The Great Gilly Hopkins

Title: The Great Gilly Hopkins
Author: Katherine Paterson
Publisher: HarperCollins
Copyright: 1978 by Katherine Paterson
Pages: 160
Ages: 9-12
Genre: Fiction

Summary:
Galadriel (Gilly) Hopkins is a foster child who has been passed from family to family her whole life. Until now. Miss Ellis, Gilly’s social worker takes her to a woman named Mrs. Trotter. Trotter is not well educated and lives in a cluttered and dirty house. She has one other child named William Earnest (W.E.) who is developmentally slow. Gilly immediately decides that she hates it there. She makes fun of W.E. and Trotter and is then horrified when she finds out that Mr. Randolph (a man of color) comes over for dinner quite often. On top of this Gilly finds her school to be disgusting. She is equally horrified when she learns that her teacher is a woman of color as well. On her first day of school she gets into a fight and is quite pleased with herself when she discovers she’s drawn blood from the boy. The next day she meets a greasy girl named Agnes Stokes who seems up to no good. Gilly dislikes her but decides she might use her. All Gilly really wants is for her mother to come and get her. She treasures a picture of her mother and the postcard sent to her.
While eating dinner with Trotter, W.E. and Mr. Randolph, Gilly is asked to read to them. Refusing to read the Bible she runs next door to Mr. Randolph’s to find a book. While there, she finds some money in the bookcase. She takes it, and then goes back to read to everyone. That night Gilly plans to go back to Mr. Randolph’s to look for more money, and then buy a bus ticket to see her mother.
Gilly decides that she’ll need help in getting to Mr. Randolph’s money, so she starts being more friendly to Agnes and W.E.
Soon, Gilly catches up with her class at school and proceeds to pass everyone up. She is still feeling quite angry about her situation and decides to write her teacher a nasty letter/picture. Her teacher keeps her after class and thanks her for her letter. Gilly is floored, and bolts out the door.
Galadriel Hopkins was ready to get out. But in her haste she used both Agnes and W.E. to get the money from Mr. Randolph. It wasn’t much, especially when she had to give to her helpers. With this realization, Gilly decides she’ll have to work for her money, and begins cleaning Trotter and Mr. Randolph’s house. While attempting to get more money from Mr. Randolph’s house, she isn’t able to find any and gets desperate. She writes to her mother telling her that she hates it there and is living with a religious fanatic. She steals a stamp and sends her letter.
Finding out the Trotter received her support check, Gilly steals the money and runs to the bus station to buy her ticket. She succeeds, but then the police come and hand her back over to Trotter. Just as Gilly is beginning to understand that Trotter truly loves and cares about her, Gilly’s grandmother appears to tell Gilly she’s taking her away. What makes things worse is that Trotter, W.E. and Randolph all come down with the flu when she arrives so the place is a madhouse.
Once everyone is better, Trotter receives a visit from Mrs. Ellis and they talk to Gilly about going to live with her Grandmother. Gilly is extremely resistant, but eventually realizes she has to go. Her grandmother picks her up and lets her choose a room. Gilly chooses her Uncles old room. As Gilly settles in she writes Trotter and W.E. and they write back. While she settles, her grandmother tells her, her mother is coming to visit. When the get to the airport, Gilly’s mother is nothing like what Gilly remembers. She finds out the hard way that her mother didn’t want her and had lied. She calls Trotter for advice. In the end, Gilly returns to her grandmother “ready to go”.

Who would I recommend this book to?
I would recommend this book to children who are struggling. Foster children. Or Foster parents. Also anyone who likes books that are a little different. It’s not your traditional happy ending. It’s more realistic.

What problems might arise from this book?
Some problems this book could potentially cause are Gilly’s negativity towards blacks and those of lower income. Gilly is very negative and mischievous and can be very mean.

My response:
I liked this book because it showed how Gilly was able to grow. She started as a dysfunctional angry child and eventually learns that life isn’t fair and just about her. She learns to love Trotter and W.E.