Back Home (A Puffin Book)

Product Information

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. Michelle Magorian was born in Portsmouth, Hampshire, [3] and is of Irish descent, her father William Magorian being from County Down, Ireland [ citation needed] She lived in Singapore and Australia from age seven to nine. As a child she spent as much time as possible in the Kings Theatre, Southsea. 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. 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.

Back Home - Penguin Books UK

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. The war is over but the battle is only just beginning for Rusty, as she moves to Guildford to face her acid-tongued grandmother. Rusty's continual clashes with her family, school and culture left me feeling almost depressed sometimes, but I wanted to read on because of her independent, fighting spirit. 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.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. 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. In an emotional climax, both Rusty and her mother decide that their lives have to change. A wartime story by Michelle Magorian.

Back Home by Michelle Magorian | Waterstones

I really feel for Rusty (the protagonist) in this book. After returning from America after 5 years, she can't just jump into her old English life, everything is different her accent, her principles, even her family. Even the weather seems dull and garb compared to America. Interestingly, Magorian’s first love when she was younger was to be an actress but she also loved writing and day dreaming – the perfect combination for a successful novelist. Michelle says” It would be brilliant if it could be released on CD so if anyone wants one perhaps they could request it from the BBC? This is a great book. It might take a little while to get into, but you'll love it more and more as you read.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.