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The Great Gilly Hopkins

3.81 of 5 stars 3.81 · rating details · 8,489 ratings · 513 reviews

Eleven-year-old Gilly has been stuck in more foster families than she can remember, and she's disliked them all. She has a county-wide reputation for being brash, brilliant, and completely unmanageable. So when she's sent to live with the Trotters -- by far the strangest family yet -- Gilly decides to put her sharp mind to work. Before long she's devised an elaborate schem...more

Paperback, 192 pages

Published June 17th 1987 by HarperCollins (first published 1978)

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Sep 06, 2009 Josiah rated it 5 of 5 stars

Katherine Paterson, a year after writing her classic, "Bridge to Terabithia", once again blew my mind and amazed me with this book.
The feeling in The Great Gilly Hopkins is just so stark and so easy to identify with, and the sharp mind of Gilly herself brings her situations into clear and germane focus.
Her situation may be somewhat unusual, but the feelings that Gilly has can be understood by anyone, and these feelings are available in both abundance and quality to the reader. I don't know if...more

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Aug 11, 2011 Lisa Rathbun added it

Gilly has moved from one foster home to another for years and is tough and angry. She hides her mother's picture in her suitcase and longs to be with her. She uses a lot of bad language (no f-bombs; this is a kid's book), but by the end of the book, the ugliness isn't Gilly's vocabulary or the blind old man next door or her hugely obese, sloppy, and loving foster mother. What is truly ugly is Courtney, over whose beautiful picture Gilly has been yearning all her life. We get so little informatio...more

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Feb 18, 2009 Jennifer rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Good middle grade novel--its character driven, so for reluctant readers, you might have a struggle getting them into it. Boys may not find the female protagonist appealing (though she's a pretty tough & streetwise character for the time period it was written in.) We did it books on tape. My fourth grader loved it (the one that reads a Harry Potter novel in 6 hours); my six grader couldn't stand it (she's a tough one to get to read--it takes her three weeks to get through a Harry Potter novel...more

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Jan 07, 2009 K8 rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: childrens-lit, ya-lit

What I really like: Paterson never takes the easy way out and it doesn't have a traditional 'happy ending.' There are things to be happy about in the end - Gilly has grown up and she learns to accept some emotional attachments. And she is smart.

I can see where some stuffy readers wouldn't like Gilly's behavior. She's a foul-mouthed brat at the beginning of the book. She's damaged; she's been passed around several foster homes and, after an early disappointment, tries to sabotage each placement t...more

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May 07, 2013 cait rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: junior-fiction, historical-fiction

There’s something bittersweet about Katherine Paterson’s books. The endings are so…unsatisfying. The author draws you into her world, weaves words together so simply, so beautifully, that you can’t help but swallow them whole—and then, just when the story is beginning, the words run out. That leaves you feeling strange. Half in the book, half out. And, afterwards, you’re never really happy.

My favourite of her books has to be The Bridge to Terebithia, but The Great Gilly Hopkins follows pretty cl...more

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Apr 24, 2013 Ann Carpenter rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: newbery, realistic

As I was reading the book, I kept thinking that while it was very well written, it was also a pretty standard depiction of a girl in foster care. Then I realized that this is one of the first books to feature a character of this nature, that all of the other books are copying this one, rather than the other way around.

The book was written in 1978, the year before I was born. It has aged very well. There are a handful of dated TV references, but luckily they are largely the sort of things that h...more

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Apr 01, 2013 Jen Ferguson rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book was so great. I loved Gilly and never wanted her story to end.

Gilly is an orphan who has bounced around foster homes. She seems to do whatever it takes to try to not get too close to her foster families. As she gets dropped off at a new home, she is determined to play games and make them miserable. She makes rude comments, keeps to herself in her room, and makes mean faces at the little boy who already lives there.

Gilly goes to live with Trotter, an overweight woman, and W.E., a scare...more This book was so great. I loved Gilly and never wanted her story to end.

Gilly is an orphan who has bounced around foster homes. She seems to do whatever it takes to try to not get too close to her foster families. As she gets dropped off at a new home, she is determined to play games and make them miserable. She makes rude comments, keeps to herself in her room, and makes mean faces at the little boy who already lives there.

