Kimberly Brubaker Bradley_44
Kimberly Brubaker Bradley's 'The War that Saved My Life' was a Newbery Honor Book winner but that was not the book I was reading. 'The War I Finally Won' was the sequel; yes, perhaps I could have guessed. A very battered copy arrived in the street library absent a back cover, so I read 'Finally' with care, lest the final pages detach altogether. Had I lost those last pages I would have been mildly put out, but my 12 year old self would have been devastated. Damaged child heroine Ada Smith is orphaned and—with reason—deeply ignorant and deeply distrustful. In 'Finally' the abuse she escaped in 'Saved' has lingering effects; Ada's defiant recovery plays out among familiar WWII tropes (English village, courageous sons and their mothers, the healing power of horses), creating the blend of dark and light beloved by the Newbery and earnest young readers.