***Eleven-year-old Gilly has been stuck in more foster families than she can remember, and she's disliked them all intensely.*** She has a county-wide reputation for being brash, brilliant, and completely unmanagable. So when **she's sent to live with the Trotters -- by far the strangest family yet** -- Gilly decides to put her brilliant mind to work. Before long she's devised an elaborate scheme to get her real mother to come "rescue" her. But the rescue doesn't work out quite the way she planned. **And when the time comes for her to go, the great Gilly Hopkins is left thinking that maybe life with the Trotters wasn't so bad after all...**
***Literary Awards:*** Newbery Medal Nominee (1979), National Book Award for Children's Literature (1979), Jane Addams Children's Book Award Nominee (1979), Massachusetts Children's Book Award (1981), Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children's Book Award Nominee (1980)
Iowa Children's Choice Award (1981), California Young Readers Medal Nominee for Intermediate (1981), William Allen White Children's Book Award (1981), National Book Award Finalist for Children's Books (Paperback) (1980)
Katherine Paterson is the author of more than 40 books, including 18 novels for children and young people. She has twice won the Newbery Medal, for Bridge to Terabithia in 1978 and Jacob Have I Loved in 1981. The Patersons have four grown children and seven grandchildren. Katherine currently resides in Vermont with her faithful dog, Pixie.