Back Home (A Puffin Book)

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The book was made into a television film starring Hayley Mills (screenplay by David Wood) and won a Gold Award at the New York Film and Television Festival in 1990. The main issue I had was that Rusty mostly came across as a spoilt brat. Because she has spent the war in America, she is horrified by how poor the people in Britain are and looks down on them for it. Kinda hard to get behind a hero who acts like that. There seemed to be a theme of hypocrisy throughout the novel, particularly shown by Rusty's hatred of English patriotism and snobbery, while being arrogantly patriotic and snobby about America. Hypocrisy isn't a very fun theme. Also, the hypocrisy of Rusty thinking her mother wasn't ladylike because she was a mechanic and Peggy thinking her daughter wasn't ladylike because of woodwork never rang true for me. The war is over but the battle is only just beginning for Rusty, as she moves to Guildford to face her acid-tongued grandmother. Modern readers will think that the best, indeed the only, way forward would be divorce, something Rusty mentions to her secret friend Lance in relation to his parents. Rusty doesn't seem at all phased by the idea, perhaps due to her American upbringing. Lance, on the other hands, evinces all the horror that the contemporary Brit would feel at the allegation. This is at once a necessary interlude to indicate to the reader the impossibility of separation at the time, and a well constructed contrast between Rusty's American ideas and Lance's enforced Britishness.

Back Home by Michelle Magorian | Goodreads

Hello Yellow - 80 Books to Help Children Nurture Good Mental Health and Support With Anxiety and Wellbeing - One day, on a trip into town, Rusty overhears some boys calling one member of their group Yank, and she begins talking to him, not realizing that speaking to boys is against the rules. For this infraction, Rusty receives a discipline mark and is called up in front of the whole school and publicly humiliated. The next day she receives the sad news that Beatie has died. Feeling sad and alone, that night, Rusty discovers that she can climb down some scaffolding outside her window, and escape into the woods surrounding the school, feeling free for the first time since arriving in England. She manages to get a note to Yank on her next visit to town, telling him where and when to meet her that night. LoveReading4Kids exists because books change lives, and buying books through LoveReading4Kids means you get to change the lives of future generations, with 25% of the cover price donated to schools in need. Join our community to get personalised book suggestions, extracts straight to your inbox, 10% off RRPs, and to change children’s lives. According to CCSU some runners up through 2002 were Commended (from 1955) or Highly Commended (from 1966). There were about 160 commendations of both kinds in 48 years, including three for 1981 (one highly commended).

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This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Guardian Children's Fiction award-winning Michelle Magorian is the author of the iconic war-time children's book, Goodnight Mister Tom.

Michelle Magorian - Wikipedia Michelle Magorian - Wikipedia

On her return, her family seem like strangers. Her mum is a part time mechanic, her brother wasn't born before Virginia left for the US, and he becomes instantly jealous of her. Her dad is still serving in the war on her return. Virginia's mum, Peggy, had been evacuated to Devon and loves the Estate, and the home she and her friends have created during their time together. No one seems to understand Rusty, except the fun loving old timer, Beatie, who owns the house. Soon though, Virginia is sent to boarding school, and with her mother and brother, must readjust to their life before the war. Their former house is ruled by an unkindly grandmother, who dotes on Virginia's father, and disregards Peggy and her children for a myriad of reasons. At boarding school, Virginia is rejected by her peers for 'showing off' (very Enid Blyton), and by her teachers for being behind in her studies, although she was a good student in the States. About halfway through, Virginia finds a place in which she can unleash her creativity, which leads to the compelling ending.

About Michelle Magorian

Recommended: It is interesting, I think, for its subject matter of the returning evacuee, but even in this limited genre there are other books that do it better. But it doesn't fell like home. Rusty's mother is like a stranger, her little brother doesn't know her and why does the food taste so bad? Rusty just can't get used to the rigid rules and rationing and her strict new boarding school. But it doesn’t fell like home. Rusty’s mother is like a stranger, her little brother doesn’t know her and why does the food taste so bad? Rusty just can’t get used to the rigid rules and rationing and her strict new boarding school. Everyone's idea of a smash-hit first 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 Rusty’s paternal grandmother is strict, critical and condescending. She intensely dislikes Rusty’s accent, her confidence and her behavior. She also feels Charlie is too coddled by her daughter-in-law and needs to learn to behave like a big boy.

