"The War That Saved My Life" by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

The War That Saved My Life is a real gem of a middle-grade novel. I do want to give a content warning to parents. The main character in this book is a young girl with a physical disability (she was born with a club foot that was never treated). She gets mistreated and physically abused by her mother, and I think the book could be hard to read for some children. Nonetheless, I think it is a very important novel and although it is heart wrenching, it is at its core very hopeful.

Ada and her brother Jamie live in London. Jamie goes to school, but Ada never leaves the apartment and looks at the world through the window. But then WWII breaks out in Europe and with it, London is under threat of being bombed. Children get evacuated into the country and Ada ceases this opportunity to leave the city and the prison her life has become in her mother's one-room apartment.

Even though the war rages around them, Ada and Jamie start living for the first time only when they leave London and get placed in the home of Susan Smith. For her part, Susan also finds a new meaning in life with the arrival of these two neglected and abused children. Even though at first, she is a reluctant caregiver, gradually she and the children learn to love each other and do truly pull each other out of despair and misery.

5 out of 5 stars. I already started reading the sequel.