The War That Saved My Life
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40 free The War That Saved My Life trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Kimberly Brubaker Bradley's novel begins in a single room in wartime London, where a girl named Ada has spent her whole life looking out of one window. When the city's children are sent to the countryside, she seizes the chance to leave with her little brother Jamie, and a story about evacuation becomes a story about learning to trust. This quiz follows the book from that first escape to its final chapter. Expect questions on Ada, Jamie, Susan and Mam, on the villagers who take the children in, on horses and the home front, and on the scenes readers remember best. A few questions cover the author and the recognition the novel has earned. It suits students revising the book for class, teachers and librarians running a reading group, and anyone who has just finished the last page and wants to see how much of the story stayed with them. Every answer comes with a short explanation.
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Q 01What is the name of the pony Ada teaches herself to ride in The War That Saved My Life?
Butter
Butter is a bright yellow pony with dark brown eyes, and one glimpse of him through the bushes is what makes Ada want to stay at Susan's house.
Q 02Which condition makes Mam keep Ada Smith shut inside a London flat in The War That Saved My Life?
Clubfoot
Clubfoot could have been corrected when Ada was a baby, a doctor later confirms, but Mam never had it treated and hid her daughter away out of shame.
Q 03To which county are Ada and Jamie Smith evacuated by train in The War That Saved My Life?
Kent
Kent is where Susan Smith lives in a coastal village, and Lady Thorton delivers the two evacuees nobody else picked straight to her door.
Q 04In The War That Saved My Life, what does Jamie name the cat that Susan lets him keep?
Bovril
Bovril is a British meat-extract paste that the children are fed every day, and Jamie borrows the name for a cat Susan can barely stand.
Q 05Where does Mam shut Ada overnight as a punishment in The War That Saved My Life?
Under the sink
Under the sink is a damp cabinet where cockroaches live, and Susan's cramped air-raid shelter later brings the memory flooding back.
Q 06Wounded soldiers from which 1940 evacuation reach Ada's village in The War That Saved My Life?
Dunkirk
Dunkirk's rescued troops arrive by ship, and Ada spends the day carrying water to injured men beside a village girl named Daisy.
Q 07In The War That Saved My Life, what does Ada see from horseback that leads police to a German spy?
A man rowing ashore
A man rowing ashore and burying a parcel in the sand catches Ada's eye, and she rides to town to report him even though the first officer doubts her.
Q 08Why does Jamie's teacher tie his wrist down in class in The War That Saved My Life?
He is left-handed
He is left-handed, which the teacher calls the mark of the devil, so Susan marches into the classroom and unties him herself.
Q 09What has become of Susan's house when she returns from London in The War That Saved My Life?
Flattened by a bomb
Flattened by a bomb, the house is rubble, and because Susan had gone to find the children she was not inside, so she tells them they saved her life.
Q 10What becomes Jamie Smith's great passion once he settles in the countryside in The War That Saved My Life?
Aeroplanes
Aeroplanes fascinate Jamie after the Royal Air Force builds a base across the road, and an officer has to bring him home for sneaking over to watch.
Q 11Which American Library Association distinction did The War That Saved My Life earn in 2016?
Newbery Honor
Newbery Honor status went to Kimberly Brubaker Bradley's novel in 2016, and she earned the same distinction again in 2021 for Fighting Words.
Q 12Which sequel to The War That Saved My Life follows Ada Smith after an operation on her foot?
The War I Finally Won
The War I Finally Won opens just after the first book ends, with Susan becoming the legal guardian of both children as the air raids go on.
Q 13What is the name of Lady Thorton's daughter, who befriends Ada after a riding fall in The War That Saved My Life?
Maggie
Q 21Which villager at the Thorton estate teaches Ada to ride properly in The War That Saved My Life?
Fred Grimes
Fred Grimes looks after the Thortons' horses, and when Ada cannot read a letter in loopy handwriting she takes it to him rather than ask Susan.
