The Great Gilly Hopkins

As she drives, Miss Ellis tells Gilly to make an effort: this will be Gilly’s third foster home in three years, though not all the moves were Gilly’s fault. At this point, the giant chewing-gum bubble Gilly blew pops all over her face, causing Miss Ellis to flinch. But still, Miss Ellis says, Gilly needs to cooperate this time, and she warns Gilly that this foster mother won’t be like Mrs. Nevins. When she asks Gilly to try to get off on the right foot with this foster mother, Gilly imagines skating around a house on her right foot—and kicking her new foster mother in the mouth with her left. She smacks her gum, satisfied. Miss Ellis tells Gilly to spit her gum out and hands her a wipe to try to get some gum off her face. Gilly leaves the gum under the door handle.

Miss Ellis tries to tell Gilly something else, but Gilly corrects her caseworker: her name is Galadriel, not Gilly. When Miss Ellis asks Gilly to give Maime Trotter a chance, since she’s “nice,” Gilly mentally rolls her eyes. She’s had a couple of nice foster families recently, but Gilly herself is not nice—in her mind, she’s “brilliant,” “famous,” and “too hard to manage.”

In an old neighborhood, Miss Ellis stops in front of a brown house with a dirty white fence around it. She leads Gilly onto the porch, where Gilly refuses to comb her hair. Before Miss Ellis and Gilly can argue, a “huge hippopotamus of a woman” opens the door and warmly welcomes Gilly to Thompson Park. Gilly is immediately put off—“this bale of blubber” is clearly a “freak” who will never be able to pronounce her whole name. Then, Mrs. Trotter pulls a small boy out from behind her and introduces him as William Ernest Teague. Insisting Gilly “belong[s] here now,” she invites Gilly and Miss Ellis inside.

Inside the house, it’s cluttered and dusty. William Ernest refuses to see Gilly to her room, clearly terrified, and Gilly is surprised at how radiant Mrs. Trotter’s smile is, given how overweight she is. When Mrs. Trotter sits on the couch, William Ernest lies across the back of it, hiding behind his foster mother. Gilly sits at the piano, and once the adults are busy talking, Gilly shoots William Ernest a frightening stare. Miss Ellis says it’s time for her to leave, and Mrs. Trotter insists that she and William Ernest will be fine with Gilly—Trotters can befriend any child. This makes Gilly want to vomit, but she decides to obnoxiously play piano instead. As everyone else leaves the room, Gilly feels assured that she’s in charge here. She’ll be just fine.