BookBright
ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSAda has never left the one-room London flat where she and her younger brother, Jamie, live, because her mother is ashamed of the clubfoot that makes Ada's right foot small and twisted, and keeps her locked away from the street below. In the summer of 1939, when six-year-old Jamie starts running off to play with the other children on the lane, Ada is terrified of being left alone all day, so in secret she teaches herself to stand and then walk on her bad foot, no matter what it costs her. When England begins evacuating children from London ahead of the coming war with Germany, Ada refuses to be left behind, and she and Jamie end up living with Susan Smith, a sharp-tongued woman who insists she never wanted children and clearly has no idea what to do with them. Ada discovers crutches, a stubborn pony named Butter, and a world of things she never knew existed, grass, the ocean, books, but she cannot quite believe any of it is real, or that it will last.
Free Battle of the Books questions for The War That Saved My Life
SPOILERSEvery one of these has the same answer, and that is the point. In a real battle the question is read aloud with a dozen other books in play, and students have a few seconds to place it. Here is what a battle might ask about The War That Saved My Life. Use them as a quiz, a trivia round, or BOTB practice.
Where in the book they come from
- Early in the book
In what book does a girl tell a billeting officer that her last name is Hitler?
✓ Answer
The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
Ada realizes nobody in the village knows a thing about her, so she tries out a brand new name for a joke. When she is scolded she says Smith instead, which turns out to be her real surname and Miss Smith's too.
- First half
In what book is an injured girl sick over a horse's side while riding double?
✓ Answer
The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
Maggie Thorton gets woozier and woozier from her head injury while Ada walks the hunter back to the Thorton stables. Ada tells her not to be sick on the horse, and Maggie leans far enough over that most of it misses the saddle.
- First half
In what book does a girl plug her ears through the newsreel at her first movie?
✓ Answer
The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
It is Ada and Jamie's first time inside a cinema, and the newsreel shows a British battleship that a German submarine torpedoed. Ada keeps her eyes shut until the story picture starts, and she has nightmares about it anyway.
- Second half
In what book does a boy stay behind in a village to look after a nearly blind colonel?
✓ Answer
The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
Stephen White was evacuated from London on the same train as Ada and Jamie, and his own mother wants him back. He stays because the old colonel he was billeted with is nearly helpless, and Stephen says plainly that the colonel would die without him.
- Second half
In what book does a girl scream for hours after being given a bottle green velvet dress?
✓ Answer
The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
Susan sews the dress as a Christmas present, and when she tells Ada she looks beautiful, Ada hears her mother's cruel words instead and comes completely apart. Susan holds her on the living room floor all night and never once gets angry about it.
- Near the end
In what book does a girl catch a spy because his trouser cuffs are wet and full of sand?
✓ Answer
The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
The man has perfect English, perfect papers and a story about a walking holiday, and the officer is ready to let him go. Ada knows nobody is allowed on the beaches anymore, so the sand is the one detail that gives him away.
