The War that Saved my Life is a Newbery award winning book based during World War II. It is based in England. Ada, a 11 year old girl lives in a poor neighborhood in East London, . Ada has a clubfoot and is called a cripple by her mom. Ada’s Ada wants to be a normal girl that would help her mother with shopping, run around, and play with other kids but her mom mom is as mean as they come, she locks Ada in their one room flat, and never lets her come out. She slaps and puts her in the cupboard under the sink (a wretched cupboard) when she disobeys her orders. Jamie, Ada’s younger brother is completely normal, and gets to be normal. Ada was in charge of taking care of him until he was old enough to go outside and when he was old enough Ada was by herself for hours.
Soon, news came of hitler and World War II, and Ada decides to teach herself something very important- she decided to teach herself to walk. By the time they had to evacuate the children from London Ada could hobble. Ada’s mom is fine with Jamie leaving London but she is not letting Ada leave. So, Jamie and Ada escape from their mom and board a train full of evacuees (most of them children) going to Kent
In Kent, Ada and Jamie are placed under the care of Susan. Susan doesn’t want them at first but then she realizes how much she likes having them there, so Susan takes care of them. Susan treats both Ada and Jamie with kindness and care that their mom never showed. Susan takes efforts to fix Ada’s clubfoot and even teaches her to knit and read. There are a few other uplifting moments in the book that I don’t want to give away. The book ends with a big finish at the end which will definitely surprise you.
I really enjoyed this book because it was set during the second world war and it talked about life during the world war – air strikes, rationing, evacuation etc. I liked the way the author crafted the story and characters around the big ideas of power, friendship, kindness and freedom. This story is based off of something that happened in real life. I read this book first when I was in second grade but I read it again and I enjoyed it more the second time. I loved this book so much that I even suggested it to my dad who surprisingly listened to the whole book in a few days.
If you like this book then I would suggest reading the sequel called The War I Finally Won. That book is a continuation of Ada’s journey to find out who she is and what she wants to stand for. Also, if you like reading World War II books you should check out Wolf hollow, if you want to learn more about it click here.
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