The film version of Katherine Paterson’s award-winning novel The Great Gilly Hopkins will have a multi-platform release on October 7. The film will be in theaters in key cities across the country, as well as digitally. In 1979, the story about a girl in foster care swept the book awards, winning the National Book Award, Christopher Award, Jane Addams Award, and a Newbery Honor. It ranked 63 in School Library Journal’s 2012 list of the top 100 children’s books of all time. The film stars Sophie Nelisse as Gilly, Kathy Bates as Gilly’s foster mother, and Julia Stiles as Gilly’s birth mother. Octavia Spencer and Glenn Close also appear. https://youtu.be/K37cOnb3VvE The book has long been required reading in many school curriculums. Marilyn Toriello, a retired middle school teacher from the Westfield (NJ) district where the book was part of the sixth grade curriculum, recalls that it was well received by students. “More than 30 years after its publication, the characters and situations still ring true with children.” To that end, the National Children’s Book and Literacy Alliance, an organization to educate, inform, and advocate for young people, literacy, literature, and libraries, has developed an educator’s guide to accompany the film. It has various activities that librarians and teachers can use to help students better understand the themes of the book. These include activities to help spur discussion of what defines a family and suggestions for developing a pamphlet to welcome new students. The creation of the film was a family affair, as David Paterson, Katherine Paterson’s son, wrote the screenplay. School Library Journal had the opportunity to ask the junior Paterson about the experience. How old were you when you first read The Great Gilly Hopkins? I remember my mother reading chapters of the unpublished book to us back in 1977, so I would've been 10 or 11. I was 12 when it was officially published. Obviously, you were very familiar with the book. Did that make writing the screenplay easier or more difficult? Easier to option the book and get the author's permission to adapt it, but it comes with a lot more responsibility to not mess it up. Our family holiday gatherings could get quite uncomfortable! Staying faithful to any property you’re adapting comes with challenges, but with family, it is, of course, more challenging. It can be hard not to take creative struggles with producers who want changes to the storyline that deviate from the original book personally, and hard to protect your mom and her work! What was the biggest challenge in writing the screenplay? So much of the book happens in Gilly's head, in her thoughts, and her schemes. Many times in movies, voice-over dialogue is used, where the main character simply tells you their thoughts, feelings, and plans. Generally, though, audiences hate that and it can be very distracting. So I had to create scenes or moments where I could show Gilly's thoughts without resorting to voice-overs. In many ways, Gilly in the film is like Hamlet in the play; she's in nearly every scene, so if she was talking to the camera, or thinking out loud to the camera, I knew it would not work well.  Did your mother give you any advice before you began the project? I had already adapted several of her books for the stage, as well as Bridge to Terabithia into a  Disney film back in 2007, so I had her blessing. The advice I got from the rest of the family was "Don't blow it." Did your mother see the screenplay during its creation? Did a critique follow? Screenplays tend to go through many changes during the development process. When I had completed the first draft in 2009, she was very pleased with it, as she was with the final draft that was shot five years later, but I didn't drag her through the up and downs of draft changes during all the years in between. That can be very frustrating to anyone, let alone the author of the original work. I wanted to protect her from that process, which is rarely fun.  Now that the film is complete, is there a particular part of the book that translated especially well to film? I think we did a terrific job of establishing the powerful affect the Trotter household [Gilly's foster family] has on Gilly and Gilly's transformation from it. It is the essence of the novel, the core of the book, and I was very proud that we were able to encapsulate it into the film so successfully. What was the reaction of your own kids? My two sons, ages 16 and 19, had both read the book when they were younger and had their "Rock Star Grandmother" visit their classrooms to talk to their classmates when they were in the fourth grade. Neither has seen the film yet, because they want to see it in a theater when it comes out in October. Decker, my younger son, was an extra in the film. Most of his scene was cut when the film went through editing, but he's still very proud to have been a part of the movie and can't wait to see the final product. I can’t either, actually!