The War That Saved My Life

The War That Saved My Life
By Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
Newbery Honor

What a terrible way to grow from a baby to an eleven year old.  This is the story of Ada who was born in London during the time when World War II is the present in what we now know as history.  Poor Ada, she thinks she at fault for the way she has been born.  She thinks she must have done something wrong and that is why her mom treats he in such a horrible way.  As the story begins Ada, Jamie her brother and her mom live in a flat in London.  Her mom treats very bad and every time that she says something that her mom doesn't like she slaps her.  Whenever her mom feels that Ada has been very bad she puts her in the cabinet below the sink.  Ada is not allowed to leave the room at all because her mom calls her a cripple and says she is too embarrassed that people will see Ada the way she is.  Ada has a club foot by the way.   Her little brother Jaime is about to start school and Ada is worried about what she is going to do so she is determined to learn how to walk.  As the story develops Jaime hears that all the children will be going somewhere away from London because it is possible that it will be bombed by the Hitler and his troops.  Ada decides that Jaime and she will go and join the rest of the kids and they do.  One morning while their mom is sleeping they leave their flat and go to the school where everyone will be to leave London.  Ada and Jaime get there very early in the morning and wait there.  Eventually everyone gets the and the trip happens.  When they got to the place Ada and Jaime were left at the train station after all the children had been picked by people who would take care of them.  Nobody picked Ada and James, but the iron faced woman who was in charge of the operation decided she would take them somewhere, and she knew just where to take them.  She took them to the house of Mrs. Smith who was reluctant to take them but ended up doing it.  She was not sure what to do so she did what she could.  Mrs. Smith fed them, made them clothes, and took them to the doctor.  That is where Ada found out that she could get an operation to fix a lot of the problem with her club foot.  Ada became very fond of  Butter, the horse that Mrs. Smith owned but is mostly reluctant to trust or to love, and who can blame her after all she has gone through with her mom.  Mrs. Smith wants Ada to get the operation but has to get permission from Ada's mom.  She writes her over and over but there is never a response.  As things happen they have to get a shelter placed in their yard for when they hear the sirens and one day they have to go help because a lot of wounded soldier end up in Kent, which is where they are.  Later the children get evacuated from Kent but Mrs. Smith decides she will not let Ada and Jamie go because she wants to protect her from any harm by other people that would take care of her.  They stay and at one point Ada discovers a spy that tries to sneak into Kent to send transmissions back to Germany in an effort to invade Kent.  The Spy is capture and Ada becomes a heroin for a little while.  Suddenly the unexpected happens.  Ada's mom arrives at Kent and takes back Ada and Jaime because she does not want to pay for Mrs. Smith to take care of them.  She is mean to Ada as always.  When they get back to London Ada's mom admits that she never wanted them. It is a huge heart break for Ada and Jaime.  By this time they already consider Mrs. Smith's place their home.  Ada tells her mom to let them go and she will not have to pay at all.  She seems to like the idea.  That night the sirens go off and London gets bombed by the Germans.  Ada and Jamie barely make it to the shelter.  The next morning to their surprise, Mrs. Smith is there in London looking for them and she finds them.  They go back to Kent to find out that Mrs. Smith's house was flattened by a bomb while she went looking for them.  Mrs. Smith tells Ada that her and Jaime saved her life and Ada responds to her telling her that now they are even.  Nothing else is said about Ada's mom, but justice eventually comes and I personally assume that it came during the London bombing.

I would use this book in my class because it is really good in many ways.  I would read aloud to the students for ELA.  This book is a great literary work that I think many students would enjoy.  This book is provably appropriate for Third through Fifth grade.