Q 22In The War That Saved My Life, Lady Thorton leads the village branch of which wartime organisation?
The WVS
The WVS, a women's volunteer service, puts Lady Thorton in charge of housing evacuees, which is why she carries the clipboard at the village hall.
Q 23Who carries Ada to the railway station on the morning she escapes London in The War That Saved My Life?
Stephen White
Maggie is thrown when her spooked horse bolts into Susan's field, and Ada climbs on and rides them both back to the Thorton estate.
Q 14What does Dr. Graham give Ada that makes getting around much easier in The War That Saved My Life?
Crutches
Crutches from the doctor let Ada join Susan on errands to the grocer, the clothes shop and the bank for the very first time.
Q 15Why does no villager pick Ada and Jamie at the evacuee hall in The War That Saved My Life?
They are filthy
They are filthy and crawling with lice after years of neglect, so the villagers pass them over until Lady Thorton drives them to Susan herself.
Q 16Which phase of the fighting drives Ada into the shelter each night in The War That Saved My Life?
The Battle of Britain
The Battle of Britain starts in July, and Susan hangs herbs in their shelter to mask the smell of damp earth and help calm Ada.
Q 17Why do Ada and Jamie start eating less in the new year in The War That Saved My Life?
Rationing begins
Rationing begins and the children fear going hungry again, but Susan insists it means different food, not less, and promises always to feed them.
Q 18From the evacuee train, Ada Smith sees a girl on a pony do what, then vows to copy her?
Jump a stone wall
Jump a stone wall is what Ada first manages on Susan's pony a year later, moments before she rides home and finds Mam waiting in Susan's garden.
Q 19Which surname does a defiant Ada first give Lady Thorton and Susan in The War That Saved My Life?
Hitler
Hitler is the name Ada snaps back when asked who she is, so neither woman believes her when she then says her real surname matches Susan's.
Q 20Which late friend of Susan Smith gave her the pony Ada rides in The War That Saved My Life?
Becky
Becky shared Susan's house until her death, and Susan is still grieving for her when the two evacuees turn up on the doorstep.
Stephen White had assumed Ada was kept indoors because she was simple, and he is astonished to learn the real reason is her foot.
Q 24Which classic novel, loved by Jamie, does Susan read at bedtime in The War That Saved My Life?
The Swiss Family Robinson
The Swiss Family Robinson delights Jamie, but Ada is frustrated by the words she does not know and would rather be outside with the pony.
Q 25Which of Susan's belongings does Ada break in The War That Saved My Life, expecting a punishment that never comes?
Her sewing machine
Her sewing machine breaks in Ada's hands, yet Susan stays calm and offers to teach her how to use it instead of losing her temper.
Q 26Why can Susan's pony manage only a slow amble when Ada first rides him in The War That Saved My Life?
Overgrown hooves
Overgrown hooves, untrimmed for years, are the cause, and Ada is furious with Susan for the neglect until the Thortons' stableman cuts them back.
Q 27Why does Mam at last come to fetch Ada and Jamie in The War That Saved My Life?
To avoid a weekly fee
To avoid a weekly fee is her only motive: the government has written asking for nineteen shillings towards the children's keep in the country.
Q 28What does Ada find hidden in Mam's new flat that reveals her true age in The War That Saved My Life?
Birth certificates
Birth certificates for both children turn up while Mam is out buying food, and Jamie's shows that he was named after their father, James.
Q 29What does Ada take from Mam before slipping out of the flat on evacuation morning in The War That Saved My Life?
Her shoes
Her shoes go with Ada into the early-morning dark, where Jamie is stunned to see his sister upright and making her own way to his school.
Q 30Which stretch of sea does Ada see from a hilltop without knowing what it is in The War That Saved My Life?
The English Channel
The English Channel is a mystery to Ada until Susan names it at dinner, and on a later ride she finds its shore fenced off with barbed wire.