The first point that has a difference between the book and the movie is in the movie Jeannette is a gossip writer

The first point that has a difference between the book and the movie is in the movie Jeannette is a gossip writer, In the book Jeannette is a journalist, and she focuses very strongly on her rise to working for a magazine. She also works for a year answering phones at a financial firm. But in the book we never see her as a gossip writer. Another point is in the movie, Rex is rarely shown working, and Rose Mary never has a job. In the book, Rex has a different job every time the family travels to a different place. Rex worked in a mine, and the family lived in company housing. He also worked as a electrician.
A point of difference in also the pool scene, in the movie, Jeanette’s family visits the local pool. Rex decides that here is the right opportunity to teach Jeannette how to swim. He throws her in and out of the water. Then, he beats up the lifeguard who tried to stop him. Now the police are looking for Rex he decides to move to West Virginia. In the book, when Jeannette’s father teaches her to swim by throwing her into a spring in Nevada. The lifeguard incident never happened.
Another difference in the film is Jeannette’s brother, sister, and mother arrive to her new house for Thanksgiving and she left David. In the book, Jeanette’s family comes to her house in rural Virginia for Thanksgiving, where she lives with her second husband.
Another difference is in the movie is during one of the families moves, the kids are shut into the back of a moving truck. They hold the baby Maureen in their laps. In the book, the same thing happens, but in the middle of the ride the back door of the van open, and the four kids almost fly out.
Another difference is in the movie, after Grandma Smith dies, Rex and Rosemary drive to Texas and the kids move in with Erma, and live together in her basement. They find a box of Rex’s old things in his old bedroom, they find a poem that shows the abuse he suffered from his mother. In the book stay with Erma, but find nothing about Rex’s abuse from Erma.