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3.74 AVERAGE
3.74 AVERAGE
I've tried to read this book twice now: once as a child and once as an adult. Both times I couldn't get through it. The main character says so many disrespectful things, I couldn't imagine assigning this to my students to read.
This is one of my absolute favourite books. I remember reading it over and over again, though it took me forever to get into because of the cover!
This is one of those books I highly recommend because it's so touching and bittersweet. It's not an easy story - Gilly is angry at the world, bitter and lonely, and she lashes out more than once. She's not an easy character to like, love or empathise with, even though she's been through so much - she's cruel and pushes everyone away as hard as she can, even when it's obvious that they're trying to help her. She takes advantage of people who can't defend themselves against her.
The reason The Great Gilly Hopkins is a great book is because it's the story of how all of that changes. The last thing that Gilly expects it to make friends or like ANY of the people around her when she's taken into a new foster home, and her behaviour and lashing out make that clear.
With every page Paterson unfolds the progression of Gilly's feelings, and the development is beautiful. We can see the armour falling away, and the learning experiences Gilly goes through - her biases and bigotry are slowly chipped away by the sheer patience of those around her. To be honest, if I didn't know some people like the ones in this book, I'd wonder at how bloody patient they are!
In the end The Great Gilly Hopkins is a coming of age story, relating the journey of one scared, angry girl and the way her life is touched and transformed by the last people she would expect to affect her in any way. It's a lesson on the difficulty of life and how what we want isn't necessarily what we need - and that sometimes, once we get what we want we find out it wasn't what we were hoping.
It's a book close to my heart. It's not easy, it's not simple, but it's exactly the sort of book we all need to read sometimes.
This is one of those books I highly recommend because it's so touching and bittersweet. It's not an easy story - Gilly is angry at the world, bitter and lonely, and she lashes out more than once. She's not an easy character to like, love or empathise with, even though she's been through so much - she's cruel and pushes everyone away as hard as she can, even when it's obvious that they're trying to help her. She takes advantage of people who can't defend themselves against her.
The reason The Great Gilly Hopkins is a great book is because it's the story of how all of that changes. The last thing that Gilly expects it to make friends or like ANY of the people around her when she's taken into a new foster home, and her behaviour and lashing out make that clear.
With every page Paterson unfolds the progression of Gilly's feelings, and the development is beautiful. We can see the armour falling away, and the learning experiences Gilly goes through - her biases and bigotry are slowly chipped away by the sheer patience of those around her. To be honest, if I didn't know some people like the ones in this book, I'd wonder at how bloody patient they are!
In the end The Great Gilly Hopkins is a coming of age story, relating the journey of one scared, angry girl and the way her life is touched and transformed by the last people she would expect to affect her in any way. It's a lesson on the difficulty of life and how what we want isn't necessarily what we need - and that sometimes, once we get what we want we find out it wasn't what we were hoping.
It's a book close to my heart. It's not easy, it's not simple, but it's exactly the sort of book we all need to read sometimes.
As I was reading the book, I kept thinking that while it was very well written, it was also a pretty standard depiction of a girl in foster care. Then I realized that this is one of the first books to feature a character of this nature, that all of the other books are copying this one, rather than the other way around.
The book was written in 1978, the year before I was born. It has aged very well. There are a handful of dated TV references, but luckily they are largely the sort of things that have sense become pop culture touchstones, like Mission Impossible. Gilly's mother being a "faded flower child" was more relevant in the late '70's than it would be today, but the relationships were true, even if the specific details might be dated.
The ending drove me insane. On the one hand, I can see a little bit of hope in that Gilly is resiliant and will be able to cope. On the other hand, it is extremely depressing, and really seems to be ending with Gilly deeply unhappy and with no possibility of her circumstances changing, despite her wanting them to. Up until that last phone call I had thought she was beginning to enjoy being in her new home, but the last page or two of the book made me think that she was not at all happy after all.
The book was written in 1978, the year before I was born. It has aged very well. There are a handful of dated TV references, but luckily they are largely the sort of things that have sense become pop culture touchstones, like Mission Impossible. Gilly's mother being a "faded flower child" was more relevant in the late '70's than it would be today, but the relationships were true, even if the specific details might be dated.
The ending drove me insane. On the one hand, I can see a little bit of hope in that Gilly is resiliant and will be able to cope. On the other hand, it is extremely depressing, and really seems to be ending with Gilly deeply unhappy and with no possibility of her circumstances changing, despite her wanting them to. Up until that last phone call I had thought she was beginning to enjoy being in her new home, but the last page or two of the book made me think that she was not at all happy after all.