The War that Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley (Book and Audiobook Evaluation)

Title: The War That Saved My Life 

Genre: Historical Fiction 

Author: Kimberly Brubaker Bradley 

Major Awards: Newbery Medal 

Age group: Ages 8-12

 

Summary: 

This book is narrated by Ada, a ten-year-old whose life changed after escaping from her abusive mother and living a new life in London with her brother, Jamie. They were taken to London as evacuees escaping from the war, and Susan Smith is forced to taking them in. She never wanted kids, but at the end of the story she ends up loving and fighting for Ada and Jamie. At the end of the story, Ada develops into a strong little girl and realizes how much she also loves Susan. 

Evaluation of book: 

An appropriate grade level for this book would be 3^rd grade to 6^th grade. This is an awesome book for those students who are in middle school, because some of the things that Ada expresses emotionally can be something that these students might be also going through. I don’t think I would use this book in my classroom simply because my students would be too young. However, if I was teaching around this grade level, I would definitely use this book. I could see myself using this book for a summer reading and then discussing this book once school starts. I could use different story comprehension prompts, characters comparisons, and finding new vocabulary. 

 

Evaluation of audiobook:

I read and also listened to the audiobook version of this book on Audible, and I loved it. The reader used different voices for the different characters and that made me feel like the characters were actually reading to me. The reader also used sort of like an English accent, so that helped a lot to connect the characters to their voices. I have listened to many different audiobooks and this was definitely one of the most successful books I have ever listened to. The way the reader changed the different voices, read in their accents, and also changed the tones between Ada and Susan, made the book come alive. I would want to listen to the second book because I know that if the same reader reads it, then I know for sure it’ll be a great audiobook. I mostly listened and read the book together (at the same time), but I did just listen to the audiobook at times and I was just as hooked to the audiobook as if I had the physical book right in front of me.