A children's World War II story about a young boy who is an evacuee from London's East End to a country village.

We had to read this in primary school, and it's been one of my most-read, well-loved books ever since. This classic emotionally touching story of war, resilience of the human spirit, hope, family, friendship, love, anti-semitism, death and child abuse is beautifully written and atmospheric, dealing with the most difficult of issues. I will not further spoil the story but we read of extreme sadness balanced out by joy of life and the perseverance of the spirit . Tom eventually realizes that William has arrived from an extremely abusive home – he is covered in welts and bruises, and his religious mother has packed the belt she uses to beat him should he misbehave. 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.As I mentioned, I read this book when I was ten and now twelve years later this book was still beautiful. Willie is a young boy who's been abused by his mother all his life, so when he's evacuated to the countryside he's a quivering nervous wreck.

I still laughed (seriously, Zach and I need to be best friends) and I still got teary at certain parts and I still got a warm feeling in my tummy at that epilogue. Goodnight Mister Tom - winner of the Guardian Children's Fiction Award - by Michelle Magorian has delighted generations of children.I think this book is very emotional and you can very easily feel empathetic towards the young boy in the story who has been evacuated to the country. And once he turned black, we were constantly reminded of how black he was, something which did not happen when he was white. Meanwhile, Tom, preoccupied with worry about William, decides, on an impulse, to go to London, sensing the boy might be in danger. Tom tells the story of William Beech, a young boy evacuated to the country with thousands of other children at the start of World War II.