母女共读笔记2： 《拯救了我的命的战争》 (中英双语)

母女共读笔记2：《拯救了我的命的战争》(中英双语)

题记：这本《拯救了我的命的战争》(The War that Saved my Life)于2015年出版，作者是Kimberly Brubaker Bradley。这本书在2016年获得了美国著名的纽伯瑞童书奖John Newbery Medal的提名。这本书是Isabelle收到的7岁生日礼物，她在8岁生日前读完了，并写了以下读书笔记。现在的她表示写得不好。其实，她最近还在回去重读这本书，但是她说不想改写读书笔记了，因为她已经看过我写的了。

The War that Saved My Life

Isabelle:Kimberly Brubaker Bradley’s The War that Saved my Life

This story is about a girl who’s name is Ada. Ada is ten. Her foot is twisted so that her mom doesn’t let her go out. But when her six year old brother Jamie goes to the country to avoid the war in 1939, Ada doesn’t waste another moment. She sneaks out to join him. They get paired with Susan Smith. Soon, she makes friends, learns how to ride a ponyand look for German spies. But after a year, their mom brings them back to London. But, no sooner than that, they come back to Susan.

The lesson they teach you in this story is that even if you’re disabled, you can be a hero. The interesting thing about this story is that Susan teaches Ada to sew, read and write.

(Feb 17, 2017)

正纯：《拯救了我的命的战争》读书笔记

这是个一个关于叫艾达的女孩的故事。她十岁。她的腿是弯曲的，所以她妈妈不让她出门。但是，当她六岁的弟弟为了躲避1939年的战争要去乡下的时候，艾达不浪费一刻，偷偷跑出去，与他会合。他们与苏珊·史密斯结对。很快，她交了朋友，学会了骑马与找间谍。但是，一年之后，他们的妈妈来领他们回去。然而，没过多久，他们回到了苏珊身边。

这个故事教导你的是，即使你是残疾的，你也可以是一个英雄。这个故事里有趣的地方是苏珊教会了艾达怎么缝纫，读书与写字。

（正纯写于2017年2月17日，秀才译）

Xiucai:Kimberly Brubaker Bradley’s The War that Saved my Life

This bookThe War That Saved My Lifetells a story about a girl Ada who has a clubfoot. In her first ten years of life, she was locked inside because of her mom’s shame of her clubfoot. She remained ignorant and illiterate and considered herself less worthy than a normal person. But when her little brother Jamie had to be sent away to countryside for safety when the Hitler’s war in Europe started, she decided to leave with him secretly against her mom’swill. They were taken in by a single woman Susan Smith and looked after verywell. Ada learnt riding horse, writing, knitting and helping others. The two kids built up a strong bond with Susan and made friends in the town. Ada helped in the war and even did a heroic deed of discovering a German spy. Their mom finally came to fetch them, but she was not happy at any of her progress. After they got back to London, Ada was brave enough to leave their mom, who locked her inside again. Under the cloud of bombs, she and Jamie united with Susan,who also came to look for them.

The theme of this story is fighting for one’s own life. The title “The War That Saved My Life” may suggest that the Hitler’s War set Ada free and lead her to a journey of freedom in the countryside. But after you read into the story, you’ll know the real “war” that saved Ada’s life is her fight against people’s prejudice toward her and herdiscovery of wisdom, courage and strength within herself that is no less than any normal person. Ada lived in a society of time full of prejudices. Not only Ada’s clubfoot was taken as a mark of simple, Jamie’s left-handedness was also takenas a print of evil, and Susan’s love and life with Beckey an unredeemable sin.Susan was also trapped in people’s prejudice toward her and led an isolated life in the house left down by Beckey. The arrival of Ada and Jamie made hertake on her social responsibility and participate in works supporting the war against Hitler. The new bond between Susan and the kids saved Susan’s life from the predicament of depression and isolation. As a graduate of prestigious Oxford,Susan could not find a fit job because of her gender at that time, but surely her advanced education gives her vision above ordinary folks. Susan was the person who led Ada to develop her full capability regardless of her disability.Susan was also the person who released Jamie when his left hand was bound on the chair at school. Susan provided an amicable environment for Ada so that she can explore and develop her capabilities of doing different things. This story told us how important it is for us not to be trapped by any prejudice. No matter what people think of you, we should explore our full potentials and livea life that we really like.