Gilly goes to live with Trotter, an overweight woman, and W.E., a scared, shy little orphan boy who's already living with Ms. Trotter when she arrives. She is immediately disgusted with the sight of Ms. Trotter and her dusty house. She acts rudely to her new foster family and is also rude to their neighbor, Mr. Randolph, the blind man that joins them for dinner. It is apparent through her thoughts and comments that she is somewhat racist too.

She longs to have a "perfect" life with her mother, Courtney, and she treasures the postcard her mother recently mailed her.

At school, Gilly distances herself from friends too and even gets in a fight with 6 boys on the first day. She also writes her African American teacher a rude card to try to upset her.

One night while going to grab a book to read to Mr. Randolph from his house, Gilly discovers some cash hidden in his bookshelves. This leads her to thinking that if she can find more money that she can run away and live go live with her mother.

Once she has enough money, (she steals more from Mr. Randolph and from Ms. Trotter), she attempts to runaway. However, she gets caught. Her social worker tries to pull her from Ms. Trotter, but Gilly willingly goes back when W.E. is crying for her.

Prior to establishing relationships with her new family, she sent her mom an exaggerated letter about her "terrible" living conditions with Ms. Trotter. As a result, her mother sends her Grandma
to rescue her.

Gilly gets pulled from her home/life with Ms. Trotter and must go live with her grandma. Her mom comes to visit and she thinks they will live together, but she quickly realizes that her mom's visit is just a quick drop in.

Gilly longs to be back with the Trotter, W.E., and Mr. Randolph. (less)

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Mar 15, 2013 Abby rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: for-school

I'm pretty sure that Katherine Patterson can only write great stories. Her characters are always real, and they deal with real problems, and the relationships are always wonderful!
The protagonist here is Gilly Hopkins, an eleven-year-old foster child who believes that her mother loves her and wants to be with her, but in the meantime, she hops from home to home and is an awful brat. She ends up at a unique home with Ms. Trotter, a fat, single woman who has been taking care of foster children for...more

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Feb 02, 2013 Stacey rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: children-books

Gilly is a foster child who is being moved to a new foster house and family. Mrs. Trotter, William Ernest and the next door neighbor Mr. Randolph are here to help her with the most recent change. But all the while Gilly feels that she is just waiting and waiting for her mom, Courtney Rutherford Hopkins to come and pick her up. My cover has the saying, “Everyone wants a family and a place to call home.” And that is exactly what Gilly is looking for.
Starting this book I was somewhat interested, I...more

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Nov 15, 2012 Malia Likes Watermelon rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book is about a girl named Gilly who gets adopted by a family. Gilly at first does not like her new family. But once you get more into this book, she discovers she ends up liking this respectful family.
This book is nonfiction. Some of this book's strengths are that the characters have different personalities, which makes the book more intresting. For an example, Gilly can be rude but the family she lives with is respectful and the two personalities make the book better. Another strength i...more

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Oct 31, 2012 Lacey Heart rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I like this book. I didn't find it that much funny though. But it was very suspensful. I read it about 3 years ago when I was 11. I wonder, is there any other 13 year old girls that read this book? I don't want to be the only 13 year old girl that still reads Gilly Hopkins. I'll admit, at first I hated Gilly. I thought she was mean and her attitude was ugly. But when I got to the part about her crying at the sight of Courtny's picture, I felt so sorry for her. Although I am wondering why Courtne...more

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Feb 05, 2012 Callie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The Great Gilly Hopkins was published in 1978, which means I first read it when I was 9 or 10 years old and approximately the same age as Gilly. I recall I liked the book, and I liked Gilly. I felt it was a great injustice that Gilly could not stay with Trotter, William Ernest, and Mr. Randolph in Thompson Park.

Reading the book as an adult has been a different experience and it is worthwhile. Gilly--like many of us--aspires to live in a fantasy where she is wanted and beautiful. Gilly is sure h...more

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Feb 01, 2012 Roger DeBlanck rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: juvenile-books

Paterson exposes the tough life of foster children through the character of Gilly Hopkins, a young girl of great depth and complexity. Gilly pushes people away before they get too close. She’s afraid to open-up and be loved because she doesn’t want to deal with the possibility of rejection all over again. She’s extremely intelligent, but full of anger. She wants someone to love her so she won’t be a foster child anymore. But instead of letting those like Trotter in, she dreams of an ideal love f...more

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Oct 18, 2011 Linda Lipko rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: newbery-winner, young-adult

The author has the unique honor of receiving two Newbery Medals, one for The Bridge to Terabithia and another for Jacob I have Loved. The Great Gilly Hopkins is a 1979 Newbery honor book.

