Mini Reviews: The War That Saved My Life || Wolf Hollow

The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

Genre: Middlegrade historical fiction

Pages: 336

Publication date: May 2015

Nine-year-old Ada has never left her one-room apartment. Her mother is too humiliated by Ada’s twisted foot to let her outside. So when her little brother Jamie is shipped out of London to escape the war, Ada doesn’t waste a minute—she sneaks out to join him.

So begins a new adventure of Ada, and for Susan Smith, the woman who is forced to take the two kids in. As Ada teaches herself to ride a pony, learns to read, and watches for German spies, she begins to trust Susan—and Susan begins to love Ada and Jamie. But in the end, will their bond be enough to hold them together through wartime? Or will Ada and her brother fall back into the cruel hands of their mother?

The Good: This is one of the best middlegrade books I’ve read so far this year. Most of the characters are extremely lifelike. For the average kid, being evacuated from home and sent to live with a stranger would be terrifying, but nine-year-old Ada sees it as an opportunity. She uses the evacuation to get herself and her younger brother away from their abusive mother. Ada’s emotions feel raw and realistic. She vacillates between excitement and terror, hope and despair. She’s very conflicted. She doesn’t want London to be bombed, but she doesn’t want to go home, either. She wants to love her temporary family, but she’s angry that they’re only temporary. The author handles Ada’s conflicted emotions very well. I think she’s a realistic abused child.

This novel would definitely appeal to horse-crazy kids. Ada’s favorite thing about the country is riding her new family’s pony. I spent a lot of time riding horses when I was a kid, and most of the books I read were about animals, so I would have appreciated this story.

“I wanted to say a lot of things, but, as usual, I didn't have the words for the thoughts inside my head.” – The War that Saved My Life

The Bad: There’s not much of a plot, so if you’re expecting action, you’ll be disappointed. The book is slow and character-driven. Some kids might not have the patience for it.

Also, all of the characters are complex, except for Ada’s mom. To me, she seems cartoonishly evil. The reader doesn’t see her doing anything except working and abusing her kids. I wanted her to be as complicated as the other characters. I’ll be interested to see if she becomes more rounded in the sequel.

The bottom line: Excellent! If you like character-driven stories, check this one out. I will happily read the sequel.

Wolf Hollow by Lauren Wolk

Genre: Middlegrade historical fiction

Pages: 304

Publication date: May 2016

Growing up in the shadows cast by two world wars, Annabelle has lived a mostly quiet, steady life in her small Pennsylvania town. Until the day new student Betty Glengarry walks into her class. Betty quickly reveals herself to be cruel and manipulative, and while her bullying seems isolated at first, things quickly escalate, and reclusive World War I veteran Toby becomes a target of her attacks. While others have always seen Toby’s strangeness, Annabelle knows only kindness. She will soon need to find the courage to stand as a lone voice of justice as tensions mount.

The Good: There’s a lot to like about this book, but it’s hard to review because it’s a mystery. I don’t want to spoil everything. It’s one of those novels that I zoomed through because I wanted to know how it ended. The characters are likeable, and the mystery is compelling. Who is lying? The troubled new girl in town, or the homeless man with a mysterious past. I appreciate that the author doesn’t write down to her readers. The story has a lot of morals, but they’re not the main focus of the book. The author trusts that the readers are smart enough to figure them out.

Even though the morals are in the background, they’re my favorite part. Sometimes heroes don’t look like heroes, and victims don’t look like victims. You can’t judge a person by their appearance or by where they live. You have to get to know them.

“Somewhere, excitement waited for me like an uncut cake.” – Wolf Hollow

The bad: This isn’t necessarily “bad,” but at the end, the plot gets very dark, very suddenly. If your kid doesn’t like sad or scary books, I’d suggest reading the whole thing before you hand it over. It seems like a fairly innocent, predictable plot at first, but . . . nope.

I wish the secondary characters had been better developed, particularly Toby and Betty. A lot of the story revolves around them, but they’re both shallow. I especially wanted to know more about the motivation for Betty’s horrible actions.

My biggest issue with this novel is the behavior of the adult characters. I didn’t believe it. I believe that a kid would want to hide an innocent person from the police because kids aren’t great at predicting the consequences of their actions, but why would adults go along with the plan?

In the story, a child goes missing. She might be lost in the woods, injured, or kidnapped. The police want to ask Toby about the last time he saw her. Some people in town believe that he has something to do with the disappearance. Hiding Toby from the cops doesn’t scream “innocent.” It doesn’t help anyone find the girl. If the cops find Toby, the narrator’s whole family will get in trouble for hiding him. I understand that concealing a wanted man increases the drama in the story, but it doesn’t make sense to me. The police are wasting their resources searching for Toby when they could be putting everything they have toward finding the missing kid. Adults should know that hiding is going to cause more problems than it solves. (Which is exactly what happens . . . )

The bottom line: A compelling plot that teaches important lessons. It requires some suspension of disbelief because the adult characters are infuriating. Younger readers might not notice that, though.