Ada is a young girl living in London with her mother and her younger brother. She was born with a club foot and her mother is ashamed of and disgusted by her child's disfigurement, abusing her, despising her, keeping her indoors away from other people and children, not enrolling her in school, refusing to have the condition treated, and using Ada to do chores around their small flat. Ada cannot walk due to the severity of twisting but she has an active and agile mind and she yearns to go outside and to be around other people. An incredibly determined child, she eventually teaches herself to walk despite the terrible pain it causes. Her brother Jamie is good to Ada and when World War II starts and London children are evacuated to the countryside, he helps conspire for Ada to go too, even though she's not enrolled in school so not technically on the evacuation lists. Ending up in Kent, the children are billeted with an emotionally distant and uncommunicative woman named Susan who owns a pony that Ada learns to ride. Under Susan's care, Ada really starts to blossom and come into her own. Susan too starts to thaw with these children around.
It is strange to think of something so terrible as the war as being beneficial to anyone but for Ada and for Susan, it is. This is a wonderful tale of coming to appreciate and value yourself, to make connections to others, and to learn to love or love again. The characters here are beautifully drawn and Ada's mother is scarily real. It might be hard for a middle grade reader to read about the terrible way that Ada is treated but the payoff in the end is so worthwhile. The story moves along at a good pace, with enough action beyond Ada's emotional maturation to keep kids turning the pages and the valuable lessons are not overt enough to be off-putting. A really great read, I look forward to seeing what my niblings think of it.
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