The War that Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

Title: The War that Saved My Life
Author/Illustrator: Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
Genre: Historical Fiction
Major Awards: Newbery Medal Honor (2016); Mark Twain Readers Award (2017); William Allen White Award (2017); Odyssey Award - (2016), and many more
Age: 8-12

This book is about a little girl's journey away from her abusive mother and how life is without her. Ada was born with a disability called club foot, and her mother saw nothing but her disability. While she lived at home things were always difficult for Ada, her mother never treated her with respect and she wasn't allowed to leave their apartment because her mother was ashamed of her. It took for her brother to be shipped out of London to a countryside, and thus a chance for her freedom and a new life away from her mother. Since all the young children were being shipped out to get away from Hitler and his army and a possible invasion, Ada saw it as her chance and snuck out and was able to get away. Since she had a younger brother, Jamie, she escaped with him. In London they end up staying with a woman by the name of Susan Smith, a woman with problems of her own and she didn't think she was able to take care of two children, but she did her best and showed them so much love. Throughout the war Ada thought about one day having to return to her old life and having to deal with things how they were, but for the moment she would enjoy her time there. While with Susan she taught herself how to ride a pony, learns how to read and be on the lookout for German spies. With Susan, Jamie didn't have to steal for his sister or worry about being beaten. Susan had regular meals for them and made sure that they knew she cared for them. Just when it seemed like everything was going to be fine and stay on the up and up, they were forced back to live with their mother. So Ada had developed her voice and decided to make a deal with her mother that she wouldn't keep them or pay, Ada's mother agreed, and this made Ada very upset because she knew she had a better life with Susan and wanted to go back there and not be with her mother. In the end Ada and Jamie ended up leaving because bomb threats were on the rise. It's amazing that Susan had been looking for them and took them, because her house had been bombed.

I think this book is wonderful and an eye-opener. I know there are bad parents, but to see a young girl find her voice and the reader seeing how much can change just by a new surrounding and having someone love and care for their well-being. I think students in middle school would benefit best from this book, but I honestly think it can go beyond just middle school children. I think if I used this in a lesson it would be to show my students the affects of a loving environment and to show them they could have it much worse than what they might now. Some students may be able to relate to Ada and what she went through because their parents may not love them like that, but I think it would be important for them to appreciate their parents and that they never know what their classmate may be going through, so we should all be kind to one another.
- Peace. Love. Giraffes.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Childhood Book Memories

Image
     I have had a great experience with reading and keeping my mind active growing up. During the summer, my mom frequently put me in summer reading programs, and I read many different books, genres, and authors, at times it was required for school, other times, she just wanted to make sure that I was being active mentally, and not regressing with my education. She even bought me different work books so that I could do them and she would check them and give feedback on what I had done to help me get better.     Which books I've actually read is a little bit harder to remember because there were a lot. I did get into John Grisham books at a young age, and I frequently read his books ( A Time To Kill , Sycamore Row , The Runaway Jury , just to name a few). Crime and mystery fascinate me a lot and he writes them in such great detail that I feel like I'm there, and I think in some other form I wanted to be a lawyer or something in the legal field, however I don't think it's
Read more

The Rooster Prince of Breslov by Ann Redisch Stampler

Image
Title: The Rooster Prince of Breslov Author/Illustrator: Ann Redisch Stampler/ Eugene Yelchin Genre: Folklore Age: 5-7 years old This book is based off a Yiddish folktale, and deals with a young, spoiled prince, who assumes the likeness and characteristics of a rooster, until one week and old man spends seven days with him and shows him how he can mature. The book starts out with this young prince who essentially had more than he could ever want and need, nice meals, people waiting on him hand and foot. Until one day during his lavish lifestyle he had, had enough and starting acting like a rooster. He had taken off his clothes and started clucking about the palace, he pecked at things like a rooster, hunched over like a rooster and believed himself that he was a rooster. He wouldn't utter a single human word and wouldn't get dressed when his parents asked him to. They had a doctor come see him and he had said he had a case of roosterism which wasn't really real. So s
Read more

The Three Billy Goats Gruff by Paul Galdone

Image
Title: The Three Billy Goats Gruff Author/Illustrator: Paul Galdone Genre: Fairy Tales; Fiction Age: 4-7 This book is about three goats who walked over this bridge and they each get stopped by this troll who wants to eat these billy goats, and how they outsmarted him. They lived on a hillside and were hungry and wanted to get fat the only way to do so was to cross the bridge, which was over a rushing river and a Troll lived underneath it. The first Billy Goat Gruff was tiny and small and warned that a bigger goat was coming along and that he would fill him up, rather than a tiny goat. So the Troll let him go free. Then came along the second slightly larger Billy Goat Gruff and as he was crossing the bridge the Troll stopped him as well. He said he was going to eat him up, but the second billy goat, like the first one warned that a bigger billy goat was coming along and would fill up the Troll. So the Troll let him go as well. Along comes the third and biggest billy goat and like t
Read more