The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson

The Great Gilly Hopkins. Written by Katherine Paterson. 1978. ISBN: 0-690-03837-2. Children's fiction. Newbery Honor book. Ages 10+.

Gilly, and 11 year old foster child, rebels against the system. She is determined to shut out anyone and everyone, especially Maime Trotter, her new foster mother, William Ernest, her new foster brother, and Mr. Randolph, her new nearly blind neighbor. She will never be a part of this weird family. And so she takes matters into her own hands.

She writes a desperate letter to her mother, Courtney, who abandoned her at birth, and tries to runaway to California. She writes hate cards to her wonderfully nice teacher. She steals Mr. Randolph's money, and she beats up 6 boys on the playground on the first day of school. And even through all this, she somehow lets her emotions take over and she realizes that she does like living with Trotter and William Ernest and Mr. Randolph. And that she does love school because of her wonderful teacher. And right when everything is going the best for Gilly that it ever has been, her real Grandmother comes and takes her away, all because of that stupid letter Gilly wrote to Courtney.

Gilly once again is miserable until she learns that Courtney is on her way home to see her. But, when they finally meet, Courtney is not the picture of perfection Gilly had always imagined her to be, and Gilly realizes that her 'mother' is actually Trotter.

This story is somewhat heartbreaking as Gilly is such a complex character. The book is so interesting as we follow Gilly's emotional journey and watch her grow into a sweet and caring girl. This book would be a great read for the teacher to read out loud to the class. Not only is it dramatic and full of unexpected turns, but it really teaches the lesson that first appearances can be extremely deceiving.