Book: The War that Saved My Life

I've just learned a lot about a lot by reading Kimberly Brubaker Bradley's The War that Saved My Life.  It was an intriguing book from the start.  I longed for a time when the main character could accept herself and trust others who genuinely did not care about her deformities or lack of knowledge.

There is a lot going on in this story, but never did it become so much that I couldn't keep up with it all.  Bradley kept me engaged from start to finish, taking the time to include facts from the World War 2 era from a British point of view.  It even made me want to investigate more about the things that really happened.  I highly recommend this book.  Sadly, there was some choice language in the last pages that was inappropriate.

From Amazon:

Nine-year-old Ada has never left her one-room apartment. Her mother is too humiliated by Ada’s twisted foot to let her outside. So when her little brother Jamie is shipped out of London to escape the war, Ada doesn’t waste a minute—she sneaks out to join him.
 
So begins a new adventure of Ada, and for Susan Smith, the woman who is forced to take the two kids in. As Ada teaches herself to ride a pony, learns to read, and watches for German spies, she begins to trust Susan—and Susan begins to love Ada and Jamie. But in the end, will their bond be enough to hold them together through wartime? Or will Ada and her brother fall back into the cruel hands of their mother?
 
This masterful work of historical fiction is equal parts adventure and a moving tale of family and identity—a classic in the making.