goodnight mister tom by michelle magorian

At first, William looks forward to helping his mother and showing her his accomplishments. William's mother writes that she is sick and requests that William return to her. It is revealed that Tom lost his wife and baby son to scarlatina forty years ago. As William is changed by Tom, so is Tom transformed by William. William learns to read and write with the help of Tom and others, and shows talent in drawing, painting, and dramatics.

William attends school and makes friends, including George, twins Carrie and Ginnie, and especially fellow evacuee Zach. William grows attached to Tom and his dog, Sammy. Though initially distant, Tom is moved after discovering William's home life and treats him with kindness. William's mother wanted William to live with someone who was either religious or lived near a church, and Tom takes in Willie. He is avoided by the community and vice versa. Tom Oakley, or 'Mister Tom' as William calls him, is a reclusive and ill-tempered widower in his sixties. He also believes he is full of sin, thanks to his strict, religious, and mentally unstable mother. Willie is timid, thin, and covered with bruises and sores. William Beech, a boy from Deptford who is physically and emotionally abused by his mother, arrives at the village of Little Weirwold. In September 1939, as Britain stands on the brink of the war, many young children from the cities are evacuated to the countryside to escape imminent German bombardment. The most recent theatrical adaptation, Goodnight Mister Tom, won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Entertainment. In 2003, it was listed at #49 on the BBC's survey The Big Read. The novel has been adapted as a stage musical and as the film Goodnight Mister Tom (1998). She was also a commended runner-up for the Carnegie Medal from the British librarians, recognising the year's best English-language children's book published in the UK. Magorian and Mister Tom won the annual once-or-lifetime Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, judged by a panel of British children's writers.

In the care of Mister Tom, an elderly recluse, he experiences a new life of loving and care. 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.

Harper & Row published an American edition the same year. Goodnight Mister Tom is a children's novel by English author Michelle Magorian, published by Kestrel in 1981.

Goodnight mister tom by michelle magorian