It is obvious that Paterson knows the heart and soul of young adults. Her writings provide clear insights into children facing troubled situations.

Galadriel (Gilly) Hopkins is an angry, manipulative 11 year old. Shuffled from many foster homes, she flips a cold, nasty attitude to anyone who dares to walk in her...more

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Oct 04, 2011 Allison rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary-realistic-fiction, strong-female-lead, tween

This is realistic fiction with a vengence! Any writer who feels pressured to end their book with a happy ending needs to read Gilly Hopkins first. I started out this book rather ambivalently. Gilly is one angry little girl (though, really, who can blame her), and reading her thoughts and moods in the first-person omnicient narrative voice was at first a little intense. It just wasn't what I was expecting, I guess. (Also, because this book was written in 1978 there is some pretty serious discussi...more

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Sep 24, 2011 Leeann rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book was published in 1978, so when I used it in my 7th grade class I found there were a few disconnects with the kids.

First of all, there is some sensitivity training when teaching this book....Gilly is a foster child who has been moved around a lot, so she has a lot of anger and mistrust...

She also has some issues with being racist. She uses the term "colored" and tells about 1/2 her class being black, and her teacher is black as well. It isn't until the middle of the book that she reali...more

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Jun 25, 2011 Rebecca rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I don't have any children of my own, but every once in a while I get on a YA reading kick. This summer, it's been a combination of recent Newbery Medal and Honor books and ones I remember reading when I was around eight or nine. Carl Hiaasen's Scat and The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate were a delight; Jane-Emily was a disappointment.

So I was around eight or nine when I read The Great Gilly Hopkins. I remember being horrified at the life of a foster child in a filthy household. This was most li...more

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Dec 01, 2010 Rosibel rated it 5 of 5 stars

Have you ever wonder how does it feel being in foster care? Or even being a foster child? Have you ever felt destroyed being apart from your family? Well In the book “THE GREAT GILLY HOPKINS “ BY: Katherine Paterson the main character knows how it feels.

In “The Great Gilly Hopkings “by: Katherine Paterson starts with an eleven years old foster child Gilly Hopkins who wish she could get out of foster care and go back having a real family, but Gilly doesn’t know were her mother is at right now....more

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Jul 27, 2010 Joann rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: newberry-winners, young-adult

I really did not like this book. I have a difficult time seeing its purpose or value. It was to me a glorification of a bully. The main character was rude, disrespectful, and often down right mean. I understand that the character had a hard life but why do authors feel that creating heroic figures out of characters with terrible attitudes is appropriate? Gilly never faces any direct consequences for her bad behavior and there never comes a point of personal improvement or change.

Perhaps I am jus...more

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Jun 12, 2010 Willie Butts rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: eng-353

Although this novel is comical at times when I look below the surface of this novel and look a little dipper I believe that the author is bringing to light a problem that we have in our foster care system, children are being passed along from one family to another never having a sense of security, comfort or happiness, left to their own devices as they attempt to survive in a world that do not love or care for them.
The setting for this novel seems to represent how Gilly feel’s about life. After...more

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Jul 13, 2012 Auburn Hemsley rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult

I don't know how, in all my years of avid reading, I have never come across this book!!! I was crying in the final pages! Like it or not, the reader is forcedto fall in love with not-so-loveable main character. This is a moving story that does not have a typical happy ending, but instead, holds a tough life lesson about accepting the concequences for the choices made in life.

Gilly Hopkins has a seemingly hardened heart from being a "foster" child and moving every year from home to home for bein...more

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Jun 23, 2011 Nakyzha rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book is about an 11yr.old girl named Gilly who's been put into a foster home and has been adopted by many families because her mother left her. None of her foster families have been able to tame her but when she moves in with the trotters she puts her brilliant mind to work. Gilly makes a plan to go see her birth mother . Before she starts her plan she gets to know her new family Gilly starts to write her mother (Courtney) about her plan to come see her . Then Gilly starts to steal money fr...more

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May 13, 2011 Rain Misoa rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: No one! But I suppose those with a strong-stomach.

