Books › The Great Gilly Hopkins (M Books)
The Great Gilly Hopkins (M Books)
First published 1985 · 300 pages
A fiercely guarded child learns to dismantle her own armor in the embrace of a messy, unconventional found family.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like trying to hug a porcupine, only to realize the porcupine is shivering. It moves at a brisk, energetic clip, driven by the sheer force of its protagonist's brash, unapologetic attitude. The narrative voice is sharp and unvarnished, refusing to sugarcoat the messy realities of the foster care system or the ugly prejudices a wounded child can harbor as a defense mechanism. Yet, beneath the gritty, chaotic surface lies a profound, creeping warmth. The mood shifts from combative to tender as the story gently dismantles the walls around a fiercely guarded heart. It is a deeply poignant experience, perfect for readers who gravitate toward unsentimental coming-of-age stories, found families, and prickly characters who desperately need the love they constantly push away.
- Mood
- chaotic
- gritty
- tender
- guarded
- Tone
- brash
- unsentimental
- poignant
- honest
- wry
- Pace
- brisk
- Themes
- found family · defensive armor · unlearning prejudice · parental abandonment · the meaning of home
- The writing
- Direct, unvarnished, and sharp, perfectly capturing the authentic, prickly voice of a wounded child.
- The arc
- Moves from fiercely guarded and combative to reluctantly vulnerable and heartbreakingly accepting of imperfect love.
- Who it's for
- Readers who love difficult protagonists who slowly reveal their soft underbellies in honest, unsentimental coming-of-age stories.
Content notes
- foster care trauma
- parental abandonment
- racism and prejudice
- bullying
About the book
Eleven-year-old Gilly has been stuck in more foster families than she can remember, and she's disliked them all intensely. She has a county-wide reputation for being brash, brilliant, and completely unmanagable. So when she's sent to live with the Trotters -- by far the strangest family yet -- Gilly decides to put her brilliant mind to work. Before long she's devised an elaborate scheme to get her real mother to come "rescue" her. But the rescue doesn't work out quite the way she planned. And when the time comes for her to go, the great Gilly Hopkins is left thinking that maybe life with the Trotters wasn't so bad after all...
Literary Awards: Newbery Medal Nominee (1979), National Book Award for Children's Literature (1979), Jane Addams Children's Book Award Nominee (1979), Massachusetts Children's Book Award (1981), Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children's Book Award Nominee (1980) Iowa Children's Choice Award (1981), California Young Readers Medal Nominee for Intermediate (1981), William Allen White Children's Book Award (1981), National Book Award Finalist for Children's Books (Paperback) (1980)
Description from Open Library.
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