“It was horrible how the hardest things could be the truth”

          “The War I Finally Won” is the heartwarming sequel to “The War That Saved My Life”.  In this book, Ada’s story continues.  She has been living through the hardships of WW2 with a “clubfoot” that seemed more like a curse to her, but it was actually only a birth defect.  She went through many difficulties in her short life. For example, her birth mom “mam” made her slave away her childhood as her servant, never letting her leave the little apartment where they lived. Her days were consumed with only the four walls of one room and the dreams of what it was like out in the world.

Now that she was free and living a happy life with her adopted mother Susan and her brother Jamie, she is struggling to live a “normal” childhood. This is a challenge because of what horrible things are happening around her in the war. After Ada has her final surgery taking many months she knew it was all worth it! The horrible clubfoot that has ruined most of her childhood was finally fixed! One day Ada found out that she will be sharing a house with her best friend, Maggie, and Maggie’s mom who owned the house. Then, Maggie gets sent away to boarding school. Now Ada is without a best friend. One day another young woman, Rose, shows up.

Rose is a German. Is she friend or foe?  As the story unfolds, Ada finds out that the war is much worse than she could ever have imagined and she does everything that she can to help stop it.

          This heartwarming, wonderful story tells about a young girl trying to make her way in a very unfair world and she teaches us about how hard life is and how you just need to push on through and try to make the best of the hard times.

Reviewed by Alexa Allen and Katlyn Schuessler (5th grade)

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