Recommended to Rain by: Nicole Terazue, though she didn't like it either.

The pain! Oh, the pain! I cannot begin to tell you how much this book hurts me. I just... can't even begin to understand why such a book was written in the first place. It's so depressing... and not in a good way! The message in the book is just so horrible to be given to children that I don't think any child should read this! This can literally break a child's spirit! That's how bad the message of this book is! I didn't enjoy this book at all!

Paterson's books, and I do mean all of them, are so...more The pain! Oh, the pain! I cannot begin to tell you how much this book hurts me. I just... can't even begin to understand why such a book was written in the first place. It's so depressing... and not in a good way! The message in the book is just so horrible to be given to children that I don't think any child should read this! This can literally break a child's spirit! That's how bad the message of this book is! I didn't enjoy this book at all!

Paterson's books, and I do mean all of them, are so depressing that I don't want to pick up another one ever again! They all have the same meaning of how life isn't fair, we have to deal with our problems, there's no such thing as happy endings, etc. I hate these books for being so pessimistic! Why must we think of life as "it sucks, deal with it"? It makes no sense to me. I don't like that message and I don't agree with it! The only good thing I can say about this book is the fact that Paterson's writing improved greatly! There are no longer chunks of the book that are missing. It's all there and you don't have to re-read anything. Thank God because I wouldn't want to read any parts of this book again!

I can appreciate wanting to write a story about foster care children and how it's rough on them but that doesn't mean you have to make it seem completely hopeless for them! Gilly, the main character, was a foster child that was taken from home to home and it effected her in such a way that she turned into a bratty girl who sweared, got into fights, was a racist, and a thief! Not to mention a big manipulator. These things don't bother me as much because in the novel, you see her grow into a better person. However, her ending was just horrible. I know not everything is suppose to have a happy ending but what kind of ending was that!? The message written there was nothing but pure hopelessness! How horrible it must be for children to read this and get that sense out of life!

I would have to say that I did enjoy some of the other characters. Trotter was Gilly's foster mother and she was so sweet and caring. She looked out for both Gilly and William Ernest. The only thing I hate about her was the fact Paterson used her to convey her "message." William Ernest was such a cute little boy! Very intelligent and I loved how he said "Pow!" all the time! Mr. Randolph: Adorable! Simply adorable! I could read to him all day! Miss Harris, her teacher, was fierce! Don't mess with her or she'll tear you a new one! XD The one character that I hated, other than Gilly at the beginning, was her mother, Courtney. It's because of her that Gilly turned out so messed up. She never cared for the child and that's why Gilly's life was torn in two. I feel sorry for the girl...

I suppose the book could be enjoyed by some... well, very few. It's just a horrible book, in all honesty. I don't like it. I'm not sure why things must be looked upon in such a negative light. I understand not everything is all sugar and rainbows... but there should have been another meaning in the book other than, "You ruined your life and there's nothing else you can do about it." I could have handle the sad ending a bit better if there was some positivity to it. But no. None whatsoever. I wanted to give this book a two star rating because I did enjoy some of the characters but I just cannot overlook the ending. Perhaps people who are more stone-stomach than I can handle this book. If not, then skip it. You are not missing out on much.(less)

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Jun 13, 2010 Jared Burton rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: english-353

