Since many of the children in this class had not reached A1 level at the time Azzi in Between was introduced, a variety of manageable tasks were created to help the children understand the story and its message. This is something Garland handles very well here. She's crafted a kind, warm-hearted and very very quietly provocative book centred around the journey of the titular Azzi. Azzi lives in a un-named country where her father 'worked as a doctor', her mother 'made beautiful clothes' and her grandma 'wove warm blankets.' One day her father receives a phonecall that they are in terrible danger and 'at that moment Azzi's life changed for ever.'

Reading: Learners recognise familiar names, words and basic phrases. They identify keywords and link written words to details of the illustrations. An attractively produced book that succeeds in explaining some of the difficulties faced by an immigrant child adjusting to the culture of a host country. The Happy Prince is a wonderful, classic tale of the love and friendship between the statue of a prince and a swallow. They give everything to those in need in this sad but uplifting story. The Jane Ray picture book version is stunning but you get more Oscar Wilde stories in the book illustrated by P.J. Lynch !I would honestly recommend this book to all teachers, adults and children over a certain age/maturity. The book is very emotive and even made me cry, therefore, I'm not sure it would be suitable for younger children. Perhaps upper KS2, but you would need to consider any sensitive issues that may be in your class. It is entirely possible to have a refugee in your class and they may wish to share their journey like Azzi but they also may find it too much to talk about. I don't think teachers should shy away from exploring these sensitive themes. It is so important for each child to be accepting of everyone else and to understand the different journeys each person may have been through to get where they are today. This account of a Syrian family trying to survive civil war is powerful and moving. The complications of who is fighting and why are dealt with in the context of a young teenage boy’s experience and the impact on his family’s life. teachers and learners with the multilingual turn in tandem with the transcultural perspective. The chosen picturebook, Ábiid plástihkat – Plasten i havet (2020), by Rita Sørly (author) and Malgorzata Piotrowska (illustrator) opens up the interpretative possibilities of multimodal texts as socially-just, diversity-focused, visually-complex and language-conscious semiotic objects. Embedded in a specific cultural context, the English classroom in northern Norway, this paper positions the dual language

TMBWK (2010a). Lehrplan für die Grundschule und für die Förderschule mit dem Bildungsgang der Grundschule Ethik. Erfurt: Thüringer Ministerium für Bildung, Wissenschaft und Kultur. Retrieved from http://www.schulportal-thueringen.de/web/guest/media/detail?tspi=1270 Azzi In Between first came to my attention following it winning the inaugural Little Rebels Children’s Book Award . This, coupled with the review it got over at Playing By The Book meant that it was one book that was very much on my radar. Little Women was first published in 1868/9 and is still popular. There have been plays, films, and musicals, but the book tells the story of the four March girls, Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy, more memorably than any of them. Probably best for the upper end of this age range. The story had become personally relevant to the learners, and depending on their developmental stage and their knowledge of the world, different aspects were important. All of them appeared to have gained insights into the topic and seemed to have developed empathy with refugees. From the point of view of the learners, the target language was a medium of storytelling rather than an object of learning. Mediation: The learners are able to summarise the main ideas of the story and to explain their thoughts in their mother tongue.Azzi’s life changes dramatically when her father receives a warning they have to leave their home. In a hurry, Azzi grabs her teddy bear, the only toy she can take with her on the journey, and much to Azzi’s distress, her grandmother stays at home to look after the house. She knows she will badly miss her Grandma. While reading this part, the learners seemed to sympathise with Azzi. They were asked what they would take with them if they had to choose one single item for such a journey. Most of the children wanted to give an opinion, although it was a hard decision as well as a difficult task from a linguistic perspective. To encourage as many children as possible to speak, one- or two-word utterances like ‘mummy’ or ‘my dog’ were accepted. The item on the left depicts a Kurdish refugee who was the original inspiration for the character of Azzi Dolan (2014, p. 94) points out that multicultural literature can serve the dual function of providing opportunities for language development and enabling an appreciation of social justice issues. According to the Thuringian syllabus for foreign languages in primary schools (TMBWK, 2010b), the language aims were: The stark reality of people being forced to leave their homes, and the enduring hope of a better life. A vital, emotional and impactive book that will be read, re-read and celebrated as one of the most important children's books of all time.

Our Family Station in St Pancras is open from 10.00-12.00 every Friday and we're continuing to welcome schools, as well as families and adult learners to our courses and access events. All our in-person and livestreamed events are going ahead. Other services The story of the arrival of a new baby in the family as you’ve never heard it before. Totally hilarious.Book Review courtesy of Books for Keeps, first published May 2017. Thank you to Books for Keeps for permission to reproduce their review. Sarah Garland tenderly creates a story of hope from the troubled experience of immigration in this warm-hearted picture book. All of the children, eleven girls and nine boys, were native speakers of German. They had been learning English for about one-and-a-half years, in two 45-minute lessons per week, a total of one hundred lessons. The children’s listening skills were at or below A1 level. They were able to understand classroom phrases in English as well as very simple everyday expressions in clear and slow speech. However, they were used to reading English picturebooks together with their English teacher. The topics of family, jobs, houses and homes as well as feelings had been covered before the book was presented. Yet the number of productively used English words was still limited to not more than 200-300. In their communication, the children mainly used fixed phrases and language patterns which were individualised by adding single words of personal relevance. Azzi is in a school where there are sympathetic adults who help her learn the new language. She becomes part of the class when she can contribute beans to grow in the school garden. These beans have travelled with the family and link the past with the present. There is a happy ending for this family when Azzi’s grandmother arrives safely to join them, and the beans symbolise a hopeful future. It could be an opportunity to consider what you would miss most if you had to leave everything behind? And importantly, how could you help someone like Azzi cope if they arrived in your class? As the title suggests, Azzi finds herself living in a new country where there is no physical threat of harm, but isolated from her past life and unable to fit in with the new place, her family find a home. The absence of colour in the illustrations, capture the trauma of what has happened to force her and her Mum and Dad to leave their home and more importantly her grandmother behind. The issues of language barriers, finding accommodation and being allowed to work are well-portrayed. It’s possible that this situation is familiar to children in classes all over the U.K. How well do other children understand what has happened to children like this, and how desperately they need friendship and understanding from them?