I slipped my hand into hers. A strange and unfamiliar feeling ran through me. It felt like the ocean, like sunlight, like horses, like love. I searched my mind and found the name for it: joy.
Yesterday, Book Riot posted an article entitled How to Read When the World is Terrible, and then today, things got even more terrible. What do you read when the news gets heavy? Maybe it's the silver-lining girl in me, but I tend to reach for books that lift. Reads that remind me the good still outweighs the bad in this sometimes weary world. Kimberly Brubaker Bradley's The War that Saved my Life is such a book. And one that I can't recommend loudly enough.
Make no mistake, this book is hard to read at times. Bradley took Madeleine L'Engle's advice to heart: "You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children." Like any children's book worth its salt, there's no sugarcoating here. Don't let that scare you or your children off though, because this story is hope. You'll cry, you'll cheer, you'll shake your head in anger and then in wonder. And you'll fall in love with Ada, Jamie, and Susan. I guarantee it.