This book is very readable. Ada's unpredictable reaction to any coming change and the historical depth of the storybrings extra enjoyment. I especially find it interesting to read things about how ordinary people participate in the war in England during the Hitler’s war.I feel that the society was more orderly mobilized and united under the government in England than what I learnt about their counterparts in China.What is celebrated in Chinese literature is often common people’s guerrilla warfare against Japanese army in World War II without much guide from their government. But in England, the government was able to relocate kids from bomb target London to safer countryside and arrange them to be taken care of by complete strangers. The government also gave very detailed instructions to the ordinary people via radio on how to do their share of job for fight againstinvasion. The historical circumstance of the story is fascinating to me and I learn much about European people’s life in the World War II from the book.

This is a great children’s book.I hope it could nurture courage, open-mindedness, historical awareness within my kids.

秀才：《拯救了我的命的战争》读书笔记

这本《拯救了我的命的战争》讲述一个叫做艾达的跛脚女孩的故事。在她生命的前十年，她都被关起来，因为她妈妈为她的跛足感到羞耻。她一直无知无识，并认为自己低人一等。但是，当希特勒的欧洲战争开始，她的弟弟杰姆被送到乡下避难的时候，她决定瞒着母亲和弟弟一起偷偷离开。他们被一个叫做苏珊·史密斯的单身女人收养，并受到精心照料。艾达学会了骑马，写字，编织与帮助他人。这两个孩子与苏珊建立了强烈的互相依赖感，并且在小城里交到了朋友。艾达为战争出力，甚至有了发现德国间谍的英雄事迹。他们的母亲终于来领取他们，但是她看到她的进步并不高兴。当他们回到伦敦，妈妈又把她关起来。艾达就此勇敢地离开了她妈妈。在炮火声中，艾达和杰姆与前来寻找他们的苏珊团圆。

这个故事的主题是为自己的生命作战。题目《拯救了我的命的战争》听起来像是说，希特勒的战争解放了艾达，带领她开始乡下的自由旅程。但是，读完故事以后，你会知道真正拯救了艾达的生命的战争是她抵制偏见，发现自己身上并不劣于他人的智慧、勇气与力量的斗争。艾达生活在充满偏见的社会。不仅仅艾达的跛足被当作白痴的标记，杰姆的左偏儿也被当作魔鬼的印记，而苏珊与贝奇的爱与共同生活被当作不可饶恕的罪。苏珊也困在人们的偏见之中，在贝奇留给她的房子里过着离群索居的生活。艾达与杰姆的到来迫使苏珊担负起社会责任，参与工作，支持抵抗希特勒的战争。苏珊与两个孩子之间的依赖关系把苏珊的生活从颓废与离群的困境中解救出来。作为极富声望的牛津大学的毕业生，苏珊在那时因身为女性不能找到一份合适工作，但是她的高等教育显然给了她超越常人的视野。是苏珊带领艾达发展自己的全面能力，不受自己的残疾局限。这个故事告诉我们，不让自己被任何偏见困住是多么重要。不管别人怎么认为，我们应该探究我们自己的全面潜力，过我们自己想过的生活。

这个故事可读性很强，艾达对于任何变动出人意料的反应和故事的历史深度让这本书颇有异趣。我特别喜欢书里关于二战期间英国的平民怎样参与战争的内容。我感觉，比起中国的同辈，英国的平民在政府的带领下更有秩序地调动、团结了起来。在中国文学里，称颂的往往是中国平民在二战期间不受政府领导的抵抗日军的游击战争。在英国，政府可以把孩子们从作为炸弹目标的伦敦迁移到更安全的乡下，把他们安排给完全陌生的人照料。政府还通过广播给平民非常详细的指示，教导他们怎么尽他们的能力抵制侵略。这个故事的历史语境对于我来说非常吸引人，我从中了解了很多二战期间欧洲人民的生活。

这是一本很棒的童书。我希望它能滋养我的孩子们的勇气、宽容与历史感。