The War I Finally Won by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

The War I Finally Won concludes the story of Ada Smith and her own private war between herself and the world. The novel picks up the story where it left off in The War That Saved My Life. It is told by fourteen-year-old Ada looking back on events beginning on Monday September 15, 1940.

At the end of the first book, Ada and Jamie had just left their mother but were caught above ground during a bombing in London. They were found by Susan Smith, the older woman who had taken them in during the evacuation of London. Susan took them back to her village in Kent where they discovered that her home has been destroyed by a bomb. Now they are back in London where eleven-year-old Ada is undergoing surgery to repair her club foot. Susan, Jamie and his cat Bovril are "staying in a rented room in a boardinghouse near the hospital."

The War I Finally Won begins with Ada awakening from her surgery the next day to learn that her Mam has been killed in the bombing of the munitions factory where she worked. While six-year-old Jamie is devastated, Ada feels nothing because she knows her mother hated her and didn't want her.

Susan's concern about the funeral arrangements set Ada to worrying about whether or not they will be able to continue to live with her as they are now orphans. Still confined to bed, Ada learns from Susan that her mother's body was cremated and buried in a mass grave. Ada finally confesses her worry over the "arrangements" which she believes mean that Susan will abandon them. Susan comforts Ada by explaining that the "arrangements" she needed to make were regarding her mother's funeral. She explains that she will likely become Ada and Jamie's legal guardian. Ada also learns that Lady Thorton has offered them an abandoned cottage on the Thorton estate in which to live.

Even on an outing in a wheelchair, Ada finds herself worrying about money and taking care of herself and Jamie. Ada is told that Lord and Lady Thorton paid for her surgery but she doesn't like having to be grateful to Lady Thorton. Three days later, Ada gets her final cast cut off her foot and Susan presents her with a pair of shoes. The surgery is a resounding success with Ada is not only able to stand on her foot but also to walk and run, although the doctor tells her she will never have full mobility of her ankle.

Susan, Ada and Jamie travel back to Kent and set up house in the cottage on the Thorton estate, with Ada and Jamie having their own rooms. Life begins to return to some sort of normalcy with Ada now able to ride her horse Butter astride like her friend Maggie Thorton. Fred Grimes, the Thorton's groom is thrilled for Ada. But the war continues to take its toll; Ada meets her friend Stephen White and learns that his entire family has been killed in the bombing of London and that he and his father will be joining the merchant marines.

Christmas sees Ada once again struggle emotionally. Her best friend Maggie Thorton returns from boarding school to invite Ada and her family over for Christmas dinner. Just before Christmas, Jamie breaks his arm in an attempt to climb a tree. Ada is determined to care for him despite Susan's assurances that it is her responsibility. But Christmas is a difficult time for Ada. She is upset at receiving a doll from Susan which she considers a child's gift, and is tense at having to attend a Christmas dinner at Thorton House. However, this is made bearable by Maggie's older brother, Jonathan who is a lieutenant in the RAF. During Christmas dinner at the Thorton's, Susan asks Lord Thorton to help her find work. He is surprised to learn that Susan obtained a first from Oxford in maths and he offers her work immediately but it will mean placing Ada and Jamie in school. Susan refuses his offer, and Lord Thorton promises to find her something.

On Boxing Day, Ada rides in a "paper chase" which Maggie explains is "like a fox hunt...only without foxes, or hunting."Ada enjoys the paper chase immensely but her best surprise is Susan's gift of Butter. Gradually Ada begins to settle into life on the Thorton estate; she volunteers to fire watch even though it means climbing the church steeple.

Then Lady Thorton moves in with Susan, Ada and Jamie after Thorton house is requisitioned by the British government. This is the beginning of some big changes in Ada's life, ones that will bring about a new friendship, a terrible loss and the beginning of healing for Ada.

Discussion

The War I Finally Won is about one girl's war to overcome the physical and emotional trauma she experienced as a result of poverty and abuse to reclaim her life. In this sequel Ada must learn to how be a child and to leave the caring to the adults in her life. Perhaps even more importantly she must learn to trust.

After returning home from her surgery, eleven-year-old Ada Smith struggles with allowing herself to be cared for and to be a child. Ada was not wanted by her mother and not cared for; her club foot, a defect caused by the baby's position in the womb, could have been repaired at birth but was not. Ada was frequently punished by her mother by being placed in a small, roach-filled cupboard beneath the kitchen sink, she was not fed enough nor kept clean and she was kept a prisoner in her flat, never allowed to attend school. As a result she always feels unsafe and she considers herself the caretaker of herself and her brother.

