The Great Gilly Hopkins

I love anything written by Katherine Paterson. This book introduces Giladriel Hopkins (Gilly), a young girl waiting for her mom to come and rescue her from foster care.

Gilly’s horrendously disrespectful behavior is hard to take sometimes, and yet because we know her living situation, we quietly read along, offering her our sympathy. Paterson highlights a child’s ability to mentally clean up their parents and offer them undeserved trust, despite the fact they have neglected or abandoned their children.

Gilly’s plight increased my awareness about the constant pains some kids live with daily. Her longing for a mother’s love would… show more.

Being raised in foster care is tough. But Gilly Hopkins is tougher by far. Known to be completely unmanageable, brash, and bitter, Gilly has been shuttled from one family to the next. When she is sent to stay with the Trotters, she knows it won’t be for long. She can outlast them! She can outlast anyone! But the Trotters aren’t that easily thrown. So even with her angry blow-ups, her gum-chewing scowls, and her every attempt to get herself sent away once again, Gilly might have finally met her match. For girls who are having tough times, tough Gilly is… show more.

A Newberry Honor book by a great author. Gilly Hopkins has been in and out of foster homes due to her “uncooperative” nature till she finally lands with a formidable, unusual, and loving family, the Trotters. Gilly likes to be in charge, and she can always smell a phony and figure a way out of there, but this time around, the overwhelming love and matter-of-fact, positive, no-nonsense attitude of Mrs. Trotter make foster care a whole new ball game for Gilly. A realistic, but heartwarming story.

Kids coping with a family in crisis is a theme that resonates with young readers. These middle-grade books can be gut-wrenching, but always hopeful too. The Great Gilly Hopkins is a classic in this genre. There is heartbreak, humor, and lots of quirky characters like Mr. Randolph, the blind, elderly neighbor with an impressive library of books. Eleven-year-old Gilly Hopkins is feisty and irrepressible. She is determined to find a way to reunite with the mother who abandoned her by sabotaging each foster care placement, until she lands in Mrs. Trotter’s house. She finds in Mrs. Trotter an insurmountable force… show more.