The Great Gilly Hopkins

The Great Gilly Hopkins	Harper Collins, Publishers
Written by Katherine Paterson	1987
Contemporary Realism	160 pages
Reading Level ages 9-12	Newberry Award

Summary

Galadriel Hopkins has decided to be mean. She swears and leaves gum under the car door handles. If she is mean, they might send her back to her mom. She has been in the foster home system since she was three. She has a picture of her mother and gets letters now and then. She is sent to the Trotters. She is greeted by a large woman who is unfazed by Gilly’s rude manner. Gilly opens a letter from her mother and gets the idea to complain and ask for a rescue. Gilly is sent to the neighbor next door to invite him to dinner. An old blind man, Mr. Randolph, answers the door. Gilly is shocked; he is black! She can’t believe Trotter expects her to hold his hand. After dinner, she goes over to his house to find a book to read aloud for him. Behind the book she finds money. Gilly resolves to find a way to search around his house to get enough money to get a bus ticket to San Francisco to live with her mother. She involves the quiet William Earnest who is extremely shy and is scared of Gilly. They found some, but not enough. Gilly saw Trotter’s wallet open and took the bills inside. She makes it to the train station, but is held up by police until Trotter comes. Trotter doesn’t yell at her like the other parents and makes Gilly want to be better by doing chores. She begins to try in school and helps William Earnest to read and defend himself. She starts to see the odd three as her family and loves them. One day, while everyone is sick and Gilly is nursing them back to health, a woman came to the door. It was Gilly’s maternal grandmother who received Gilly’s angry letter and is shocked and promised to get Gilly away from there. When the agent comes to take Gilly, she doesn’t want to go. She wants to stay with Trotter. It was hard for her to leave, but slowly comes to accept her grandmother, Nonnie. Christmas time is drawing closer and she hears that her mother is actually coming for Christmas. She can’t wait! When her mother comes off the plane, Gilly can’t believe her eyes. Her mother isn’t at all what Gilly imagined her to be. Courtney is rude and selfish and only came because Nonnie paid for her fares. Gilly is shocked and hurt. She runs to the bathroom and sneaks to the telephones near the door. She calls Trotter, angry, upset and hurt. She wants to come home but Trotter said it wouldn’t be fair for her grandmother, since Gilly is all she has. Gilly stays to make Trotter proud.

Reaction

I loved reading this book. It had a great moral of expectations aren’t always how it is imagined and home is where you make it. Gilly was a complicated character. She was tough and mean, but underneath were insecurities and the desire to be wanted and loved. Trotter was more a mother figure than her actual mother. The symbolism of the bubble gum popping at the beginning shows how the book will end, with all the plans Gilly made and the expectations she had popping in her face.

Potential Problems

Gilly is not a nice person at the beginning of the book. She tells lies, swears, calls others names, and is overall rude. But as the story progresses, she lowers her guard and shows a different side of her, one with love and care. She still has some rough patches, but those are what make her believable.

Recommendations

I would recommend this book to students who were interested or experienced the foster care system. This would be a good introduction to an experience in the system.