Used to fending for herself and caring for her younger brother Jamie, Ada doesn't know how to be a child. When Jamie breaks his arm, Ada insists on caring for him, partly because this what she has always done and also because she doesn't trust Susan to do so. Adults are not to be trusted in Ada's world. Susan tells Ada to return to bed but Ada tells her, "It's my job to take care of him. Not yours." Susan tells her this is not her responsibility anymore. Susan attempts to prove to Ada that she, as an adult, is better suited to care for both Ada and her brother but questioning her as to what she would do if Jamie's condition worsened. Susan tries to explain to Ada that she doesn't necessarily have to feel safe to be safe, a point she makes when she takes Ada up in the church bell tower to fire watch.

Ada's worry about money and the cost of her care manifests itself in her questions about Susan's request to Lord Thorton to help her find work and that she too would like to help out. However, Susan points out to Ada, " 'You're eleven years old,' Susan said. 'You get to be the child now, Ada, for once in your life. I will be the adult.'..." Ada also struggles to understand the concept of guardianship and the meaning of the word "ward" which she takes to mean her care of Susan. Eventually Susan tells Ada her understanding of "ward" is archaic and that she is responsible for Ada's care.

The church steeple and fire watching are symbolic of Ada's belief that she must be ever-watchful for the possibility of bad things that might happen. Ada never feels safe; "I never did. Never once. Anything could happen anytime --Mam's death proved it..." She admits to Maggie that she is afraid of fire watching because she's afraid of being trapped, being pinned under rubble or like being "stuffed under the sink" and being unable to escape. "Only I still have to keep watch. I have to be careful, to keep bad things from happening again."

Ada's relationship with Susan gradually evolves into one of trust and love. Her younger brother Jamie has no problem considering Susan his mother and he even calls her mommy, telling Ruth "Our first mother is in heaven...Susan's our second." Ada admits it's difficult to accept this identity for Susan. "I flinched. All these months of Jamie calling Susan Mum, and I still couldn't get used to it. " Ada cannot yet accept Susan as her mother nor can she even admit that she might love Susan. "I wouldn't have told Susan I loved her even if I thought it was true. Words could be dangerous, as destructive as bombs." While Ada can't tell Susan how she feels, Susan does tell Ada and Jamie that she loves them.

Lady Thorton and Susan's care of Ada and her brother eventually teach Ada how to love and to trust. Ada doesn't realize how much she loves her until Susan becomes seriously ill with pneumonia. After almost losing her, Ada confesses that she loves her dearly. It isn't until the end of the novel that Ada finally refers to Susan as "Mum".

The War I Finally Won also explores the theme of preconceived views of people. In the first novel, Ada was considered simple and unteachable by others because of what her mother had told others and because of her disability. This humiliated and angered her.  The War I Finally Won considers the dangers of labelling all people from a certain group on the basis of generalization. In this novel, a young German girl, Ruth comes to stay at Thorton cottage. Lady Thorton refuses to allow Ruth to stay with them, stating "A German is a German is a German." Ada notes "...We saw Germans on the newsreels. They reminded me of Hitler with their cold dark eyes...You could tell by looking at them that they were evil." However she feels that Ruth "...looked normal enough to me." Fortunately, Lady Thorton is overruled by her more open-minded husband. Still Ada is not interested in being friends with Ruth reasoning that "Ruth could absolutely still have a wireless set. Or a bomb."

However, as they live together their views of Ruth change. Ada and Jamie learn that the creators of their favourite fairy tales were the German Brothers Grimm and that Ruth's home of Dresden "is a beautiful city, very cultured..." and that she is very much worried about her grandmother who lives there. Ada realizes that Lady Thorton is judging Ruth by what she knows of Hitler, that the longer she knows Ruth, the more ordinary she seems. Jonathan treats Ruth kindly and through his questions, Ada and the others learn about how Hitler has been treating the German Jews and that it is not a religious problem but one of race.

Ada and Ruth become friends by connecting through their mutual love of horses and riding. Ruth is not allowed to ride the Thorton's horses because she's German but Ada finds a way. This is because she recognizes the pain that Ruth is carrying and she believes "Ruth needed horses." She tells Susan, "Ruth needs horse the way I needed horses...The way Maggie needs them." Ada comes to understand that she and Ruth are very much alike, both searching for their place in the world. Ruth tells Jamie, "I used to think I was German. I don't belong anywhere anymore..." just as Ada feels she doesn't belong anywhere either. It is during a ride that Ada is finally able to admit to Ruth about her club foot and how it made her mother not love her. When Ada gets into trouble over allowing Ruth to ride, she explains that she gave the horse, Oban to Ruth whom she recognizes as the superior rider. Oban was a gift from Lady Thorton but Ada  knows the riding has helped Ruth in the same way it has healed Ada.

