The Great Gilly Hopkins

The Great Filly Hopkins
Katherine Paterson
HarperCollins Publishers
Copyright 1987
Pages:192
Reading Level: 10 and up
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Summary:
Gilly is a tough ward of the state. Her mother is her one source of hope of getting out of the system. Gilly does her best to get moved out of the homes she is placed in as soon as she can. Her newest foster mother is Trotter. Trotter lives next door to an elderly blind black man named Mr Randolph, who eats dinner with them every evening. William Earnest (or W.E. as Gilly calls him) is another of Trotter's foster children. Gilly schemes of a way to get to California where her mother lives. She writes a letter to her mom explaining how horrible life is with Trotter, trying to get her mom to come get her. Gilly finds money in one of Mr. Randolph's books and decides to steal it and look for more latter when she has more time. She goes back later under the pretense of cleaning and finds out that Mr. Randolf doesn't have any more money in his books than Gilly already took. She finds Trotter's paycheck and goes to the bus station to get a ride to San Fransisco. The ticket guy gets suspicious and calls the police about a runaway. They pick her up and call Trotter and Trotter is disappointed in Gilly. She makes Gilly pay Mr. Randolf back and forgives her. Thanksgiving rolls around and Trotter, W.E., and Mr. Randolf all get sick and Gilly runs around trying to take care of all of them. Gilly's grandmother rings the doorbell during all of this (Gilly's mom wrote to her mom to get Gilly) and is shocked by what she sees. Grandmother writes to Social Services and gains custody of Gilly, by this time, Gilly has learned to love Trotter, W.E., and Mr Randolf and doesn't want to leave them. Grandmother and Gilly learn to get along with each other and  Gilly's mom comes for Christmas, but she makes it obvious that she doesn't intend to stay.
Recommendations and Conflict:
I would recommend this book to any young kid who is having a hard time in life to show them that life can be what you make it to be. This book has language problems, lying, an uncaring mother, and at first racial issues.
Reactions:
I had a hard time relating to Gilly at first because she was so hard, by the time I could try to start getting into her head, I was at the end of the book. I enjoyed the story and the progress that Gilly went through, but I couldn't relate to her.