''Goggle-Eyes'', or ''My War with Goggle-Eyes'' in the US, is a children's novel by Anne Fine, published by Hamilton in 1989. It features a girl who thinks she hates her mother's boyfriend. In the

frame story A frame is often a structural system that supports other components of a physical construction and/or steel frame that limits the construction's extent. Frame and FRAME may also refer to: Physical objects In building construction *Framing (con ...

, set in a Scottish day school, that girl Kitty tells her friend Helen about hating her mother's boyfriend. Fine won the annual Carnegie Medal from the

Library Association The Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, since 2017 branded CILIP: The library and information association (pronounced ), is a professional body for librarians, information specialists and knowledge management, knowle ...

, recognising the year's best children's book by a British author. She also won the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, a similar award that authors may not win twice. Six books have won both awards in 45 years through 2011. ''Goggle-Eyes'' was adapted for television by the BBC in 1993.''Goggle-Eyes'' at the Internet Movie Database
/ref> Little, Brown published a US edition under its Joy Street Books imprint in 1989, entitled ''My War with Goggle-Eyes''.

Plot summary

The story is told in the

first person First person or first-person may refer to: * First person (ethnic), indigenous peoples, usually used in the plural * First person, a grammatical person * First person, a gender-neutral, marital-neutral term for titles such as first lady and first ...

, by Kitty Killen. It is set in Scotland in the 1980s, when

anti-nuclear protests Anti-nuclear protests began on a small scale in the U.S. as early as 1946 in response to Operation Crossroads. Large scale anti-nuclear protests first emerged in the mid-1950s in Japan in the wake of the March 1954 Lucky Dragon Incident. Aug ...

were prominent in the news. When Helen runs out of the classroom in distress, Mrs Lupey sends Kitty after her, despite the two not being particular friends. Kitty soon realises that Helen dislikes the man her mother is going to marry, so she tells her the story of how she first loathed Gerald, her mother's boyfriend, and how she gradually got used to him, despite his anti- CND views. "Goggle-Eyes"' is the nickname Kitty gives Gerald, because of the way he stares ("goggles") at Kitty's mother. The story is told in a cloakroom cupboard during one morning, with occasional interruptions from Liz and Mrs Lupey.

The characters

*Kitty Killen, a Scottish schoolgirl, the narrator *Rosalind "Rosie" Killen, Kitty's mother, a nurse *Judith "Jude" Killen, Kitty's younger sister *Gerald "Goggle-Eyes" Faulkner, Rosalind's boyfriend *Helen "Helly" Johnston, a classmate of Kitty's *Liz, Helen's best friend *Mrs Lupey, the form teacher *Josie, Beth, Ben and others, CND protesters *Inspector McGee, head of the police presence at the protest *Mr Killen, Rosalind's ex-husband *Mrs Harrison, Kitty's and Jude's babysitter *Simon, one of Rosalind's boyfriends *Floss, the Killens' cat

Literary significance and reception

''Goggle-Eyes'' was awarded the Carnegie Medal for 1989 and the

Guardian Prize The Guardian Children's Fiction Prize or Guardian Award was a literary award that annual recognised one fiction book written for children or young adults (at least age eight) and published in the United Kingdom. It was conferred upon the author ...

in 1990, the two most prestigious British awards for children's literature. It was also shortlisted for the Smarties Award in 1990 and the German Youth Literature Prize in 1993.

Television adaptation

''Goggle-Eyes'' was adapted for television by the BBC as a four-episode mini-series, which was broadcast in 1993. It starred Honeysuckle Weeks as Kitty. The screenwriter, Deborah Moggach, won the Writer's Guild Award for Best Adapted TV Serial. Anti-nuclear protests had diminished after the 1991 close of the Cold War so the story was revised to feature a more timely issue, Green politics.Author's foreword to the Longman educational edition of ''Goggle-Eyes'', 1996

Notes

References

External links

* —immediately, first US edition () {{Anne Fine 1989 British novels 1989 children's books British children's novels Carnegie Medal in Literature winning works Guardian Children's Fiction Prize-winning works Novels set in Scotland Novels by Anne Fine Novels about nuclear war and weapons Hamish Hamilton books