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Paterson, Katherine. The Great Gilly Hopkins. New York: HarperCollins Publishers Inc., 1978.
The Great Gilly Hopkins, by Katherine Paterson, is a realistic fiction novel about a young orphan girl and her journey to understand the realities of life and all its bitterness. In the story, young Gilly, or Galadriel, is a short tempered little girl who does not want to give anyone a chance except her mother who lives in California. Gilly finds herself in custody of Mrs. Trotter, a foster mother who al...more Paterson, Katherine. The Great Gilly Hopkins. New York: HarperCollins Publishers Inc., 1978.
The Great Gilly Hopkins, by Katherine Paterson, is a realistic fiction novel about a young orphan girl and her journey to understand the realities of life and all its bitterness. In the story, young Gilly, or Galadriel, is a short tempered little girl who does not want to give anyone a chance except her mother who lives in California. Gilly finds herself in custody of Mrs. Trotter, a foster mother who also looks after a younger boy by the name of William Earnest, as well as their elderly neighbor, Mr. Randolph. At first, Gilly despises all three of them, writes an over dramatized letter to her mom describing her horrible situation, and then attempts to escape to California. When she doesn't' succeed, Gilly finally begins to grow attached to the family, only to be taken away by her grandmother, who received a letter from Gilly's mom, who had received Gilly's initial letter. The story ends with a sad but most realistic ending of life and how mean and unfair it can really be.
As a realistic fiction novel this book does quite well. The setting is in a real town on the east coast. The characters are not rich or magical, making them human in all aspects with all their own flaws, including Gilly. The plot is of one that is beginning to occur more and more in today's society, orphanage and broken families. There are a few themes mixed into this story. Themes such as the acceptance of loss, and individual perseverance (Russell, 237). The fact that the book ends with Gilly saying goodbye to Trotter on the telephone, and then accepting that her mother isn't who she thought she was, paints an unfair realistic picture, as well as a notion that Gilly understands, despite the unfair circumstances, she must go on. Also, throughout the book, Gilly feels the need to prove everyone that doubts her wrong. When Gilly overhears that teachers think she may be a little slow, Gilly surpasses the class. When she finds herself behind everyone else in her new school, she makes it a point to overcome the other students in her studies there as well. There is a reoccurring pattern that involves Gilly bettering herself in life while trying to get back at the people who suppress her. Only she doesn't necessarily see it as self progress as much as she views it as revenge. This reflects Gilly's internal drive for "individual perseverance" (Russell, 237).
As much as this is a modern family story, this time in the sense where the family is actually the problem (Russell, 238), this story also falls into the coming-of-age genre. Gilly, in the beginning, is short tempered and hostile. However, after living under Trotter's roof for the fall, Gilly learns a sense of responsibility that continues with her even after she leaves Trotters. An example of this is when Gilly's grandmother asks if she needs help unpacking. "Inside her head, she was screaming, 'I don't need any help!' but for Trotter's sake, she said only, 'No, I can do it.'" (Paterson, 159).
I enjoyed this book very much, I do believe all children should read this book for its insight into the life of an orphan, as well as how hard it can be for them. The book itself is funny and reads easily. The fact that the narrator is third person while having the ability to view Gilly's thoughts made reading awkward at first, but once the story picks up, the book reads smoothly.
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Mar 05, 2009 Nmck rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I am a fifth grade teacher, and read this book while teaching from it to one of my reading groups. I have used it every year since, and it gets better with each reading.

Katherine Paterson's storytelling and descriptive qualities are top-notch. Her characters become so real to the readers, and the storyline unfolds to a greater depth on each page. This book will not disappoint, whether read by a child or an adult!

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Mar 20, 2012 Tami rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: juvenile-contemporary-realistic-f, ya-contemporary-realistic-fiction

The Great Gilly Hopkins is one of my all-time favorite books. Originally published in 1978 it loses none of its power or wisdom with the passing of years.

Gilly is eleven years old and has been in the foster care system for six years. Full of anger and hurt, Gilly has been moved in and out of many foster homes. She is convinced that if she could just find her real mother her life would be perfect. In the meantime the story opens with her caseworker taking her to yet another new foster home. This...more The Great Gilly Hopkins is one of my all-time favorite books. Originally published in 1978 it loses none of its power or wisdom with the passing of years.

Gilly is eleven years old and has been in the foster care system for six years. Full of anger and hurt, Gilly has been moved in and out of many foster homes. She is convinced that if she could just find her real mother her life would be perfect. In the meantime the story opens with her caseworker taking her to yet another new foster home. This one is run by Maime Trotter.

Maime Trotter has no end of patience, kindness and compassion for Gilly. Gilly, however, has no intention of allowing Maime to indulge in any of those things, regardless of how badly she really does want them. In this is the authenticity of Gilly’s character. What child, having been hurt and abandoned repeatedly, would willingly allow herself to be vulnerable with anyone?

