The War That Saved My Life

Written by Kimberly Bradley

Newbery Honor Book 

Ada and her brother Jamie live in a small apartment with their mother. Jamie lives as normal of a life as he can, playing with friends and going to school. But 10-year-old Ada isn't allowed to leave the apartment because her mother is embarrassed by the twisted foot that she was born with. Ada instead is forced to crawl around the apartment and do all the cooking and cleaning for her mother. Because she cannot leave the apartment, she has not been to school. However, when war threatens their London city, Ada sneaks out early one morning with Jamie, and head to the train station with Jamie's school to be relocated to a safer place. The two are sent to the countryside to live with their new caretaker, Susan Smith. Though Susan isn't an overly compassionate person, she is kind to Ada and Jamie. She buys them clean clothes, keeps them bathed, has Ada's foot looked at by a doctor, and helps teach them both. By the end of the book, Ada and Jamie are back home with their mother who still does not properly care for them. Susan Smith follows them and adopts them, bringing them back to the country to live.

This book, though emotional, is an easy read. I would say that this book was written for a fifth-grade classroom but could be read and enjoyed by all levels past that as well. I would have this in my classroom library if I were a middle school teacher.