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I really loved this book! Apart from the good use of language and feeling, the theme of the story is one that I can relate to. I moved to America from Britain when I was four years old and returned when I was eleven. All the complicated emotions that Rusty experiences (sadness, alienation, depression, despair) are ones that I also had to face. In the end, I also ,like Rusty, managed to come to terms with living in Britain. I recommend this book to anyone who feels like an outsider, or is interested in the time period during and after the second world war.It is really descriptive, and the words paint a very realistic picture of life in the 1940's. I just couldn't put this book down. If you enjoyed "Back Home", you should check out "Goodnight Mister Tom" which is also by Michelle Magorian.

Virginia Dickenson is sent to America from England as a 7 year-old to be sheltered from World War II. She spends five years with a family there, and gains the name Rusty. When she gets home, life changes dramatically. She feels unloved and her mother expects better behavior, and enforces rules strictly. When Rusty's father comes home from war, he cannot believe that she answers him back, and doesn't take "because I said so and I am the man of the house" as a suitable answer. He sends her to an even stricter all-girl boarding school, where she is an outcast. She doesn't know latin, french, or algebra and is made fun of because of her accent. Then she meets a boy who hates his all-boy school, too, and was sent near where she was in America for the war. They discover (on a prohibited secret night visit to the woods) a cabin. Can Rusty survive boarding school?

Rusty (Virginia) Dickenson, a spirited 12 year old girl, was sent to America five years ago to be sheltered from World War Two. The war has since ceased, and when Rusty returns to England, nothing seems quite right: her mother enforces loathsome disciplinary regulations, and the starchy manner that Rusty is expected to behave in seems impossible for her charismatic nature. The poverty of post-war England reflects nothing back home in America where Rusty always felt accepted. Rusty is shipped off to an all-girl traditional boarding school where she struggles to hold her faith in the goodness of the human spirit. That is, until she meets a boy her age who was also shielded from WWII in America. Their platonic friendship and a Cabin in the Woods is about to change every prejudice Rusty has of England.

This book was fabulous! It's about a girl who returns to England after the war. She doesn't fit in with the other girls at the boarding school, everything she does annoys her mother at first, and when her father comes home it's even worse! I can't go on, or I'll give away the ending, but READ THIS BOOK! 1

Back Home is about a girl called Virginia Dickinson (Rusty) and she was evacuated to America when she was 5 and so she adapted to the American way of life as she stayed there until she was 12. She came home to a war torn country and a totally new way of life. She has to blend in with her family and make new friends but she finds this very difficult. She cannot stop thinking about her American family and thinks of them closer than her real family. Her Grandmother and Father then come into the picture and want her sent off to boarding school and to lose that 'awful' accent and become the sophisticated child she used to be before her vacation. (Rusty is her nickname because of her hair) Rusty does not fit in and so she has no friends only enemys and everyone in the school is against her. Her only friend is Lance a 'Boy' from another school. Her life goes on like this and it really gets her down but she cannot tell anyone this except Lance........ To find out what happens read this 'superb book' I am sure you will love it Miss it Miss out!

I thought this is a great book as it is REALLY realitstic and you can realate with Virginia (Rusty) very easily. The story line is about a girl who has lived in America for 5 years (after being evaccutated there for safety during the Second World War) and what happens to her when she arrives back in England. I won't go on otherwise there will be no point you reading the book!! I recommend this for 11-15 year olds.
IT IS BRILLIANT!

This book is one of my favorite books that I have ever read. It's the type of book that I can't put down. "Rusty" an English girl who was evacuated to America during World War II, comes back to England after 5 years to find everything in England has changed. Her mother doesn't even seem like her mother. Then she is sent to boarding school, and even has difficulties there. I reccomend this book to teenagers.

A good book, but definately NOT for 9-12 year olds. I first read it at age 11 and found the sexual implications embarrassing. It is a great book, however, and celebrates women and freedom.

Exposure to the more open and egalitarian roles for women while she was in America during the war make the transition to boarding school and life with her parents and her father's mother difficult for this teen. She finds an escape, and someone to share it with. Meanwhile, her mother struggles to give up the independence she experienced as a mechanic during the war so that she can return to her role as subservient wife. How will mother and daughter cope with life in post-war Britain?

This book is one of my favorite books that I have ever read. It's the type of book that I can't put down. "Rusty" an English girl who was evacuated to America during World War II, comes back to England after 5 years to find everything in England has changed. Her mother doesn't even seem like her mother. Then she is sent to boarding school, and even has difficulties there. I reccomend this book to teenagers.