Trotter is an extraordainary woman. Her wisdom is down-to-earth and understated. Gilly’s anger manifests itself in cruel behavior–especially verbally. Maime seems to understand that Gilly’s behavior comes from her own pain and anger. She is able to see Gilly’s heart when others are unable to. When Gilly crosses the line in her bigoted comments about Maime’s neighbor and friend and her hurtful remarks about being “retarded” in reference to her foster brother, W.E., Maime Trotter does not hesitate to let Gilly know this is unacceptable.

Maime is an unwavering source of protection, empathy and joy. Almost against her will Gilly begins to experience insights into her own thoughts and behavior. She finds in Maime the unconditional love and support she craves. She realizes its value in its entirety when she walks away from it.

One of the best qualities of this book is that its ending is incredibly true-to-life. It is not an unhappy ending. There is every reason to feel hopeful and positive for Gilly when we leave her. The reality of her situation is that she has made choices for misguided reasons with which she must now live. Even though things do not turn out as Gilly wants, she is better equipped to go forward in life because she has had the extraordinary power of true love and friendship enter her life. Those are things that change who we are for the better.

I highly recommend this book, but caution that it is not for young readers due to content. Gilly is very outspoken in her judgements of people and in the beginning (before Maime’s influence) they are jarring and distasteful. This is why, although I think it’s an excellent book for all readers grades 4 and up, I would carefully consider my audience before a used it as a read-aloud selection.
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Oct 22, 2010 Sandie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2kids-third-to-fifth

This is one of those books I read way back when I was a kid that stuck with me. I enjoyed it very much when I was younger, about 4th or 5th grade. I thought just recently I would like to read it again and see if I still liked it so much.

Now that I have re-read it and am able to understand it on another level, I still like it very much. Its a very good book. I thought the beginning was a bit of a slow start but not real bad. I can see now that the behaviour I probably found very funny by Gilly i...more This is one of those books I read way back when I was a kid that stuck with me. I enjoyed it very much when I was younger, about 4th or 5th grade. I thought just recently I would like to read it again and see if I still liked it so much.

Now that I have re-read it and am able to understand it on another level, I still like it very much. Its a very good book. I thought the beginning was a bit of a slow start but not real bad. I can see now that the behaviour I probably found very funny by Gilly in 4th grade is not so very funny and just the behaviour of a child who has been dumped, had promises broken, loved and had it handed back. I can see why she behaves the way she does....one teacher once told me that some kids behave bad because they get attention and that bad attention was better then no attention at all. So maybe you can see after reading this book and getting to know Gilly that she craves attention but she also is afraid of being hurt so she acts badly to keep people at arm's distance from her feelings while still getting the attention she so desperately needs.

Alot of people will think she is a brat when they read this. She has a potty mouth and does things like stealing and is a bit racist it would appear as well. But by the end of the book, you understand why she is that way. The book does not have the traditional happy ending, though things have changed and its lesson for Gilly I think that life doesn't always have that happy ending, that life is just really hard sometimes and that we don't get what we want exactly the way we ordered it sometimes but that its not always bad and usually works out for the best even though maybe we can't see it that way exactly at first.

I really wanted her to get that happy ending and I was kind of wanting to yell at her because essentially its her very own fault that she didn't get what she wanted in the end...its one of those cases where it wasn't a bad ending, just not what was expected or wanted really but it worked out for the best I suppose. Most importantly Gilly learned to give her love and let herself be loved in return. (less)

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Oct 28, 2010 Anthony Cimitile rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. What made me pick this book, was the blurb on the back of the book. In which it says, "Watch out, world! Here comes the most rebellious, unmanageable, and lovable foster child of all time." I figured that, hearing that this child could be all of these things mentioned in the blurb. That it would be a good book to read.
One thing that I liked about this book, was, the amount of detail given to the character of 'Gilly.' Telling us how she was so rebellious and unmanageable to every one of the foste...more

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May 30, 2009 Dawn Michelle rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books-read-in-2009, ya

Newbery Honor Book~1978

This was a really good YA book.

What I like about this author is, how she writes stories that are real and full of emotion. Ever character seems to remind you of someone who know of have known and every situation is either one you have been in or you someone who has been in it. And that makes it so much more real. Which in turn, I believe, makes a really great story.

