Have you run out of book recommendations to read? Try reading this book because I guarantee that it will be very fun and interesting to read. Your eyes will be glued to the pages!
The War that Saved my Life is a heartwarming book about a ten-year-old girl named Ada who lives with her little brother and cruel mother in a small apartment. Ada has something called clubfoot, which means that one of her feet doesn’t function properly. This leads to her mother being ashamed of it instead of even trying to fix it as a baby. Ada can’t go outside at all and has to stay in her room.
One day, word of a war happening comes by them, but Ada’s mom only sends Jamie, the other child, to go to another place away from the war. Ada isn’t happy about this and goes with Jamie secretly one night. They go to where the teachers are and go on the train to a place away from the war. Ada and Jamie have to be taken care of someone and adopted. However, no one comes for them.
So one of the teachers knocks on a lady’s door and gives the children to her. Soon, Ada and Jamie are in the hands of a woman named Mrs. Smith, or later called Susan. Ada and Jamie don’t really like Mrs. Smith, and Ada isn’t adjusted yet to living like this with the lady buying such good clothes for her. Jamie wants to go home after a few days of being at this person’s house. He gets homesick for some reason, even though Ada gets treated badly at their old house.
Ada gets to go outside after a doctor takes a look at her foot. It doesn’t get fixed, but she gets crutches to roam around everywhere. She even learns how to ride Mrs. Smith’s, or Susan’s, horse, Butter! Ada also meets new people in this place, like Grimes and Maddie. She even gets to learn how to read and do math. She wasn’t taught at her old home, and she didn’t ever go to school.
Ada wasn’t accepted into the school Jamie goes to here before learning these things since she didn’t know about them. She couldn’t read anything at all or write any letters. But she starts practicing and gets better at it. She doesn’t get into the school, but she helps Susan with chores and shopping. And at night, they have dinner, which is better than at the apartment. Ada and Jamie start growing a bit on Susan, but on Christmas Eve, when Ada gets a dress that looks very beautiful from Susan, she starts having an emotional breakdown because of how complicated she thought things were.
Ada isn’t used to getting presents for Christmas, and it’s all so new to her. She thinks that Susan doesn’t like her and that she didn’t want her. But Susan does want Ada now. Ada doesn’t understand or believe that, though. But she calms down. Then news of the invasions coming close to where Ada, Jamie, and Susan are are heard of. Ada and Jamie are thought of being sent away. However, Susan thinks about this and doesn’t want to. Ada also catches a spy, so everyone starts pointing gratitude toward her. But with the bombs coming, Ada stops drawing attention to herself.
The bombs come at night, and Ada, Jamie, and Susan hurry to the shelter. Every night, they stay there until the bombs go away. Ada is careful when she goes outside on her horse. She writes to Maddie, who has moved to another school and is Ada’s friend. One day, when Ada’s riding the horse, Butter, she sees a woman that she doesn’t recognize. But when Ada looks at her more closely, she sees it’s…SURPRISE! You have to find out by yourself! 🙂
This book is so amazing! I really love it, and it allures me. I would give it a 5 star rating since it has an interesting plot and great characters. Plus, usually I don’t really like books that seem old, but this book made the war exciting from a girl’s perspective. It felt so real to me! I recommend this book to people 10 years old and older. Go ahead and the read the book now!
Written by Kruti Patel
