Access to all Library services will be unavailable on Wednesday, August 19, 2026 starting at 9 pm due to server maintenance. Services are expected to resume in the early morning hours of Thursday, August 20.
Join us for book club as we discuss The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley. Copies of this title are available at the Information Desk. For ages 18 and up.
It's World War II, and 10-year-old Ada has never left her one-room apartment. Her mother is too humiliated by Ada’s twisted foot to let her outside. So when her little brother Jamie is shipped out of London to
escape the war, Ada doesn’t waste a minute—she sneaks out to join him.
So begins a new adventure of Ada, and for Susan Smith, the woman who is forced to take the two kids in. As Ada teaches herself to ride a pony, learns to read, and watches for German spies, she begins to trust
Susan—and Susan begins to love Ada and Jamie. But in the end, will their bond be enough to hold them together through wartime? Or will Ada and her brother fall back into the cruel hands of their mother?
San Gabriel Library was founded in 1915 and moved to its present site in 1967. The non-profit Friends of the San Gabriel Library organization was founded in 1967 to support and promote awareness of the Library and its services. An interior mural painted by accomplished Native American artist Robert Freeman in 1984 depicts life at the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel in the late eighteenth century while recognizing the importance of the indigenous people of the area, the Gabrielino-Tongva Nation.
The library underwent a refurbishment in 2007 that added an elevator tower, enhanced community room, updated technology, new furnishings, and a bright and colorful redesign which included a paint restoration of the mural.