Gilly is a complex character. And her story is VERY relevant to today. I found myself swept up in her emot...more

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Apr 25, 2013 Connie Kuntz rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I read this one aloud to the kids. The experience was simultaneously hilarious and cringe-inducing. The reason? Well, Gilly (title character, short for Galadriel) swears. She swears a lot. She's also a racist, a liar, and a thief. She is judgmental and she's manipulative. There's more: she makes fun of blind people, overweight people, and slow people. She's sarcastic, she's angry, and she's mean. In short, she sucks. But not really.

If you can stand all that tension, you will be rewarded with a w...more

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About Katherine Paterson

From author's website:

People are always asking me questions I don't have answers for. One is, "When did you first know that you wanted to become a writer?" The fact is that I never wanted to be a writer, at least not when I was a child, or even a young woman. Today I want very much to be a writer. But when I was ten, I wanted to be either a movie star or a missionary. When I was twenty, I wanted t...more From author's website:

People are always asking me questions I don't have answers for. One is, "When did you first know that you wanted to become a writer?" The fact is that I never wanted to be a writer, at least not when I was a child, or even a young woman. Today I want very much to be a writer. But when I was ten, I wanted to be either a movie star or a missionary. When I was twenty, I wanted to get married and have lots of children.

Another question I can't answer is, "When did you begin writing?" I can't remember. I know I began reading when I was four or five, because I couldn't stand not being able to. I must have tried writing soon afterward. Fortunately, very few samples of my early writing survived the eighteen moves I made before I was eighteen years old. I say fortunately, because the samples that did manage to survive are terrible, with the single exception of a rather nice letter I wrote to my father when I was seven. We were living in Shanghai, and my father was working in our old home territory, which at the time was across various battle lines. I missed him very much, and in telling him so, I managed a piece of writing I am not ashamed of to this day.

A lot has happened to me since I wrote that letter. The following year, we had to refugee a second time because war between Japan and the United States seemed inevitable. During World War II, we lived in Virginia and North Carolina, and when our family's return to China was indefinitely postponed, we moved to various towns in North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia, before my parents settled in Winchester, Virginia.

By that time, I was ready to begin college. I spent four years at King College in Bristol, Tennessee, doing what I loved best-reading English and American literature-and avoiding math whenever possible.

My dream of becoming a movie star never came true, but I did a lot of acting all through school, and the first writing for which I got any applause consisted of plays I wrote for my sixth-grade friends to act out.

On the way to becoming a missionary, I spent a year teaching in a rural school in northern Virginia, where almost all my children were like Jesse Aarons. I'll never forget that wonderful class. A teacher I once met at a meeting in Virginia told me that when she read Bridge to Terabithia to her class, one of the girls told her that her mother had been in that Lovettsville sixth grade. I am very happy that those children, now grown up with children of their own, know about the book. I hope they can tell by reading it how much they meant to me.

After Lovettsville, I spent two years in graduate school in Richmond, Virginia, studying Bible and Christian education; then I went to Japan. My childhood dream was, of course, to be a missionary to China and eat Chinese food three times a day. But China was closed to Americans in 1957, and a Japanese friend urged me to go to Japan instead. I remembered the Japanese as the enemy. They were the ones who dropped the bombs and then occupied the towns where I had lived as a child. I was afraid of the Japanese, and so I hated them. But my friend persuaded me to put aside those childish feelings and give myself a chance to view the Japanese in a new way.

If you've read my early books, you must know that I came to love Japan and feel very much at home there. I went to language school, and lived and worked in that country for four years. I had every intention of spending the rest of my life among the Japanese. But when I returned to the States for a year of study in New York, I met a young Presbyterian pastor who changed the direction of my life once again. We were married in 1962.

I suppose my life as a writer really began in 1964. The Presbyterian church asked me to write some curriculum materials for fifth- and sixth-graders. Since the church had given me a scholarship to study and I had married instead of going back to work in Japan, I felt I owed them something for their m(less)

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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/242858.The_Great_Gilly_Hopkins?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1347657951l/242858.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/242858.The_Great_Gilly_Hopkins?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson[/url]

The Great Gilly Hopkins

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