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.

A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray

Marguerite Caine is the daughter of two brilliant scientists; Dr. Sophia Kovalenka, a physicist and Dr. Henry Caine, an oceanographer, physicist and mathematician. Dr. Kovalenka has been working on multidimensional universes and theorized that it should be possible to interact with them. Marguerite's father became interested in her work and they eventually became research partners and married. Marguerite and her sister, Josie, are the result of that union.

After twenty-four years of research, her parents were ready to try traveling between dimensions after their work demonstrating the existence of alternate dimensions had been replicated.They began working on building a device that would enable energy to travel between dimensions and since consciousness is a form of energy, theoretically this meant that people would be able to travel to other dimensions. The device to enable multidimensional travel needed to be made out of specific materials which move easier than other forms of matter and "anchor the consciousness of the traveler". Eventually Henry and Sophia made a device, which they named "Firebird" that seemed like it would work.

However, one of Marguerite's parent's trusted research assistants, Paul Markov, is suspected of murdering her father and has fled into another dimension with the only working Firebird. Theo Beck, their other research assistant, is determined to recover the device and to stop Paul. To do so he has assembled two working Firebird devices from old prototypes which will enable him to pursue Paul who is leaving traces as he travels through different dimensions. Despite Theo's objections, Marguerite is determined to be involved and they both travel to the dimension where Paul has fled.

The first dimension Marguerite lands in finds her in London, England. Computers appear to have been invented much earlier and are more advanced. When she is contacted by Theo via computer, she learns that he is in Boston at MIT. It appears that Theo has experienced some sort of confusion, a side effect of dimensional travel and one that Marguerite has not had yet. Marguerite discovers that in this dimension her entire family was killed in an hovercraft accident years ago and that she is living with her father's sister, her Aunt Susannah. She also learns that Paul Markov is a research assistant at the University of Cambridge.

Marguerite finds her way to Aunt Susannah's posh apartment. The Marguerite in this dimension doesn't read, is a partier and dresses in designer labels. When she gets in trouble at a party, Theo rescues her and takes her back to Aunt Susannah's apartment. However Theo has problems, first blanking out in this dimension and needing a "reminder" to wake his consciousness and then he shoots up with a strange green liquid later on. This causes Marguerite to realize she may not be able to count on Theo to help her.

After recovering, Theo tells Marguerite that they need to find Wyatt Conley, head of Triad Corporation which has been financing Marguerite's parent's research. Triad is one of the world's biggest tech companies and Conley is to speak at a convention in London. Marguerite remembers that Paul was increasingly suspicious of Triad, especially after a machine used for measuring something called "dimensional resonance", which had been in Marguerite's family's home, overloaded, shocking Marguerite but otherwise not harming her. During the months before his disappearance she remembers him being very paranoid.

Theo and Marguerite confront Paul at the convention but when Theo gets carted off by security, Marguerite is taken by Paul onto the Tube. In the subway car he is shocked to learn of her father's death and tells Marguerite he would never hurt her father. Paul tells Marguerite that Theo must take her home and then abruptly jumps to another dimension.

Marguerite follows him only to find herself in a dimension where she is the daughter of His Imperial Highness Tsar Alexander V of Russia. As Marguerite enters into the body of the Marguerite in this dimension, she is walking down red velvet carpeted stairs and she falls, breaking a pearl necklace and the Firebird. In this dimension, Marguerite's mother is dead, her father Henry Caine is tutor to the royal children, and she has an older brother Vladimir and a younger sister, Katya and brother, Peter. Paul who has jumped ahead of her into this dimension, is the dashing Lieutenant Paul Markov, assigned to protect the Imperial Princess Marguerite.

At first Paul remembers who he is and as he's escorting Marguerite to her rooms, he warns her that Wyatt Conley is dangerous and that she needs to go home. However, Marguerite shows him the broken Firebird which he says can be fixed but before that happens, Paul loses his own Firebird when Colonel Azarenko takes it from him. Even worse, Paul's consciousness begins to fade inside this dimension's Lieutenant Markov. Marguerite does not know where Theo has landed in this dimension until she eventually receives a letter from him indicating that he is in France.

In this dimension, Marguerite falls in love with Lieutenant Markov and discovers that her father had an affair with the Tsar's wife, Sophia Kovalenka and that he is her father. Marguerite recognizes her father's brilliant mind and decides to ask him to put the Firebird back together. When the royal family decides to travel to Moscow via train, they are ambushed by the Tsar's brother, Grand Duke Sergei, who is intent upon killing the Romanov family and seizing power. This results in Marguerite and Lieutenant Paul Markov fleeing the train and spending an intimate night together. During this time Marguerite decides to reveal to Paul who she is, in the hopes that he can help her retrieve the Firebird and get her own device repaired.

