Goodnight Mister Tom

Michelle Magorian

Jun 2010 · Penguin UK

About this ebook

Puffin Classics: the definitive collection of timeless stories, for every child.

Tom tucked a blanket round him, drew up a chair by the fire and watched Willie fall asleep. The tales he had heard about evacuees didn't seem to fit Willie. 'Ungrateful' and 'wild' were the adjectives he had heard used, or just plain 'homesick'. He was quite unprepared for this timid, sickly little specimen.

Britain, 1940. With World War Two raging all around, young children are being sent from their homes in the city to the countryside for safety. When eight-year-old Willie Beech first arrives on Tom Oakley's doorstep, neither are quite sure what to make of each another.

Brought up in terrible poverty, Willie is terribly shy, and totally unprepared for village life - but the gruff-but-gentle 'Mister Tom' quickly takes him under his wing. Neither he nor Willie could ever have predicted the journey they will go on together - nor the unbreakable bond that will be formed.

Winner of the Guardian Children's Fiction Award, and rightly hailed as a true classic of children's literature, Goodnight Mister Tom is a beautifully told, deeply moving story about the power of friendship, kindness, hope - and love.

'Everyone's idea of a smash-hit novel: full-blown characters to love and hate, moments of grief and joy, and a marvellous story that knows just how to grab the emotions' - Guardian

Ratings and reviews

I love this book so much!! Its such a heart warming and heart breaking story! The only sad thing is the sad things. I feel so sorry for will for he faces so many hardships. It just makes me want to reach in the book and give him a big hug😭 truly recomend it for people who like war stories and sad but nice stories.

I seriously LOVE this book! When I was recommended it by my cousin 30 years ago and saw it was based in war time, I had no interest. My cousin was adamant, so I gave it a go. The very first paragraph was so captivating and descriptive that I was hooked - I was there. Thankfully there's no fighting to do with the war in it so I was glad of that. I have read it many, many, many times and I still find myself having the raw emotions each and every time. I have lent my personal copy to about 6 friends, one of them more than once. My book is now quite battered after being passed around so much, so I'm considering buying it digitally. If you hated the film, please know that this book is thousands of times better. I knew it would be perfect as a film, but they did not do a good job. I almost cried cuz it was so bad! I know it's difficult in films to stick to the book, especially when there's a lot of "thinking" internally, which there is in this book.

This book is truely amazing. I read it at the age of 12 as part of a novel study within my class. After reading this book though it was exeptional, it had its own way of hooking you in and drawing you to it. The first couple of chapters are a little bit boring like any other book but once you get past that it is almost impossibile to put down. The author has her own way of showing not telling,using a variety of language features to extend her description into full detail. I highly recommend this book!! :)

About the author

By the time MICHELLE MAGORIAN was eleven she had decided that the perfect life would be to spend half the year acting and the other half writing. After attending the Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance and Marcel Marceau's L'École Internationale de Mime in Paris, she wrote between acting jobs and on Sundays when rehearsing and performing musicals and plays six days and six nights a week (as Mikki Magorian). In her twenties she became interested in children's books and began writing Goodnight Mister Tom - a winner of the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize and the International Reading Association Award. The musical version (composer Gary Carpenter) was a winner at the 1992 Quest Fest for New Musicals at Buxton Opera House. It has been adapted for television by Brian Finch and as a play by David Wood, broadcast as a radio series in Sweden and Norway, and been optioned by Gaumont for television. Michelle has written the book and lyrics for three more musicals and eight other novels, including award-winning Back Home and Just Henry, which won the Costa Award. She has recorded Back Home and A Little Love Song on Audible. Other audiobooks include Just Henry, read by the actor Richard Mitchley; and Goodnight Mister Tom, read by Christopher Saul for the RNIB (full version), and an abridged version read by Patrick Malahide. Michelle has a postgraduate certificate in Film Studies (London University/BFI), was awarded an honorary doctorate by Portsmouth University in 2007 and has been made a fellow by Rose Bruford College.