The child reading this book will get to learn the difference between when an adult misbehaves and when an adult actually cares. Willie finally reaches the standard of reading and writing required to join his friends in Miss Hartridge's class. There, rather than struggling, he actually performs very well, much to everyone's surprise. Carrie, a top student in the class, requests to take the exam so she can attend high school. Slowly but surely, with Mister Tom’s kindness and wisdom, and the help of the good people in the nearby community, Willie begins to flourish. He makes friends, and discovers what it’s like to have a normal childhood.

I think I’ve seen this film at least ten times (five of those viewings were on successive video days on the afternoon of every end of term, The Railway Children in the morning, of course.). William remains bedridden and traumatised by his ordeal. He blames himself for the death of his sister, as he was not able to give her enough milk. Zach visits him daily. William grows stronger and visits his favourite teacher, Annie Hartridge. From Annie and Zach, William learns that he could not have fed a baby on his own and that a woman cannot conceive a child on her own. He realises his mother had sex with a man, though she told him that it was a sin for unmarried men and women to consort. He no longer blames himself for his sister's death. William attends school and makes friends, including George, twins Carrie and Ginnie, and especially fellow evacuee Zach. William learns to read and write with the help of Tom and others, and shows talent in drawing, painting, and dramatics. As William is changed by Tom, so is Tom transformed by William. It is revealed that Tom lost his wife and baby son to scarlatina forty years ago. To become the boy that Willie could be, he learns to shed the pains of his childhood. And that uncertainty and hesitancy of never being on the receiving hand of a comforting touch or to see his own capability. The little group of friends he makes that bring him out of his own sheltered mold - that allow him to see him for what he can be - if just given the opportunity. 😔 He's a small boy with such a big heart - so very full of artistic talents and want to be something more, but too afraid to voice his own wants. And my heart reached out to him - wanted to hold him gently and reassure him that things will be better for him - if he would just not lose faith.William heals through his friendship with another recluse, Geoffrey Sanderton, a young man who lost a leg during the war and gives William private art lessons. After Geoffrey shares a photo of his own best friend, who is also dead, William begins to come to terms with Zach's death. Using Zach's bike, William teaches himself to ride. He realises that Zach will always be a part of him. William also grows closer to Carrie as they bond over Zach's memories. Willie Beach finds himself living with Tom, a man in his sixties, a widower who has lived alone for a long time, but who fits the bill for the kind of person Willie’s mother has requested her son be put with. I just can’t imagine what it must have been like for all those children who were sent away at the beginning of WWII, to live with total strangers. 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. It must have been traumatic, leaving behind Mums and Dads, older siblings, their former schools, pets possibly, in fact, everything that was familiar and comforting, and finding themselves in a totally different environment with people who knew nothing of these children’s former lives.

Now he’d be for it. Don’t ask help from anyone, his mum had said. He waited for the cuff around the ear.” It’s the apparently ‘heartwarming’ story of Willie Beech, who is sent from London to the countryside during the second world war. He goes from living with an overly religious, abusive mother to the gruff but kind Tom, and develops, or something. It doesn’t really matter. I honestly have to ask- how did this novel get such a high rating? It was easily one of the worst novels I have ever read. It was for their own safety, of course, London was too dangerous, one of the prime targets for Hitlers bombing campaign, so the relative safety of country villages was thought to be the answer.His happiness comes to an end when he is summoned to return to his mother in London and a life of abuse and cruelty. Willie's mother pours anger on him for his new found happiness and hatred for his being friends with Zach because Zach is Jewish. she has hidden a baby she has secretly given birth to. As I mentioned, I read this book when I was ten and now twelve years later this book was still beautiful. It has aged extremely well.