"Nobody wants to tangle with the great Galadriel Hopkins."
— Gilly
The Great Gilly Hopkins is a 1978 children's novel by Katherine Paterson.
Eleven-year-old Galadriel "Gilly" Hopkins is a headstrong Foster Kid whose greatest dream is to settle down with her biological mother, Courtney. Upon arriving at her latest foster home, Gilly decides to make life difficult for her new foster mother, Trotter, and foster brother, William Ernest Teague. She devises a scheme to leave, but becomes conflicted when she realizes Trotter might just be the mother she needs.
The novel has been translated into multiple languages. A film adaptation starring Sophie Nélisse as Gilly, Kathy Bates as Trotter, Julia Stiles as Courtney, and Glenn Close as Nonnie was released in 2015.
Tropes:
- Bittersweet Ending: Gilly is sent to live with her biological grandmother as she realizes she actually loves the Trotters and wants to be with them, and her long-awaited reunion with her mother is a massive disappointment. However, she does still have a loving parental figure in Nonnie, and they'll keep in touch with the Trotters. The film further sweetens the ending by outright showing Gilly and her grandmother bonding with the Trotters.
- Blind Black Guy: Mr. Randolph, Trotter's next-door neighbor, is both blind and black. Gilly, whose job it is to help him to and from his house, is surprised by this as she's never interacted with one of "those people".
- Broken Pedestal: Gilly idolizes her mother for most of the story. She resents that she can't be with Courtney and takes it out on her various foster homes. When she finally does meet Courtney, however, Gilly sees that her mother is a selfish and uncaring woman, a realization that makes Gilly want to come home to Trotter instead.
- Bubblegum Popping: Some covers show the title character, a young girl, blowing a head-sized bubble on the front and the popped gum covering her face on the back.
- Foster Kid: Gilly is a foster kid currently in the system. She hates it and wants to live with her biological mother.
- Happily Adopted: Gilly spends most of the story fantasizing about meeting her mother while looking down on her foster family, but in the end she realizes that she loves her foster family, and finds out that her mother doesn't want her and is far from perfect. Although she doesn't stay with them, she appears to stay in contact with them and ends up more or less this trope with her biological grandmother instead.
- Last-Name Basis: Maime Trotter, Gilly's new foster mother, is referred to as "Trotter".
- Odd Name, Normal Nickname: Gilly is a nickname for "Galadriel". She initially didn't like it but came around when she learned that Tolkien's Galadriel was a powerful queen.
- Politically Incorrect Hero: Eleven-year-old protagonist Gilly, owing to a rough upbringing, calls her fat foster mother a "hippo", is aghast when asked to accompany the neighboring Blind Black Guy, and calls her own teacher a slur as a ploy to leave. She eventually learns to question her own racism, ableism, and fatphobia throughout the book.
- Raised by Grandparents: Gilly's eventual fate. She initially resents being taken in by her grandmother because what she wanted was to be reunited with her mother, but eventually accepts her grandmother as a guardian after realizing how much her grandmother actually cares about her (and that her mother was never going to be the parent Gilly craved).
- The Runaway: Gilly attempts to reunite with her mother in San Francisco by stealing money from her neighbor and making a break for it. She is caught by police.
- Starbucks Skin Scale: The titular character's black teacher, Miss Harris, has skin that Gilly describes as "tea-colored".
- Unpleasant Parent Reveal: After idealizing Courtney her whole life, Gilly is heartbroken to realize that Courtney was never any of the things Gilly ascribed to her, and that she seemingly never even loved Gilly. She's so upset that her first impulse is to run away and go back to Trotter, the closest thing to a loving mother that she's ever had. The film adaptation takes it one step further by having Gilly actually go through with it, though Trotter quickly convinces her to return home (in the book, the conversation with Trotter happens over the phone while Gilly is still at the airport).
- Unusual Pop Culture Name: Gilly's real first name is Galadriel, owing to her mother being a former flower child. While she initially isn't fond of it, she develops more positive feelings when she learns that her namesake is a strong and rebellious queen.