Back Home – TV Drama 1990 - Michelle Magorian Back Home – TV Drama 1990 - Michelle Magorian

Lance A fellow sea evacuee of Rusty's, Lance attends the boys' school near Rusty's and is also ostracised for his American accent and behaviour. He provides Rusty with a friend as he sneaks out to meet her in their cabin in the woods, admires her talent with handicrafts and they help each other with their schoolwork. Lance's parents are getting divorced and to escape the house he goes for long runs in the holidays which leads to him joining the school rugby team and being accepted by other students.Buy from our bookstore and 25% of the cover price will be given to a school of your choice to buy more books. *15% of eBooks. Home >

Goodnight Mister Tom - Penguin Books UK

It is really sad as Rusty tries to fit in and just can't manage it. When her parents divorce, it seems that life will get a lot better for her. There was a radio version in 4 episodes but unfortunately that’s not been broadcast since 2015. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b010x9qg a b "Guardian children's fiction prize relaunched: Entry details and list of past winners". Guardian.co.uk 12 March 2001. Retrieved 2012-08-04. Also, what was the point of Ivy's character? Other than being a sort of parallel of Peggy, she didn't add anything to the start of the story, and then later we hear her melodramatic tragedy and then we never hear about her again. What was all that about? Oh and finally, there were way too many characters either being referenced or introduced at the start and it took me ages to remember who anyone was. This is an older kidlit title -- I've had this thing for the past year or two where I'm focused on novels and non-fiction accounts of the children who were evacuated from Britain to the US during WWII, based on a conversation that was going on with the Betsy-Tacy group. Kidlit fans may recall that Magorian is probably best known for the five-Kleenex Goodnight, Mr. Tom. In this book, Rusty, our heroine, has returned to England after living in Connecticut for most of the war years, and has a variety of difficulties adjusting to her "new" life -- feeling estranged from her mother, not being recognized by her little brother, having not suffered the rationing and shortages along with her UK peers, and generally acting too Americanized to fit in. She has a miserable time at boarding school, until she discovers how to sneak out of her dormitory and go exploring at night. The plot is snappy, if none too profound, and it's a nice look at the details of home life immediately following the war. One odd thing, which I think comes of this book having first been published in the early 1980s, is that the author has stridently included robust mentions of menstruating and bathroom use. They don't have anything at all to do with the plot, it's that thing from the 1970s and early 80s where writers for young adult audiences felt the need to hammer home the point that there is NOTHING SHAMEFUL about menstruating or using the bathroom. Now of course, it just seems jarring. Of course, I probably cannot complain too much about scatalogical focus in books, having just spent half of the previous review earnestly explaining about dog poo ... but there you have it.Roger has just hit Peggy across the face after she has intervened to prevent him hitting Rusty with a belt] My gut reaction to a lot of the book is a sort of incredulous "why don't you talk to someone?" And while I understand that Rusty is being thrust into the lingering auras of fading Victorian attitudes when she meets her grandmother and attends school, her mother, Peggy, is shown as becoming one of the "new women" who emerged after WW2, having had to take over men's jobs, and beginning to encroach on men's roles in society as well. Yet whenever Rusty tries to talk to her she reverts to the Victorian attitudes of her in-laws (possibly also her parents). These two different aspects to Peggy don't seem to mesh as well as they could, and, although it drives the plot forward, it does feel a little strained at times. There is a telemovie of this starring Hayley Mills as Peggy. I watched it all on You Tube, and it captured some parts of the book much better than my reading of the book did. Judith Poole is both old-school-mean-girl and earnest, for example.