The Great Gilly Hopkins

I love Katherine Paterson, but have never really ventured beyond Bridge to Terabithia. Keeping an open mind, I finished The Great Gilly Hopkins in almost one afternoon, turning the pages quickly while trying to predict the ending. There are several tough issues in this book, including abandonment, anger, and racial prejudice, as Gilly Hopkins is a foster kid, moving from home to home and all the while searching for love and acceptance though she didn’t acknowledge it. Gilly found these things in an unexpected place with people she hated at first, but then grew to love.

I was surprised at the end! Not to be a spoiler, but I wanted Gilly to end up with Trotter and William Ernest instead of her grandmother. It wasn’t exactly a “happily-ever-after” kind of story – it was more “life is tough, let’s deal with it”, as I would expect from Katherine Paterson. Though Bridge to Terabithia was not a happily ever after story either, the character of Gilly is so different from either Jess or Leslie. Gilly is so much angrier and actually reminds me of Janice Avery, the bully from Bridge. It’s like her perception of the world is purposely warped; she is convinced her teacher hates her as a way to validate her own distaste.

There was really no mention of setting for this book other than one reference to the Metropolitan area of Washington DC. I thought this was interesting because the story does not depend on the setting at all – it is a story without place and time, which could happen anywhere to anyone.