Worse things

Questions notes and answers:

Amed:

  • receives a gift which is a soccer ball

  • He has no friends to play with 

  • He feels the ball is very precious!

  • And it is his very first ball!

  • Amed looks at a picture of her auntie’s family 

  • Aunty talks about the most horrible and terrible memories.

  • She still feels the touch of their voices

  • She runs on a dusty track (rough ride) following taller legs

  • She remembers running, crying and walking

  • Thinks Jolene means something about me

  • She doesn’t read, she shows Amed pictures

  • She makes comments 

  • Amed is doing a very good job 

  • Amed wants to play with her aunt 

  • He says “we are playing a game, because that’s what families do


Jolene:


  • She thinks being nicer would help the dockers win

  • She hopes to win the game

  • Dad will come home permanently 

  • If we win mom will stop nagging about hockey

  • Stops raining on my birthday! 

  • She exclaims that she can’t help him

  • Mr Mai says “it would be nice to help him”

  • Jolene would have walked away if Mr Mai didn’t use the word nice

  • The second pic book Jolene reads, Amed is very involved in it 

  • Because it’s a very serious book.

  • He relates to them



Q1. She is hoping to make the dockers win, with being very nice. 

Q2. Amed is referring to a very rough ride. Relating to his life.

Q3. It can help his conversational English

Q4. The second book relates to him



Shaun Tan's book - comparison paragraph: 


The pictures in the picture book are dark and fearful.

They have significant meanings also similar to the book Jolene is reading.

Amed can relate to the first picture because he arrives in a new town.


POV of the first pic:


Locals: it’s Devine! Come look! It’s a whole fleet of people migrating to our country! We will have more people in our city than just a few!. This is a huge change!, I'm going to go in the first lane and try to squish my way through, grrr ahhh phew! I made it and now I’m getting pushed like crazzy!


Migrants: Lads! Isn’t it delightful to see land again! A land with no war, no problems!? This city will make the perfect place to live in today's conditions! Looks like we have found ourselves a new home! How amazing is that?, HIP HIP HOORAY HIP HIP HOORAY HIP HIP HOORAYYY!!!. One negative thing could be! The residents of this city are known to us!. We don’t know the language of the residents. How do I settle here! So many tall buildings!.