Written by Katherine Paterson
Gilly is introduced into her new foster home of Maime Trotter and her other foster son William Ernest.
MaimeTrotter does everything she can to make Gilly happy and feel at home but Gilly rebels, is rude, and angry. Gilly dreams of her mother coming to save her from this miserable place as she stares at the only picture she has from her mom. Trotter turns out to be very religious and doesn’t tolerate some of Gilly’s language, or her making fun of William Ernest. Mr. Randolph, the black blind neighbor comes over for dinner, and Gilly acts very prejudice towards him saying she has never touched one of “those” people and doesn’t want to help him walk. Gilly does everything she can to attempt to take control of the house, through manipulation and deceit. Gilly starts school, her teacher is black and Gilly starts hatching the same plan as she has in previous schools, to do her very best and impress the teachers then stop trying and really frustrates everyone. One day Gilly gets a postcard from her mom and dreams even more about her mom coming to get her, or getting enough money to get to her other herself
One day Gilly is asked to go get a book from Mr. Randolphs house to read to everyone and she stumbles across some money and begins to hatch a plan to get the rest. Gilly ends up using William Ernest to get into Mr. Randolphs to get more of the money, which doesn’t turn out to be very much. Gilly starts to notice looks of caring from Trotter, and she doesn’t know how she feels about it and continues to daydream about her mother. Gilly continues to harass her teacher even going as far as making a card that was very insulting, but the teacher being very witty thanks GIlly for finally making her anger come to the surface. Gilly also continues with her plan to find more money in Mr. Randolph’s house, by offering to clean it for him, and since he can’t see her she searches for the money. Out of frustration of not finding any more money she writes her mother complaining about the horrible situation she is in, she exaggerates quite a bit hoping her mother will come save her. Gilly gets desperate and steals money from Trotter and runs away to buy a ticket to go see her mother, unfortunately she gets caught and taken to the police station where Trotter and W.E. pick her up and GIlly only agrees to come with Trotter as W.E. begs and screams and cries for her to come home. After the incident Miss Ellis, a social worker, fights with Trotter about taking Gilly away but Trotter refuses. Trotter makes GIlly return the money and work off the money she gave away, Gilly seems to gain more respect for Trotter and W.E. and Gilly start bonding as Gilly starts teaching him to box and stand up for himself. Trotter, W.E. and Mr. Randolph all get sick and Gilly tends to them, unfortunately around this same time Gilly’s grandmother, who she’s never before met, stops by to check on her because of the letter that Gilly sent to her mom, she leaves promising Gilly that she’ll get her out of there, and Gilly realizes she doesn’t want to leave. Soon after, Gilly is forced to go live with her grandmother, and she finally meets her mom and realizes that her mom doesn’t want her and doesn’t care about her. She continues to stay in contact with Trotter and W.E. and makes the most out of her new life telling them that she is really happy.
I would recommend this to all children.
I'm sure this book is very controversial because of Gilly's behavior, language, prejudice, and other vices.
Part of me really enjoyed this book, and the other wasn't impressed. I thought it was well written and entertaining, but I've liked other books more in the past dealing with the same topics.
My rating: 3 out of 5
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