Now he’d be for it. Don’t ask help from anyone, his mum had said. He waited for the cuff around the ear.” This book is one of my all-time favourites and I know I say that about every book, but I definitely mean it this time. Even through the horrors facing people in WWII London we are shown the true love that can happen from makeshift families like that made up of Mr. Tom and Willie. It's a book that changed my life as a child. It made me feel safe to know that even when we're at the worst places in our lives that there are still possibilities.

In September 1939, the United Kingdom declares war on Nazi Germany, and children are evacuated from London to the countryside for their safety. Tom Oakley, a lonely and bitter old man living in the countryside village of Little Weirwold, is forced to look after one of the evacuees, William "Willie" Beech. Tom has become reclusive after losing his wife and child to scarlet fever many years before, while Willie is a quiet young boy who comes from an abusive home and is apprehensive of Tom. Willie Beech is an abused nine-year-old boy. "Mr. Tom" Oakley is a sixty-year-old man who was widowed 40 years ago and became the town recluse/curmudgeon. The two are thrown together when Willie arrives at Mr. Tom's cottage as one of the WWII evacuee children from London. They both blossom as they learn to love and encourage each other. Mr. Tom comes out of his self-imposed "hermithood" to participate in the community again, and Willie discovers his own talents while becoming healthy and robust. Normally I hate watching adaptations of my favourite books because they never ever EVER measure up. A heartwarming and heartbreaking story. Really enjoyed following William's story of a war evacuee child and being placed with Mr Tom in little Weirwold.In the tense period just before Britain enters what will be WWII, Will, a young boy from London, is sent as an evacuee to the country where he is going to live with Mr Tom, an uncommunicative and what seem to be (on the surface) a grumpy old man. Their encounter will change them both. It will, above all, radically change Will's life. My favourite charater is Tom. He is really kind to Willie, and he was caring for him, unlike his mum, who was horrible and usally beat him up. Michelle Magorian was born in Portsmouth, England, and grew up in such diverse places as Perth, Australia, and Singapore. She now makes her home in London. My favourite part of Good night Mr Tom is the part when Willie was writing his name as it made me imagine what they were doing inside my head. It’s the apparently ‘heartwarming’ story of Willie Beech, who is sent from London to the countryside during the second world war. He goes from living with an overly religious, abusive mother to the gruff but kind Tom, and develops, or something. It doesn’t really matter.

The last scene was so cheesy I wanted to vomit. Like Willie did at his birthday, but in a less annoying way. It also involves Willie stealing his dead friend’s bike, which just shows what sort of a person he is. Unfortunately, if like me, you were hoping for one final tragedy, in which the bike crashes into a grenade, blows up the whole town and kills everyone in the novel, you will be severely disappointed. It ends with Willie calling Tom ‘Dad’, and being happily adopted. Oh well. I just can’t imagine what it must have been like for all those children who were sent away at the beginning of WWII, to live with total strangers. a b "Goodnight, Mister Tom" (first U.S. edition). Library of Congress Catalog Record. Retrieved 4 August 2012. With a later publisher description. You will love Tom. He’s the perfect adult character of all time for me! I just wish every adult to be this giving, caring and nurturing towards every child. Tom Oakley, or "Mister Tom" as William calls him, is a reclusive and ill-tempered widower in his sixties. He is avoided by the community and vice versa. William's mother wanted William to live with someone who was either religious or lived near a church, and Tom takes in Willie. Though initially distant, Tom is moved after discovering William's home life and treats him with kindness. William grows attached to Tom and his dog, Sammy.We see that Tom is a man of integrity, who has a strong grip of what is right and wrong. If something is right, he will do it, regardless of whether or not it is easy. Tom breaks the rules of the hospital by kidnapping Willie because his moral sense, personified through his wife, tells him to do so. His fiercely loving nature gives him the courage to make these difficult choices and take risks to defy what he perceives to be unfair. William Beech

Television & Radio Industries Club Award 1999: Best ITV/Channel 5 Programme of 1998 for Goodnight Mister Tom Willie finally reaches the standard of reading and writing required to join his friends in Miss Hartridge's class. There, rather than struggling, he actually performs very well, much to everyone's surprise. Carrie, a top student in the class, requests to take the exam so she can attend high school. I think I’ve seen this film at least ten times (five of those viewings were on successive video days on the afternoon of every end of term, The Railway Children in the morning, of course.).

Goodnight Mister Tom is a children's novel by English author Michelle Magorian, published by Kestrel in 1981. Harper & Row published an American edition the same year. [1] Set during World War II, it features a boy abused at home in London who is evacuated to the country at the outbreak of the war. In the care of Mister Tom, an elderly recluse, he experiences a new life of loving and care. Mrs. Hartridge is Willie's school teacher and they have a special bond, mainly because she is so proud of Willie's accomplishments. Halfway through the book, she gives birth to a baby girl named Peggy. At the same time, her husband is reported to be missing, presumed dead, but later it is discovered that he is a prisoner-of-war in Germany. Willie loves her and thinks that she is the most beautiful person he has ever seen. She is a motherly presence in his life. Emilia Thorne As he observed it tumble and fall between the wood and hot coke, it occurred to him that strength was quite different from toughness and that being vulnerable wasn’t the same as being weak.”