The War that Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

Jamie said, “What happened? Why’s Mam so angry?”
“We look different,” I said.
“So?”
I took a deep breath. Part of me felt like it was all my fault, for being too
posh, for getting above myself, for not being the sort of daughter Mam could
love.
For being a cripple.
And yet . . . Mam could have fixed my foot. She could have fixed it when I
was a baby, and she could fix it now. She didn’t want to.
She wanted me to be a cripple.
It didn’t make sense.
The moon rose. I watched the patterns its light made on the ceiling. A
cripple, and nothing but a cripple.
“Jamie,” I said, poking him, “I caught a spy.”
“I know,” he said.
“And I learned to ride Butter, and we jumped the stone wall. Fred needs
me.”
“Mmmm,” said Jamie, rolling over.
“And I can read and write, and knit, and sew. I helped the soldiers during
Dunkirk week. And Maggie and Daisy like me,” I said.
“Susan loves you,” Jamie said.
“She loves both of us,” I said.
“I know,” said Jamie. He sniffed. “I want Bovril.”
I didn’t reply. I drifted off to sleep, sometime before Mam came home, and
as I did, I thought one word. War.
At last I understood what I was fighting, and why. And Mam had no idea
how strong a fighter I’d become.