The Great Gilly Hopkins

Imagine that you're a foster kid who feels like no one wants, even the one person you want to be with the most, your mom. Gilly Hopkins feels that way when she once again moves in with a new foster mom, Maime Trotter, and foster brother, William Ernest.

Gilly does her best to be mean, rude, and angry, but she doesn't phase Trotter. Gilly isn't happy with her new living situation who does  her best to make the other little boy who lives with Totter be afraid of her. She is surprised when she meets the blind African-American, Mr. Randolph, who lives next door, and she isn't a fan of her new teacher who is also African-American. Gilly is mean to the only girl who tries to talk to her, Agnes, and only uses her to help her steal money from Mr. Randolph so she can get a train ticket to see her mother in San Francisco. When her plan backfires in her attempt to steal more money, she sends a letter to her mom asking her to come and get her. She does everything she can to go to San Francisco, even stealing money from Trotter to get a ticket to go, but she gets stopped by police. After that happened, Gilly started to care more about the people she was living with, such as helping William Ernest not only read but learn how to defend himself when others tease him. She even comes to a point where she is taking care of Mr. Randolph, Trotter, and William Ernest who all have the flu.

Just as she is learning to love the family she is living with, her grandmother comes, sent by Gilly's mom to take Gilly to leave with her. It is when Gilly's plan backfires and she comes to learn that she has to live with her grandmother does she really learn and realize just how much she loved Trotter, William Ernest and Mr. Randolph.

This story surprised me at first because it was written in 1978 and some of the things that Gilly says are kind of offensive or would be considered politically incorrect. A lot of it has to do with how she views African-Americans as blacks, but worse how she is almost disgusted or turned off by it. When I was reading it definitely shocked by it even though it is said in her head as anger about her situation. But when she is describing how she is almost intimidated by her new teacher, Gilly thinks to herself, "God, on top of everything else, the teacher was black." At that point, I searched if there was any controversy about the book, and sure enough the book has been in the spotlight of controversy and on some banned books lists.

Yet, despite the controversy it has also won many awards including:
1979 National Book Award in Children's Literature
1979 Christoper Award
1979 Jane Adams Award
1979 Newbery Honor

This book is an interesting, unique book that I'm sure many kids who grow up in the foster care system can relate to because a lot of foster kids have attitudes similar to Gilly's