Goodnight Mister Tom is a 1981 drama novel by Michelle Magorian. It follows a young boy named William Beech who is evacuated from London during the air-raids of the Second World War and put into the care of the elderly village recluse, Tom Oakley. Willie's overly religious, fanatical mother stipulates that he must live beside a church. Thus, Willie ends up in the rural English village of Little Weirwold. This is a powerful, poignant book about a young boy, who finds kindness and love in the most unexpected place, the home of an elderly man out in the English countryside. It is interesting that the setup of Good Night, Mr. Tom is similar to the very popular C.S. Lewis novel, The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. In both books, children are taken out of their London homes and evacuated to stay with strangers in the country, in order to keep them safe during the many bombings at the beginning of World War II. The old man, Mr. Thomas Oakley, heals and teaches the young boy, loses him for a while, and then finds him, saving his life and bringing him back to health and a happy life together. Good Night, Mister Tom comes from one child's point of view, a thin young boy named William. Everyone calls him Willie, with the exception of Willie's friend Zacharias Wrench who chooses to call him 'Will' because he thinks it's more dignified. The reader understands from the first moments of the novel that Willie's upbringing has made him perceive life around him as a very dangerous thing. He is constantly in fear of saying or doing something that will bring about a beating, since that has been his life experience with his mother as long as he can remember. He arrives at Mr. Tom's house thinly clad, underfed and covered with painful bruises, and believing he is full of sin. However, Mr. Tom, as Willie calls him, does not punish William as his mother did. In fact, Mr. Tom seems to understand him, as he has never been known before. Even though Willie wets the bed every night for...