In the end, Susan and Lady Thorton's actions positively influence Ada, leading her to help them. Susan has taken care of Ada and Jamie, showing concern for them in many ways; Ada reciprocates this love by taking Susan to Becky's hometown where she can begin to heal the wounds of the past. Lady Thorton also cared for Ada during Susan's illness by taking Ada to visit her in the hospital and by taking her to the zoo; Ada reciprocates this love by using her saved money to travel to Maggie's school and bring her home when Lady Thorton sinks into a deep depression. "I'd know the right thing to do and I'd done it. I'd helped take care of Lady Thorton the way she'd helped take care of me."

By the end of the novel Ada is beginning to heal and is able to understand some of what has happened to her. For example Ada repeatedly states at the beginning of the novel "You can know things all you like, but that doesn't mean you believe them" Ada has been told and knows that her club foot is not her fault and that she is not to blame for her mother's unhappiness. But it isn't until Jamie points out to Ada that their mother was angry all the time at everything and not just at Ada that she comes to believe this. "It had never been about me. I couldn't breathe. I went to the window and looked out, seeing nothing, gripping the windowsill hard. It hadn't been my fault."

Eventually Ada becomes the girl she longed to be and much more; joyful, able to trust and to love but at the same time recognizing that she will always carry the scars of her previous life. She is on her way to winning her own personal war. "My foot would never be all the way right, but I could walk and climb and run. My feelings might never be all the way right either, but they were healed enough."

Brubaker Bradley has crafted a cast of realistic, memorable characters in The War I Finally Won. The story is driven by many remarkable characters; Ada Smith who is intelligent and resilient, Susan whose own painful past has helped her to understand Ada, Maggie and Ruth who are strong and supportive in spite of their own terrible losses, Lady Thorton whose upper class propriety masks a warm heart and Jonathan whose generous nature leads him to make the ultimate sacrifice. All of the major characters experience their own personal journey, offering lessons in forgiveness, acceptance and trust while the secondary characters help to fill out the story line.

The War I Finally Won will appeal to young teen readers, as well as adults. It also has the possibility to be a great aloud read for teachers. A fitting conclusion to a well-written pair of novels for young readers.

Book Details:

The War I Finally Won by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
New York: Dial Books For Young Readers    2017
85 pp.

The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

Ten-year-old Ada lives with her Mam and her younger brother, Jamie in London, England. Ada's mother works nights in the pub below their third floor flat. It is Ada's job to get Jamie breakfast in the morning and tea at night. Ada isn't able to walk because her right foot is small and twisted, so she gets around their flat by crawling. Because of her foot, Ada's mother will not allow her to ever leave their flat. She believes her daughter's crippled foot is shameful and that people will judge her as a parent. She also frequently tells Ada that her foot is her own fault. Ada hasn't been to school and instead is forced to care for Jamie. She is often hungry.

As Jamie gets older he no longer wants to stay in their flat and one day to prevent him from leaving, Ada ties him up. Seeing how upset he becomes, Ada releases him, realizing that she is becoming cruel like her Mam. That day she decides to teach herself to walk, hoping that if she can walk, Mam will be proud. Learning to walk is a painful process but Ada persists, deciding to keep it a secret. When Mam discovers that Jamie has been stealing food, she punishes Ada by forcing her into the cabinet beneath their sink. This is a terrifying experience for Ada because it is damp, smelly, dark and infested with roaches. And now that she's older and bigger, being in the cabinet all night is painful.

In late August, 1939, Jamie tells Mam that his best friend Billy White says that all the children in London are leaving, being sent to the country. London is going to be bombed by the Germans. Mam decides to send Jamie but not Ada, telling her that "Nice people don't want to look at that foot." Later on Ada tells Jamie to make sure he knows the time and place they are to be, because she intends to leave with him.

On a Friday morning, Ada, wearing her Mam's shoes leaves with Jamie. The walk is painful for Ada, but they make it inside the school. At the school Ada meets Stephen White who is surprised to see Ada. He reveals to her that everyone believes she is "simple" and cannot talk and that people feel sorry for her Mam. Stephen gives Ada a piggy-back ride to the train station and by noon Ada is on the train with the rest of the children headed out of London.

The train ride proves to be a learning experience for Ada who has never seen grass or trees and is astonished to see a girl riding a pony racing the train. For Ada, the girl on the pony leaves a lasting impression. Finally Ada and Jamie along with the other children arrive at a train station and are lined up so they can be paired with adults who will take them into their homes. Ada and Jamie are so scruffy that no one chooses them.The woman in charge of placing the children and whom Ada nicknames the "iron woman" consoles them and then drives them to a house set amongst trees.

