The Great Gilly Hopkins

The Great Gilly Hopkins. ISBN: 978-0-06-440201-9/0-06-440201-0. Katherine Paterson. (1978). Newbery Honor, ALA Notable Children's Book, Christopher Award, Jane Addams Book Award Honor Book. Fiction. Age 11+. Foster children;
preteen girls; initial prejudice against African Americans that turns into a positive relationship and awareness.

Gilly is an eleven year old girl. She is a foster child that makes life miserable for everyone around her and has been bumped from home to home. She was initially rejected by her birth mother, and then finally came to love one of her foster families. That family moved and could not take Gilly with them, so she again felt deserted. Kids would remind her that she only had a foster family, not a real family. Therefore, Gilly did not trust anyone and was on a mission to get to her real mom, believing that then she could be her own sweet self and not be "hard."

Gilly was then placed in the Trotter home, where she was truly cared for and loved, not matter what she did. She sent correspondence to her birth mother about how horrible the home was, hoping her mom would feel bad and come and get her. Her mother sent her grandmother instead, and just when Gilly finally opened up and started to care for the Trotters, her grandmother came and took her away to live with her and meet her mom.

Gilly met her mom, and realized that her mom really didn't want or care for Gilly at all and she was not the idealistic mother that Gilly had envisioned. Gilly wanted to go back to live with the Trotters, but was not allowed to turn back. From that point forward, she was sweet and treated people with respect, just to honor Maime Trotter, whom she loved and knew would always be a part of her life (maybe not physically, but in her heart). She learned that a family didn't have to be made up of blood relatives to love one another and be happy.

The theme of this book is to be careful about holding high expectations of people because you may be very disappointed. Be thankful for those people in your life who care about you, even though they may not look like or be who you wish they would be. Learn to see good in others and in your situation, because the "grass isn't always greener on the other side." The underlying themes of prejudice and religion should also be addressed and discussed. How does Gilly change?

I would have students get into small groups and discuss the relationships between the characters in the book, and how they changed over time. I would have them discuss how they felt about Gilly's character, and did their feelings change? If yes, what made your feelings about her change?
I would have the children write a prediction as to why W.E. acted the way he did. Why did Gilly initially want to befriend W.E.?
The kids could choose a scene and act it out, and add lib to make it silly.