The attack on the train leads to a civil war. Marguerite insists that Paul take her to the royal war camp which he does and there she also tells her biological father, Henry, her true identity in the hope that he can reconstruct the Firebird. Eventually her father does repair the device and Marguerite jumps to the next dimension, shortly after Lieutenant Markov has died and the fate of Paul from her dimension unknown.

Because her Firebird is set to follow Paul to whatever dimension he jumps, Marguerite reasons he is alive in this dimension that is very much like home. Marguerite finds her parents both alive and that they have been awarded a Nobel Prize indicating that they must have made their discoveries several years earlier. Marguerite learns that in this dimension, Paul is being sought by the police for stealing her parents data. When Theo shows up, he continues to press her to not believe in what Paul tells her. At dinner with her parents, Theo tells her that Triad wants to not only send energy but matter as well to different dimensions. The proof that matter can be sent is the presence of the Firebird in each alternate reality. Her father states that Conley's agenda is more sinister, involving spying on other dimensions and to take over the bodies of other people in alternate realities. Because they cannot stop Triad, they have managed to get Theo into Triad as an intern. This position allows Theo to take Marguerite into Triad's headquarters to see Lab Eleven where he works. However a series of desperate texts from Paul warn Marguerite to leave the building immediately. Marguerite manages to do this and meet up with Paul.  In this dimension, Paul reveals what is really going on and the danger Marguerite is in.

Discussion

A Thousand Pieces of You is the first in the Firebird series by Gray with the second book, Ten Thousand Skies Above You, due out November 3, 2015. This first novel weaves an intriguing story involving the sci fi element of dimensional travel with a romantic relationship between Marguerite and Paul. The interesting premise which forms the basis for the entire series - traveling through alternate dimensions - is the prime strength of this novel.

The story is told in first person narration by Marguerite, a strong, vibrant protagonist. The novel starts out with Marguerite believing Paul is responsible for her father's death and that she must kill him to exact revenge. While this is a great hook to draw the reader into the story, (Marguerite writes "Kill Paul Markov" in lipstick on a wall) the decision to kill him seems a little over the top despite the fact that he's wiped their research data, killed her father and stolen the Firebird. Even Marguerite recognizes that such an action is problematic: wouldn't killing him in another dimension kill two people, one of whom lives in that other dimension but who is innocent? Marguerite does understand this when she says "It hasn't escaped my attention that the Paul I need to destroy is currently a passenger in the body of another Paul Markov entirely. Although right now it seems to me that anybody as evil as Paul would be evil in every single dimension, I don't know that for sure. So it's not as simple as finding him and...shooting him..." Wouldn't Marguerite's mission be to bring him back to his home dimension to face murder charges?

Gray does a good job of creating and maintaining suspense throughout the story and readers will probably clue into the fact that Paul might not be the person Marguerite needs to be worried about. Eventually all the lose ends are tied together through revelations by various characters. Unlike Paul or Theo, Marguerite retains her ability to function in the different realities because of the Accident with the machine that was placed in her home by Triad. It is this ability to retain her memories and her consciousness that Wyatt Conley of Triad hopes to utilize. His intent is to use Marguerite to control her parents - the inventors of dimensional travel, and thus control the technology in as many alternate realities as possible. In this way he can keep the technology to himself. Paul believes that the Wyatt Conley from the dimension which developed the technology earlier and in which Marguerite's parents won a Nobel Prize, has been visiting their home dimension for some time and may have even been in collusion with that Conley. All this is eventually revealed to Marguerite by Paul so that she understands the danger she is in.

At first it appears that there will be a love triangle between Marguerite, Paul and Theo but that is gradually resolved as the novel moves along. Marguerite's time in the alternate reality set in Russia is quite lengthy and it is in this dimension that Gray diverges from the storyline to develop the romance between Marguerite and Paul.While this development slows the novel, the relationship between Paul and Marguerite does further the plot because Paul holds vital information about her father's murder and the motive behind what really happened.

At times the novel does suffer from poor editing - for example when Marguerite spends almost an entire page discussing homeschooling. But overall readers will enjoy this story which offers the opportunity to consider what it might be like to travel to other dimensions (if they do in fact exist) along with a touch of romance. The beautiful cover art by Craig Shields will certainly entice readers to at least open the cover and check out the first few pages.

Claudia Gray is the pseudonym of New Orleans based writer Amy Vincent. She is also the author of the Spellcaster and Evernight series.

Book Details:
A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray
New York: HarperTEEN     2014
357 pp.