The War that Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

The very next day, before Jamie went to school, Miss Smith took us to the
post office to register for our identity cards. It was a war thing. We would all
get cards to carry with us, so that if the Germans invaded, the government
could tell who was German and who was English by asking to see our identity
cards.
They could also tell because the Germans would be speaking a different
language. That’s what Miss Smith said. While we stood in line, she explained
that all over the world people spoke different, not just different the way I
sounded different from Miss Smith and Maggie, but different like actual
different words. Jamie wanted to hear different words, so Miss Smith told us
some. She said they were in Latin, the only other language she knew. “But it’s
a dead language,” she said. “Nobody speaks it anymore.”
Clearly this wasn’t true, since she just had been speaking it, but I didn’t say
so. Jamie asked, “If we kill all the Germans, then their language will be dead.
Bam!” He pretended to shoot a German.
Miss Smith pursed her lips, but we’d gotten to the front of the line, so she
didn’t reprimand him. Instead she told the registry man her name, her
birthday, and that she wasn’t married and didn’t have a job.
Then she pushed us forward. “Ada Smith and James Smith,” she said.
“They’re living with me.”
The registry man smiled. “Niece and nevvy, are they? Must be nice to have
family staying. I can see the resemblance, sure enough. The girl has your
eyes.”
“No,” Miss Smith said. “They’re evacuees. The surname is just a
coincidence. I don’t know their birth dates,” she continued. “It wasn’t on their
paperwork, and the children couldn’t tell me.”
The man frowned. “A great big lass and lad like that, and they don’t know
their own birthdays? Are they simple?”
I stuck my right foot behind my left, and stared at the floor.
“Of course not,” Miss Smith snapped. “What an ignorant thing to say.”
The man didn’t seem put off by her tone. “Well, that’s very nice, I’m sure,”
he said, “but what am I supposed to put down on the form? The government