and she needs to cope with her situation and make the best of it—Gilly does just that, so that she can make Trotter proud.

My Reaction to the Book:  I actually really liked this book.  I remember reading it in fifth grade a liking it, so it was fun to be able to read it again.  I even think I liked it better this second time around because it was easier for me to be able to apply this in actual life and see where things like this would happen. 

Potential Problems:  Gilly tends to swear a bit, and she takes the Lord’s name in vain quite often.  She also says some very rude and undeserving things to and about people.  If this were a book read in a classroom then it would definitely be in need of some serious discussion on the rights and wrongs of the things that she says and does. 

Recommendations:  I think that I would definitely recommend this book to anyone.  It is a great book to learn from and it opens up your eyes to the world a little more.  Also it is just a very funny book, Gilly is quite funny throughout the whole book.