They overhear the "iron woman" and the lady who lives at the house, Miss Smith arguing about taking the children. Initially Ada doesn't care whether Miss Smith takes them or not, until she sees the bright yellow pony poking its head through the bushes. This makes Ada take matters into her own hands and she has Jamie help her back to the house. In the end, the iron lady whose name is Lady Thorton, leaves Ada and Jamie with Miss Smith who is not at all very happy with this turn of events.

They are forced to have baths and it is at this time that Miss Smith discovers Ada's foot was not injured by a brewers cart but instead that she has a club foot. She tells Ada that they will go to see the doctor in the morning. Miss Smith learns that Jamie is ready to go to school but that Ada doesn't attend because of her "ugly foot" and that the children do not know their last name. Ada's only concern is the pony whom she learns is named Butter. The doctor tells Miss Smith that the children have impetigo (a skin infection), that they are very malnourished to the point that Ada is developing rickets (a Vitamin D deficiency) The doctor is also disturbed by Ada's untreated club foot, which Ada learns could have been treated when she was a baby. Miss Smith decides she will write Ada's mother immediately in order to get permission for her to have surgery to correct her foot.

Life with Miss Smith is very different from life with Mam. There is lots of food, baths, and special clothes for sleeping in, called pajamas. Ada is allowed to be outside and play. They learn about soup served in bowls and eaten with spoons, little green things called peas and thin white blankets on the beds called sheets. Then with England at war with Germany, comes the risk of being bombed. While Jamie misses Mam and wants to go home, Ada knows "Home was more frightening than bombs." Ada knows if she goes back home she will run away again. But when Jamie has a tantrum at the train station after his friend Billy White is taken home by his mother, Ada wonders if her mother will be happy with her now that she can walk with crutches. Maybe Mam will see that she's not simple. As Ada's health improves and she comes to trust Miss Smith, Ada begins to realize there might not be any going back.

Discussion

The War that Saved My Life traces the journey of Ada Smith who discovers herself and saves her life and that of her brother Jamie after they are sent out of London to the countryside during the early days of World War II. Born with a club foot, abused by her Mam and malnourished, ten-year-old Ada  has no idea of the outside world.

Ada struggles to understand the world she's been dropped into. It seems that people use words but don't really mean what they say.  For example,  Miss Smith claims she's not a nice person, "but she cleaned up the floor. She was not a nice person, but she bandaged my foot in a white piece of cloth, and gave us two of her own clean shirts to wear."  Miss Smith tells them eggs are "all the food I have", but "All the food she had, she said, except there was butter on the slightly stale bread, and sugar in the tea." Ada notes that "Miss Smith was not a nice person, but the bed she put us in was soft and clean, with smooth thin blankets and warm thicker ones."

Because she can't trust the words people use, Ada doesn't know how to respond to questions, so she often shrugs. When Miss Smith asks if she's hungry Ada's not sure whether to say yes and she wonders, "Did Miss Smith want me to be hungry, or not?" She is in fact very hungry but telling her Mam would not have changed anything. What would telling Miss Smith mean? Ada has been told by Mam that her clubfoot is her fault but Ada has always wondered whether this was true. The doctor's shock at seeing her untreated clubfoot makes Ada feel like she's done something wrong. When the doctor asks her if she's in very much pain, again Ada has no idea how to answer this question; "How much was very much? What did he want me to say?" And when Ada makes tea for Miss Smith who tells her this was thoughtful, she wonders if thoughtful is good or bad?

At first Ada's experiences in the village seem to confirm what she thinks about herself and what her Mam has labelled her. When they arrive in Kent, Ada and her brother are passed over by all the adults. One woman wants Jamie but not Ada. Lady Thorton then takes them to the home of Miss Smith, who initially rejects the two children but is forced to take them into her home.

Ada discovers that her mother has not told anyone about her club foot but instead has told people that Ada is "simple". Ada is not sure if she is "simple".  Mrs. White who arrives to take her younger son home to London, expresses shock and disgust that Ada is living in the village and not in an asylum. Even the evacuee teacher believes that Ada is "not educable", because she cannot read. However Miss Smith does not believe what she hears about Ada and tells her, "You mustn't listen to people who don't know you. Listen to what you know, yourself."

