Product Description

Young Willie Beech is evacuated to the country as Britain stands on the brink of WW2. A sad, deprived child, he slowly begins to flourish under the care of old Tom Oakley - but his new-found happiness is shattered by a summons from his mother back in London... Winner of the Guardian Children's Fiction Award.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3092 in Books
• Published on: 2003-09-12
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
The gruff and surly Mr Thomas Oakley is less than pleased when he is landed with a scrawny little city boy as a guest, but because it is compulsory that each villager takes in an evacuee he reluctantly agrees. It soon becomes obvious to Mister Tom that young Willie Beech is hiding something, and as the pair begin to form an unlikely bond and Willie grows in stature and in confidence he begins to forget the past. But when he has to return to war-torn London to face his mother again he retreats into his shy and awkward ways once more.

Goodnight Mister Tom is one of the most touching and powerful stories ever written. As the relationship between Willie and Tom begins to transform them both, Magorian's powerful yet gentle writing tugs at the heart, taking the reader on an incredibly emotional journey that never once stoops to unnecessary sentimentality. --Susan Harrison

Review
Winner of the Guardian Children's Fiction Award, the International Reading Association Award, and runner-up for the Observer Teenage Fiction Prize and Commended for the Carnegie. It also been dramatized for television. A young boy is evacuated from the city to live with a lonely old widower in the country in World War II. This long, sometimes stark book tells how the lives of boy and old man change, grow and blossom. (11 yrs +) (Kirkus UK)

About the Author
Michelle Magorian was born in Portsmouth and on leaving school studied at the Rose Bruford College of speech and Drama and Marcel Marceau's International School of Mime in Paris. Over the years she became interested in children's books and decided to write one herself. The result was Goodnight Mister Tom, which won the Guardian Children's Fiction Award, an International Reading Association Award and was also made into a much-loved film.