Be Careful What You Wish For

 The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson

Gilly has been bounced from foster home to foster home.  She does not like any of them and makes it as hard as possible on the foster parents who look after her.  She is tough, smart and difficult.  And she always has a plan.  But she is about to find out that plans don't always have the results you intend.

I don't think anyone who has ever read this book liked Gilly at the beginning.  There isn't much to like.  She is rude, aggressive and a racist.  And no matter how much compassion people have for how hard her life has been, she is more than most people can handle.  Then she meets Trotter and things, and Gilly, start to change.  I like how the new people in Gilly's life relate to her, with understanding but also with grit.  The characters are as complicated as the situations they find themselves in.  Nothing is glossed over and problems are not made to look easy or trite.  The progression Gilly goes through, and how people's attitudes toward her (including the reader) change is a nice, slow, believable transition.  By the end of the book many of the characters have changed and learned something from each other.  Gilly learns some things too late and realizes some things you can't take back.  The ending is both hopeful and heartbreaking.  I enjoyed this sometimes funny, not always happy, but heartfelt and real book.

 The Great Gilly Hopkins starring Sophie Nelisse and Kathy Bates

Gilly Hopkins does not like any of the foster homes she has been in and she makes it as difficult as she can for all of them.  She lives in hope of her mother coming to get her and having a real family.  Then she meets Trotter and realizes she might have the wrong idea about some things.

This movie is sometimes funny, sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes heartwarming, but always entertaining.  The story of Gilly's transformation through the movie is well told, well acted and believable.  All of the characters are interesting and well written.  It moves at a good pace and keeps you interested.  It plays with your emotions in all the right ways.  Love them or hate them (and sometimes it changes as you go) you feel something for these characters.  It is not all fun times but I feel there is hope here.  I am glad I watched it.

I think the movie does a very good job of keeping true to the book.  The characters are all very similar.  There was nothing I felt like the movie was missing or anything too much that they added for no reason.  I think the movie softened the ending some from the book.  I didn't mind the minor changes.  This is one of the very few times when I can not say which one I like better.  I think they are both very good and would recommend both of them.  And which ever one you watch first I don't think you will be disappointed in either.