As time passes Ada struggles mightily with how she views herself compared to how Miss Smith and Maggie and Fred Grimes see her because her entire life she's been told she's filthy, stupid  and trash. For example, despite Miss Smith's kindness and generosity, Ada rejects her because she doesn't believe she's worthy of such treatment. She refuses Miss Smith's offer to make her a beautiful green velvet dress. "I had more than I needed. More than I felt comfortable with, really. I was still the girl I'd seen in the train station mirror, still the feeble-minded girl stuck behind a window. The simple one. I was okay with wearing Maggie's castoffs, but I knew my limits."

This feeling reaches a crisis point on Christmas Eve when Miss Smith (Ada now calls her Susan) gives Ada a beautiful green velvet dress she has made. She tells Ada she looks beautiful when she tries it on, but Ada believes she's lying and that she is not worthy of such a beautiful gift. "She was lying. She was lying, and I couldn't bear it. I heard Mam's voice shrieking in my head. 'You ugly piece of rubbish! Filth and trash! No one wants you, with that ugly foot!" My hands started to shake. Rubbish. Filth. Trash I could wear Maggie's discards, or plain clothes from the shops, but not this, not this beautiful dress. I could listen to Susan say she never wanted children all day long. I couldn't bear to hear her call me beautiful."

On Christmas Day Ada manages to wear the dress because she knows it will make Susan happy but she states, "I felt like an imposter. It was worse than when I tried to talk like Maggie. Here I was, looking like Maggie. Looking like a shiny bright girl with hair ribbons. Looking like a girl with a family that loved her." But when Jamie tells her she looks beautiful, Ada realizes that she does have family that love her - her brother loves her.

As her view about herself changes, Ada's perspective on her life also changes. She begins to desire more for herself and for her life. Her struggles with teaching Butter to trot lead Ada to reach out to Mr. Grimes. "A month ago I'd been thrilled with Butter, and now I wanted something more." Ada tells Grimes about having a clubfoot and asks him if he can fix her. It's the first time there's a hint that Ada might want more than just to walk around on crutches. She also initially refuses Miss Smith's offer to teach her to read. But once she's tricked into learning, Ada works hard to learn to read and write.She works hard for Grimes and eventually masters riding Butter and even identifies the arrival of a spy on the English coast.

The realization that if her mother had her foot fixed she could have been like Jamie able to run and attend school leads Ada to desire much more for herself. She comes to realize that her disability is not her fault. She could be more. When Ada accepts the truth of her situation, she realizes that she wants to be a normal person. "...And I wanted my foot fixed badly. I was tired of it hurting. I wanted to be like a normal person. I wanted to walk without crutches, and I wanted to go to school, and I wanted to wear shoes on both feet. I never wanted to be locked up again."

The knowledge that her disability is not her fault, that her mother inexplicably did not seek treatment for her and the realization that Mam doesn't love her or Jamie makes Ada want to fight for the right to live a life where she is wanted, loved and cared for. To Ada this is her personal war and she now intends to win it.  

Brubaker Bradley has crafted an endearing character in Ada Smith. Readers will identify with Ada as she struggles to find a place to belong, to make sense of the world around her and to confront her intense emotions about her mother and her disability. Ada works her way through anger and sadness over the fact that her Mam doesn't love or want her. Miss Smith's unconditional love of Ada and her brother Jamie, help her to confront her mother and to escape. At the same time Ada begins to know joy and love, learned from the actions of Miss Smith.

Miss Smith is also a complex, well crafted character who has her own issues. She too has believed what others have said about her and constantly tells Ada that she is not a nice person, despite her actions proving otherwise. Miss Smith sees herself in Ada, different, judged for a characteristic she feels cannot be changed and therefore socially isolated.

The War That Saved My Life has a subtle message about tolerance towards anyone who is different. Although never directly stated, it is hinted that Miss Smith is a lesbian who lived with her friend Becky. She was rejected by her parents who considered her unredeemable. She tells Ada and Jamie, "In my case being redeemed means changing my evil ways and regaining my heavenly crown. It means my parents don't like me..." Miss Smith's situation is compared to that of Ada with her clubfoot and Jamie with his left handedness, all conditions the author considers people to be born with. Unfortunately, there is no concrete scientific proof that same-sex attraction is something a person is born with. Nevertheless, the author's message that all people be treated with dignity and are worthy of love,  is an important one. Becky's treatment by her parents was not charitable nor Christian. No wonder she no longer attends church service. The novel ends on a more positive note with Miss Smith no longer isolated from her village community as demonstrated by the villagers desperately searching through the ruins of Miss Smith's house after it was bombed.

A sequel, The War I Finally Won has just been recently published and details Ada's life after returning from London with Jamie and Miss Smith to Kent. 

Book Details:

The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
New York: Dial Books For Young Readers        2015
316 pp.