The War I finally Won by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

Publisher blurb: When Ada’s clubfoot is surgically fixed at last, she knows for certain that she’s not what her mother said she was—damaged, deranged, crippled mentally as well as physically. She’s not a daughter anymore, either. Who is she now?

World War II rages on, and Ada and her brother, Jamie, move with their guardian, Susan, into a cottage with the iron-faced Lady Thorton and her daughter, Maggie. Life in the crowded home is tense. Then Ruth moves in. Ruth, a Jewish girl, from Germany. A German? Could Ruth be a spy?

As the fallout from war intensifies, calamity creeps closer, and life during wartime grows even more complicated. Who will Ada decide to be? How can she keep fighting? And who will she struggle to save?

I loved catching up again with Ada. Even though I read The War that Saved my Life in mid 2016 much of the story still lingers with me. Kimberly Brubaker Bradley gives her readers just enough back story for readers like me, who may have waited a while between episodes. It is not essential to read both books but I really think you should do this so you can appreciate the life journey of Ada. Both of these books give deep personal insights into the struggles, compassion, maturity, kindness and courage of a very special young girl living through deeply turbulent times - turbulent because of the war but also turbulent because her early life was utterly deplorable.

I read The War I finally Won in almost one sitting. Yes, here we go again, it is THAT GOOD.

Thoughtful, brave, true, and wise beyond her years, Ada is for the ages—as is this book. Wonderful. Kirkus Star Review

Bradley sweeps us up in the story she’s telling and at the same time raises hard questions and makes us think — even as she moves us to tears.  Horn Book

A most readable and enthralling story for this age group, this is a thoughtful and wise book, well worth adding to the canon of World War II fiction for middle grade readers. Minerva Reads

It is exactly what a World War Two book should be - both horrifying by turns and yet also uplifting and glorious. Book Bag

A truly important part of buying books for yourself or for a young reading companion comes when you can have faith in the recommendations made by a book seller.  I guess in any store we hope and expect the shop assistant or shop manager to have extensive knowledge of the products they sell but this is even more complex when you are a bookseller because these people are expected to have actually read the books and to remember their contents and, in the case of children's books, sometimes make age recommendations too.  I am going to say all of this is a huge responsibility and no one bookseller can read everything in the shop but it is good to have some confidence that the seller is also a reader. When I purchased The war I finally Won from Beachside Bookshop. The young lady who works in the store exclaimed with huge excitement.  She LOVED reading this book and said it was even better than the first instalment and she was THRILLED I planned to read it too.  This level of enthusiasm is something very special that book lovers share.

Take a look at all the award given to The War I finally Won:

• New York Times bestseller
• Boston Globe Best of the Year
• Hornbook Fanfare 2017
• Kirkus Best Books of the Year
• Barnes and Noble Best Books of the Year
• Washington Post Best Children’s Books of the Year
• Amazon Best Books of the Year
• California Young Reader’s Medal

You can read an extract on the publisher web site. Finally here is an odd confession. The War I finally Won was published in 2018 so you might wonder why it took me until the end of 2020 to read it. Back in 2018 I purchased the ebook version of this (Kindle) but I am just not a fan of device reading unless I am forced to adapt to this due to travel. Anyway I kept putting off reading the ebook and then when I was Christmas book shopping for some young adults a few days before Christmas I saw The War I finally Won on the shelf and well - the rest is history!

On of the things I adore about researching for this blog is the way I make incidental discoveries. I now find that Kimberly Brubaker Bradley wrote another book I enjoyed many years ago - The Lacemaker and the Princess. It was published in 2007 just prior to my blog start date.

Finally a BIG announcement which is for people who have read this post right to the bottom of the page! I have nearly reached my target of 2000 posts - six more to go. I will talk about the ideas behind this blog later in the week but when I started late in 2008 I set myself a target of one post per week or about 200 per year. This year I have completed over 400 posts so I am well ahead with my target of 2000 posts which I expected to reach in March 2021.

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