A GREAT Book about a Great Girl - The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson

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Written By Rebecca Grabill
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The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson. HarperCollins, 1978.

(One of my all-time favorite Paterson novels.) Distance brings you nearer.

Paterson uses the third person in this and most of her novels, first person being too egotistical, in her view (some essay/lecture of hers). But the voices of the characters are so vivid, so alive, it could be written in crayon and I’d still forget the words existed. It’s the story of a little girl tossed from foster home to foster home, a girl who decided long ago that if nobody’s going to want her, there’s no point trying to be want-able. Yet, suddenly she’s stuck with someone who is willing to love her unconditionally. Why? Love, grace, hope. Paterson’s trademarks. Beautiful and authentic.

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Rebecca Grabill

Rebecca has been writing since childhood, her first book about a kitten published between homemade cardboard covers in second grade. Although she studied religion and philosophy in university, she continued writing, earning an MFA from Hamline University and publishing multiple picture books (no longer with homemade covers) and a collection of poetry with a variety of New York and independent publishers. She has also published a wide array of fiction, essays, and poetry in magazines and journals and photographs for Getty Images. She balances writing with homeschooling the younger of her six children, launching her young adults, church activities, and overseeing a small flock of chickens in rural West Michigan.

www.rebeccagrabill.com
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