Bibliographic Information:
Paterson, Katherine. The Great Gilly Hopkins. New York: Harper Collins, 1978
Plot Description:
Gilly is eleven years old and off to yet another foster home. As far as she’ll let anyone else know, she doesn’t care about anyone else or letting anyone in. Her new foster mother, Ms. Trotter and her foster brother William Ernest annoy her, as does the neighbor who shares nightly meals with them. With a chip on her shoulder she goes to school and finds herself despising even more people, although she quickly decides to embrace her studies just show everyone how smart she is… for awhile. In the meantime, Gilly dreams of being reunited with her beautiful mother whom she has not seen in eight years, and plots to steal money and buy a bus ticket out west to find her. After than attempt fails, Gilly is resigned to staying with Ms. Trotter and slowly comes to form a bond. Unfortunately, other consequences of Gilly’s actions will soon put an end to that arrangement when her biological grandmother comes to take her away.
Quantitative Reading Level: Lexile 800; GL 5.3
Qualitative Reading Analysis: Gilly’s story follows a simple, chronological timeline from her arrival at Ms. Trotter’s to her life with her grandmother. Use of language is slightly more complex, however, as the narration is heavily peppered with Gilly’s sarcastic thoughts which influences the meaning of the text. Most of the vocabulary is familiar but there is regular use of complex sentences. The subject matter may be somewhat heavy for a middle school-aged audience, dealing with foster care, anger, loss, and the explicit racism in Gilly’s attitudes about black people.
Content Area:
Content Area Standard(s): English Language Arts; Psychology
CCSS for Reading Literature, Grade 7: 2) Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text; provide an objective summary of the text.
Curriculum Suggestions: This novel would be appropriate for whole class, middle school level exploration of themes dealing with adoption and foster care, racist perspectives still common in the era the book was written, and possibly the evolution of one child’s development through challenging life circumstances. Similarly it would be a great realistic fiction recommendation for adolescents.
Supporting Digital Content: Author Katherine Paterson discusses her childhood and family life https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJLaLc_kaZc
Awards: National Book Award for Children’s Literature; Newberry Honor Book 1979.
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