The Great Gilly Hopkins

THE GREAT GILLY HOPKINS
By THE GREAT Katherine Paterson
Trophy, 1978

Category: Middle grade fiction

Awards: Newbery Honor

The kids and I read this book to commemorate Banned Books Week 2007. I assume its place on the list of 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990-1999 is because of Gilly’s language, and I will admit to changing a few “hells” to “hecks” as I read aloud. But this was because I had very young ears listening in, ears attached to a little girl who believes STUPID is a swear word. THE GREAT GILLY HOPKINS is a finely rendered look at the frustrations of being young, abandoned, and very, very angry; banning a book that has so much to offer readers for mild language seems, um, STUPID, to me.

From a writer’s perspective, I found it interesting that Gilly is so unlike-able for much of the story. This is hard to pull off, I think, and Paterson did it masterfully. (Hey Liza … are you listening? You know how I always rant about unlikeable protagonists being impossible? I stand corrected!)