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meganpareja 's review for:
The War I Finally Won
by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
One of the best things about The War I Finally Won was that the characters felt like such real, complex, interesting people. Nothing is simple in the world that Kimberly Brubaker Bradley created in The War That Saved My Life, and things continue to be messy and complicated in the sequel.
This novel is another of several young adult and juvenile fiction titles I’ve read and loved lately. I’m especially impressed with the historical fiction novels I’ve read, and can’t help but think what a fascinating career it would be to make child-friendly sense out of thorny historical events. In The War I Finally Won, we pick up where The War That Saved My Life left off. If you haven’t read the first, you’ll want to do that before reading the second.
Ada’s mother is dead, and though she and her brother, James, have been reunited with Susan, they are homeless due to a fire. The war is still raging, and they have no choice but to move into a cottage on the Thorton estate.
There was a character in this novel who came to stay at the cottage at the height of the war. Ruth is a German Jew, and on a purely functional level, she adds so many interesting angles to the story. For instance, so convinced is Lady Thornton that Germans are the enemy that she takes an instant dislike to Ruth, and treats her with increasing hostility. At the same time, when she worries about the fate of her grandmother, back home in Germany, Ada assures her that even the Germans probably aren’t going to harm any elderly people. It’s an interesting glimpse into the realities of people’s ignorance at the time of the war. The perceptions of those experiencing the war firsthand are completely skewed by limited knowledge or misinformation (fake news!). It made me wonder what things I may not be seeing clearly in the present day. I’m sure there are many.
This novel is another of several young adult and juvenile fiction titles I’ve read and loved lately. I’m especially impressed with the historical fiction novels I’ve read, and can’t help but think what a fascinating career it would be to make child-friendly sense out of thorny historical events. In The War I Finally Won, we pick up where The War That Saved My Life left off. If you haven’t read the first, you’ll want to do that before reading the second.
Ada’s mother is dead, and though she and her brother, James, have been reunited with Susan, they are homeless due to a fire. The war is still raging, and they have no choice but to move into a cottage on the Thorton estate.
There was a character in this novel who came to stay at the cottage at the height of the war. Ruth is a German Jew, and on a purely functional level, she adds so many interesting angles to the story. For instance, so convinced is Lady Thornton that Germans are the enemy that she takes an instant dislike to Ruth, and treats her with increasing hostility. At the same time, when she worries about the fate of her grandmother, back home in Germany, Ada assures her that even the Germans probably aren’t going to harm any elderly people. It’s an interesting glimpse into the realities of people’s ignorance at the time of the war. The perceptions of those experiencing the war firsthand are completely skewed by limited knowledge or misinformation (fake news!). It made me wonder what things I may not be seeing clearly in the present day. I’m sure there are many.