Goodnight Mister Tom (1981)

8-year-old Willie is one of the many London children evacuated to the countryside during WWII. He gets placed with the town curmudgeon, Mr. Tom, and thus a beautifully unlikely pair is born. Willie comes from a poverty-stricken part of London and has been physically and mentally abused by his mother. He's small and thin and weak; he's also far behind where he should be in school. But Mr. Tom, despite his gruff exterior (forged by his own tragic backstory), is all kindness and gentleness when it comes to caring for the boy, and Willie soon starts to thrive. He makes friends, finds confidence in himself, and learns that love isn't terrifying or painful. But then his mother writes that she wants him back home and both he and Mr. Tom have some heavy decisions to make.
Oh, but this is a lovely book. I have an absolute soft spot for Evacuated London Children stories, and this is one of the best. Not only is the relationship between Willie and Mr. Tom so very well crafted, but all the other members of the small country village have depth and their stories are lovingly told as well. It's a perfect mix of heartbreaking and happy-making without being at all saccharine. Highly recommended. ( )

Well written. ( )

The moving story of Tom Oakley, an old man who has been bitter and withdrawn since losing his wife and son in childbirth, and William Beech, an evacuee who has been abused by his mentally ill mother. Tom teaches Will how to read and write, and how to laugh and run, and Will draws Tom out of his shell. The tale is very dark and grim in places, but the overall story is heartwarming with a happy ending.

I had completely forgotten the last section of the book where Zach dies. So it was a real gut punch to read it this time round, especially as I thought the sad bits were over! ( )

William Beech is the only child of an abusive mother in London. When World War II breaks out, he is shipped out, as so many children were, to small towns in the countryside, where it was deemed safer. Tom Oakley is an elderly widower, virtually a hermit, who is assigned to house and care for William. As any reader would guess, Mr. Tom, as William calls him, is good for the boy, and caring for the boy is good for Mr. Tom.
William slowly loses his fears, instilled by his mother, and Mr. Oakley starts becoming part of the community again.
There are a couple of almost shocking chapters when William is sent back to London to be with his mother for a spell, and the reader will be glad when those chapters are past. (It turns out his mother is even worse than we imagined at the beginning of the book.)
The story is well told, and filled with appealing characters in the town of Little Weirwold. The only real drawback, is Magorian didn't seem to know how to wrap up the story. The final couple of chapters seem a little apart from the rest of the rest of the story, meandering off in a different direction, now that we know where William and Mr. Oakley end up. The last sentence seems like it's supposed to be a definitive moment defining the theme of the book, but doesn't really seem to represent much of anything the book was about.
All in all, excellent book; I recommend it. But the conclusion does fall a little flat. ( )

This award-winning children's novel published in 1981 has been read and enjoyed by generations of children since. It tells the heart-warming story of a small boy, William Beech, who is evacuated to the country village of Little Weirwold just before the outbreak of the Second World War. He is billetted with a withdrawn elderly widower Tom Oakley. Despite their differences, Tom comes to care for his young charge, who, it emerges, has been beaten and abused by his fanatically religious widowed mother. At one point, the mother uses a ruse to lure the boy back to London, but all comes good in the end for young Will and Tom. The book deals with serious themes, child abuse and war, yet carries a lightness of touch with many happy scenes in the village and surrounding countryside. If I had one criticism, the book is perhaps slightly too long for its content, but that, I acknowledge, is being rather picky and I am reading it as an adult, not its main target audience. A great read. ( )