The War That Saved My Life

Title: The War That Saved My Life

Author: Kimberly Brubaker Bradly

Age group:

Awards: Newbery Honor 

Genre: Historical Fiction

Summary

This book by Kimberly Bradley, is a book about a young girl named Ada who was born with a clubfoot. She has a brother named Jamie who is younger than her and is "normal." In the story, their mam, treats Ada really badly, and only lets Jamie go out. The book takes place during WWII when the Germans were planning on bombing England, so the children were sent away from there to be safe. Mam was only going to send Jamie, but Ada ended up leaving with him. Once there, they end up being taken to a lady named Susan because nobody wanted to take them in since they looked terrible. Susan at first does not want them, but she treats them way better than mam did. She tries to help Ada a lot, but they need the consent of mam to fix her foot, and mam is nowhere to be found. During their time with Susan, Jamie goes to school, Ada learns how to ride a horse, sew and some other couple of things. Then one day mam decides to come for them, and takes them back home. Turns out she had moved, and so they were back to living with mam and Ada being treated badly. They get bombed in England, but luckily Ada and Jamie find shelter, and in the end Susan was looking for them and finds them. She takes them with her and as it turned out, her house had been bombed as well. 

Evaluation

The book was really great, although it made me a little mad to read how Ada was treated by their mother and that she was so neglectful towards them. I felt really upset when I began reading it, but lightened up when they went with Susan. The book has a lot of great things that it can teach students. The book can be used to teach the students about the WWII, or introduce the concept of it. The book can be used to teach students that one never truly knows what goes on in the life of other's. This book is really amazing in how it depicts the life Ada and Jamie, and how that can be true for some kids right now. The way I would use the book in my class, would be to teach the students that they should understand the position they are in. What I mean by that, is that I would use it to teach them that it is a privilege to have an education, because even now not everyone has that privilege. Also that they should be thankful that now a days whether you're left handed or not, it does not matter, and you will not get punished for that like Jamie did in the book. There are a great deal of things that the book can be used to teach to students. I really liked the book, and I enjoyed reading it is as well.