The Great Gilly Hopkins

by Katherine Paterson | Children's Books |
ISBN: 0590613898 Global Overview for this book
Registered by winglauraloo29wing of Edmonton, Alberta Canada on 11/11/2005
Buy from one of these Booksellers:
Amazon.com | Amazon UK | Amazon CA | Amazon DE | Amazon FR | Amazon IT | Bol.com
This book is in a Controlled Release! This book is in a Controlled Release!
3 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by winglauraloo29wing from Edmonton, Alberta Canada on Friday, November 11, 2005
At eleven, Gilly is nobody’s real kid. If only she could find her beautiful mother, Courtney, and live with her instead of in the ugly foster home where she has just been placed! How could she, the great Gilly Hopkins, known throughout the county for her brilliance and unmanageability, be expected to tolerate Maime Trotter, the fat, nearly illiterate widow who is now her guardian? Or for that matter, the freaky seven-year-old boy and the shrunken blind black man who are also considered part of the bizarre"

Journal Entry 2 by winglauraloo29wing from Edmonton, Alberta Canada on Saturday, December 31, 2005
Accepted by crrcookie as part of the "Award Winning (or Honor or Nominated) Books" Relay

Journal Entry 3 by crrcookie from Tecumseh, Oklahoma USA on Tuesday, January 31, 2006
This book has just arrived in Kaiserslautern GERMANY!


Journal Entry 4 by crrcookie from Tecumseh, Oklahoma USA on Tuesday, January 31, 2006
This book is a Newbery Medal Honor Book for the year 1979.

The Newbery Medal was named for eighteenth-century British bookseller John Newbery. It is awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children.


Journal Entry 5 by crrcookie from Tecumseh, Oklahoma USA on Thursday, February 2, 2006
I read this book for the Read and Release Banned Books Challenge as well as it being one of the award winning books that I like to read. Here is a quote that may help to explain why some people wanted to ban this book.

From Stage One - The Great Gilly Hopkins Study Guide

Katherine Paterson's novel The Great Gilly Hopkins has been banned on two occasions. Once, in four Connecticut elementary schools, the book was objected to for being "filled with profanity, blasphemy, and obscenities, and gutter language." It was pulled but later restored to the schools' language arts curriculum. In a Texas school district, Gilly was challenged because it contains the words "hell" and "damn."


Well, I read this book with interest not knowing at the time I was reading it why it had been banned. My first thought as I was reading it was that Gilly's stereotyping of the people around her might have been one of the reasons that it would get banned. She very much looks down on black people and does not have very favorable opinions of almost everyone that she meets. She always seems to find the most undesirable attribute of a person and makes that the focus of her attention. I felt that the book was somewhat of a downer in this respect.

While I can understand that parents will want to protect their children from reading books with profanity in them I also know that the child will hear far worse words than "hell" or "damn" on the bus ride to and from school. And if bad words are all that they are exposed to on the bus then the parent should be very thankful. I saw many things on school buses that I know I did not want to see or even know about.

My next question is ... how can this book be both an award winner and banned? I addressed the notion of it being banned but would I have given this book an award?

I would have to say that this one will fall on the lower end of Award Winning books that I have liked. As I said earlier this book just seemed to be a downer. I did, however, like the way that the author made you see each person with descriptions that were well thought out and easy to read. The story itself flows nicely and the book is of a good length and well laid out to tell the story well. Sometimes these are the most important things to me in determining if I liked the book. Stories that are choppy or have a lot of parts that don't relate well to the overall concept are ones that I don't really care for.

I think that this book would be great for discussion with children on how to relate to people that are different from you and also to talk about the foster care system and the children and families that are a part of it.

I guess I can relate to both sides of the discussion here and I am certainly glad that I am not on the committee that selects the awards. I think that I will just have to remain firmly in the middle on this one.





Journal Entry 6 by crrcookie from Tecumseh, Oklahoma USA on Sunday, February 12, 2006
I read and will release this book as part of the 2006 Keep Them Moving Release Challenge from the Release Challenges forum.

This book is being added into Geegal's All English Kids/Teen Lit Bookbox.

Journal Entry 7 by nikel27 from -- Irgendwo / Somewhere --, Hessen Germany on Thursday, March 23, 2006
When I got the last bookbox I decided that I needed to record the entire journey of each book in the box and that includes it passing through my hands. I mean how else would one know that the book has been all the way to Germany and how do I know whatever became of the poor books that I didn't choose? I have my reasons for choosing or not choosing a book but maybe it is "just the book" for someone else and that it was fate that I passed it up.

I am journaling each of the books and I will be releasing them to the bookbox which has been a very useful practice in several of the other bookboxes I have participated in.

**************************************************

Journal Entry 8 by nikel27 from -- Irgendwo / Somewhere --, Hessen Germany on Sunday, April 2, 2006
Book with stay at first at my house, will release after finish with reading

update:
Great read, my niece loved the book

Journal Entry 9 by nikel27 from -- Irgendwo / Somewhere --, Hessen Germany on Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Book is avaible thru www.bookmooch.com only, please join there the membership is free.

Last 5 books I also offer at the website:


How does Bookmooch works?

BookMooch is a community for exchanging used books.
BookMooch lets you give away books you no longer need in exchange for books you really want.

Give & receive:Every time you give someone a book, you earn a point and can get any book you want from anyone else at BookMooch. Once you've read a book, you can keep it forever or put it back into BookMooch for someone else, as you wish.

No cost:there is no cost to join or use this web site: your only cost is mailing your books to others.

Points for entering books:you receive a tenth-of-a-point for every book you type into our system, and one point each time you give a book away. In order to keep receiving books, you need to give away at least one book for every five you receive.

Journal Entry 10 by nikel27 at BookBox, Ginsheim -- Controlled Releases on Sunday, June 14, 2009

Released 14 yrs ago (6/15/2009 UTC) at BookBox, Ginsheim -- Controlled Releases

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Sent out via GoGreen Pluspäckchen (5,99 EURO) to OBCZ Regensburg.

Are you sure you want to delete this item? It cannot be undone.