Goodnight, Mr Tom......

[BertrandRussell]

...too much for imaginative, sensitive 8 year old bookworm? I’m inclined to think so.....

I read it at 8 and still read it now aged 37. One of my all time favourite books.

Film is crap though.

Tom's Midnight Garden? I love Philippa Pearce.

I just bought Tom's Midnight Garden as the third! Great minds....

I also love Minnow on the Say. I read it to one of my classes when I was a young teacher. Magical.
I buy classics for my half-Spanish granddaughter in Spain. The Little House on the Prairie, Ballet Shoes, Tom's Midnight Garden, The Chronicles of Narnia, When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, The Eagle of the Ninth. My English granddaughters help her with the more modern stuff. 😊

Someone mentioned The Dark is Rising and that would be my top tip for that age - a magical series. How about the Chronicles of Prydain? Lots of humour for that age group.

I'd say 10/11 for it. It's a brilliant book, I first read it around that age and I've always remembered it. Read it again recently for bookgroup. It still made me sob in places but I got the subtleties of it a lot more as well.

I was 13. I thought it was too much even then.
(Avid reader here, just thought it was dark).

I'm going to try him with Alan Garner for his birthday. I wish I could give him William Mayne-Cathedral Wednesday and A Parcel of Trees were favourites of mine.....

Can nobody read William Mayne ever again? I loved his books and knowing his fall from grace didn’t change the books.

I love GMT and read it at 8 however the baby scene had me sobbing on my grandads shoulder for hours.

There’s a really nice new paperback version of The Owl Service out at the moment Betrand

My teacher read it to our class when we were 11. I read it to my DD when she was 10 and it broke my heart. I could barely read between sobs!

Zacherias Wrench you will always have a place in my heart.

Bought my DD the DVD too. She loved it.

I like it. I will never forget my teacher reading it aloud to us when we were in the yeargroup where we were 8 or 9. He was a wonderful reader and I always hear that book in his voice. He died not very long after, and I wish I'd been able to tell him how much I appreciated it.

As for the Green Knowe books - I love these took, but how on earth are they better?! One of them describes children dying of plague, the mother and the children all together in one day, in a few hours. Another one is about someone mentally altered trying repeatedly to break in or sneak in to the house. It's really frightening.

I definitely remember sobbing reading some children's books. In fact the bit that really got me in the Green Knowe books is when the grandmother hears someone singing Coventry Carol to a baby, hundreds of years ago, and you know the baby is dead. But, I think it's actually healthy and important to explore grief through books. God willing, children don't often see the death of other children close to them, and these days, many children are well into their teens before anyone they know dies. It's become such a remote reality, and that's made us think that being sad about death is something wrong and avoidable, so we shouldn't even let children read a sad book. I think that is really misguided.

Hopeclearwater - yes, I remember it. Loved it. I think it was in three parts.

Just checked, 5 parts. I always remember "one on, one off and one in the wash" when they were buying her clothes.

I remember ^Kizzy*. I can still picture the tv adaptation, and am pretty sure I could dig out the book if needed. I still do “one on, one off and one in the wash” when sitting the DC’s clothes!

I don't like GMT because it contains several anachronisms, and numerous anachronistic attitudes.

What about 'The Silver Sword'?

Haven't read all the suggestions but The Midnight Fox is a lovely old book for that age.

If I remember correctly, the one boy's mother locked him under the stairs because he was associating with someone Jewish.
Of course, now I realise it's just part of history, but my best friend from school was Jewish and it really upset me.
Off to look the book up again.

(I was referring to GMT in my last post).

"Can nobody read William Mayne ever again?"

If you don't boycott David Bowie, or Chrissie Hynde etc then I don't see why not.

GMT traumatised me and I was 45 when I was reading it to my 7 and 9 year old. The bit where he is found with the baby 😞... I had tears in my eyes but edited as I read it out loud to my two to the extent that the boys couldn’t quite understand why I was upset. I felt it was unnecessary for them to know about as they already understood that the mother was mentally unwell and often unkind/abusive to Will but this scene was far beyond even that 🙁

I found the other "baby scene" really upsetting too, where it went back in time to Tom's wife and son dying.

I was a bookish and sensitive child, and after reading the Wikipedia article on the book ... definitely too much.

For an old timey book that talks about death and horrible adults, I'd suggest "A Little Princess". I find it a bit cheesy re-reading it as an adult, but it is charming in its own way.

(It comes to mind because I am 80% sure Rowling copied bits was inspired by it - and it seems that GMT is the origin of the "child locked in cupboard under the stairs" theme ...)