![]() ![]() Thankfully, early in the book Ada and Jamie are evacuated out of London into the country. She and Jamie do not even know their own last name or their real ages. Ada is ashamed, deeply traumatized, and woefully under-educated. Ada was born with a clubfoot, and, despite the availability at that time of corrective surgery, chose not to pay for it and instead blames Ada for her disability. ![]() ![]() ![]() Ada does as much as she can to shelter Jamie from the cruelty of their mother, a vindictive woman who keeps Ada locked in their third-floor flat. The first book opens with an introduction to ten-year-old Ada and six-year-old Jamie, living in extreme poverty in London’s East End at the very beginning of World War II. These books are deep and difficult, but scattered with moments of beauty and grace even in the midst of suffering. I finally got to it (and its sequel, The War I Finally Won) this winter, and was glad to find my cousin’s record unmarred. I have a close cousin whose book recommendations have never steered me wrong, so when a few months ago she was singing the praises of a recent middle-grade novel, The War that Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, I knew I had to add it to my to-read list. ![]()
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