Goodnight Mister Tom, by Michelle Magorian

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The Author
Michelle Magorian is a famous book writer, known for writing books for children and teenagers. She started her career with writing poems during her study time. Her first novel was Goodnight Mister Tom, which was followed by other novels, i.e. A little Love Song and Cuckoo in the Nest. Mrs Magorian has got a special interest in theatre. She studied to become an actress in her youth, and this interest shows up in her latest books. Most of her books, like Goodnight Mister Tom, take place during the time of the Second World War.

The Story
I find the story of this book pretty cosy and happy, and I will therefore try to tell you something of it.

The story begins with the arrival from London of an indisposed, badly treated boy to a little village in the country. This boy, William, gets and takes the chance to live by an old man, who is living alone with his dog. William becomes cured, finds friends and begins to feel happy. At this time the drama starts and the prosperity begins mingling with misfortune.

The Language
I find the language easy to understand. Although it is just plain written, I find it beautiful, and well thought out. I believe the language is just plain written, as queer clauses seldom appear. Below, I present a short section of the book, which I find representative of the whole book.

He looked down at Willie (William), who was making shapes with
his finger on the misted window.
‘What you doin’?
‘Drawrin’,’ said Willie. ‘It’s one of them brushes.’
Tom peered at it.
‘ Humph!’ he retorted.

Much of the text is written down in spoken language, which gives spirit to the story, as the dialect of the country people is very prominent.

Characters
The Main Character of the book is William, a boy of London. His personality and attributes change a lot through the book, which means that it is rather difficult to tell who he really is. However, I can describe him as a kind, psychically strong and talented boy. I believe William is kind because of two reasons; he never hurts anyone, and he helps as much as he can, i.e. in garden work, in taking the dog for exercise and in working with the youth paper. He is also psychically very strong. I would say that very few children survive such circumstances William lived under before he came to the country. But William did, and I find that wonderful. Finally, I find him talented; he learns quickly in school and is a marvellous painter.

A second main character in the book is the man William lives with, Tom. He is like William in the way that he goes through a big transformation. At the time William arrives, it is indicated that Tom is very lonely, and not a frequent member of the village life, but with William’s arrival he has to confront the society, and you can actually feel that he becomes more social, open minded and best of all, happier. Tom is the typical nice person that exists in almost every story.

The third character I want to mention is William’s best, and actually first, friend, Zach. Zach is a quite clever boy, and he is also hiding in the country, far away from bombs falling on London.

There is a fourth and last person, which has much influence on the story, even if you don’t see much of her. She is William’s mother and stays in London during the war. Unfortunately she has got some kind of mental disturbances, and this affects. When she is in contact with William, she hurts him, even though I believe her intention is to give him the best possible education.

The Message of the book
After reading the book I found out that this book is written with a target to be liked by children, according to the fact that a book meant for children contains messages, which are very easy to understand.

A primary message of the book is that is good to be kind. That is shown by how William reacts depending who he is treated by. When he lives with someone who doesn’t treat him well, and isn’t understood as kind, he becomes broken down and unhappy. The opposite of this and something much better is to be treated by a kind person, like Tom, because then you get healthy and happy like William did. Therefore the book tells you to stay kind and love your neighbour as much as you want to be loved yourself.

The second message I have found is that it is good to follow the intention of your heart. Tom did that thoroughly several times in the story, and if he had not done that, it could have gone rather bad for William, but now he managed to live well. The motivation of the story is to follow your heart.

The third message, but perhaps not the clearest one, is that, where there is a will, there is a way. When William arrives at Tom’s place, he is absolutely broken down, but Tom has the wish to help this poor boy. He helps him up to reach possibilities even beyond imagination. That is just one example of the message, and I can tell you that such examples appear pretty often.

To summarise the subject, we can say that the book tells you to stay hopeful, kind and to do what you want.

My opinion of the book, and its messages
I h...