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Mrs. Williams' Grade 5/6  Ballantrae, Ontario, CANADA

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Mrs. Williams' Grade 5/6  Ballantrae, Ontario, CANADA

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We just finished the third section and we loved it even more.  Here are some of our thoughts and predictions:
Tyler - Isabel's perspective is going okay since she jumped into the water after Senor Castillo.
Saleena - I hope that sometime in the book they will stop with all of the cliff hangers!
Lyndon - I am really worried for Josef.
Jacob - I think Mahmoud's perspective shows that he has the worst luck.
Abe - Both Mahmoud and Josef's situations say something about tomorrow or manana.
Kaitlyn - I am scared that Mahmoud's boat is going to flip. I was very scared when the tanker came towards Isabel.
Jakob - We don't like the cliffhangers!
Erica - I wonder if the smugglers are against them. It was a small raft so maybe they waited for the day the storm came knowing that they would be in danger.

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Welcome from Mrs. Williams' Class, Ballantrae, Ontario

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Welcome from Mrs. Williams' Class, Ballantrae, Ontario

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Welcome to  our Global Read Aloud Page. We are a group of 27 Grade 5/6 students in Mrs. Williams' class at Ballantrae Public School in Ballantrae, Ontario. We are located about 45 minutes north of Toronto. We are excited to read Refugee and to hear your thoughts about the book.  We will post our comments after we read the first section.

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Please leave a pin on our map so that we can see where you are located.

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Please tag your location when you visit our site.

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Hello.  My name is Ms Foster and I have a class of 24 grade 7 students.  We are in the Niagara region of Ontario.  For our American friends, Fort Erie is the border town to Buffalo, NY.  This is my first global read aloud and I am excited for my students to take part and connect with other kids. Thank you for making this padlet. I am glad I found your post. Happy Reading!

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We are a group of grade 5 students from Switzerland, and we are reading this book with our library teacher.  We might move slower than others because we only have library once per week, but are looking forward to connecting with you! 

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We are a group of grade 5 students from Switzerland, and we are reading this book with our library teacher.  We might move slower than others because we only have library once per week, but are looking forward to connecting with you! 

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My name is Mrs. Kempken and I have a group of 22 4th graders at an advanced charter school in Arlington, Texas in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. Refugee is on our Texas Bluebonnet Award nominee list and our school is working on a Bluebonnet Challenge where our students read all 20 of the nominated books. We lucked out to have the opportunity to use GRA to fulfill part of our Bluebonnet Challenge! We can't wait to share our thoughts as well. Thank you for creating this padlet.

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Hello! We are a group of 26 students in 5th grade reading Refugee. Our school is located in northern Virginia. Yes many of my students could find personal connections to Mahmoud and Isabel. We are on our second week of reading....

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Hello! I am a 7th grade ELA teacher in Wellington, FL.  I have 5 classes with a total of 112 students.  We areon  day 3 of Refugee and very engrossed already!

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Mrs. Williams' Grade 5/6 Ballantrae, Ontario, CANADA

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Mrs. Williams' Grade 5/6 Ballantrae, Ontario, CANADA

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We just finished the first section we loved it! We loved it so much we read 40 pages all at once. At the beginning, it was shocking to learn how the Jewish people were treated in Germany at that time.  Some of us had real-life connections and it was scary for us.  We have some questions/  predictions and comments:
Jakob - I wonder if the the raft will make it to the USA?
Saleena - I predict that all of the characters will have a weird connection at the end.
Jessica W. - Why do they go to the USA and not Canada?
D.J. -  I predict that they will all travel to all three countries.
Jason - It was really scary when the missile hit the wall.

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Hello from Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan!

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Hello from Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan!

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My name is Mrs. Murray and I have a group of 9, 7th-grade students and we are excited to begin reading Refugee next week. We will look forward to hearing everybody's thoughts and feelings as we move along! We loved A Long Walk to Water last year and even had a visitor who basically made the same trek. He had even lost his family...but found them this past Christmas!

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I'm Mrs. Beckett, a teacher of 25 grade 6 students from East Gwillimbury, Ontario, part of the Greater Toronto Area in Canada! We're looking forward to reading Refugee and discussing the book with you. Thank you for creating this padlet and to the other classes who will be sharing their thoughts and questions. We will get going on our reading and get back to you ....

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We are located in Overland Park, KS. We are three sections of 6th graders reading this book in our library classes, once a week. We are definitely going to be slower paced in getting the reading done.

We started a Flipgrid to record our thoughts and reactions to the book. Feel free to join with us!

Refugee - Global Read Aloud 2018

Flip Code: 2018grarefugee

The password is 2018Gra!

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I am the Principal at Blackwell Middle School and this is our first adventure with Padlet and GRA. I am doing this with my entire school 6th - 8th grade during our lunches and some time we have set aside. We have around 75 in each class. We are located in the northern middle section of Oklahoma on the Kansas line off of I35. Thank you for your post and we are excited to begin this adventure.

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My name is Ms. Goodrow and I have a grade 6 class with 20 students. We are very excited about our GRA adventure and meeting other students. This will be the first time a class at our school has participated in the GRA, however I have run it at previous schools in the past. We look forward to working with all of you!

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Hello! My name is Ms. Doepker. We are a class of 30 grade 7s at St. Gregory School in Regina, Saskatchewan. This is our first time joining the Global Read Aloud! Thank you for setting this up!

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We are a suburb community located about 45 minutes from Vancouver. I'm Mme Homeniuk and have a group of 26 grade 6 french immersion students but we will be reading Refugee as part of our English Language Arts program.

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Hello! My name is Mrs. Boucher, and there are two 6th grade ELA teachers at our school, and we have  about 145 6th graders who are reading Refugee! We are excited to explore this topic with our students and connect with all of you!

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My name is Merissa Bush and I'm a Learning Support (aka special needs) teacher at the International School Bangkok. I started reading Refugee with my pull-out support classes (10 students total). It's my first time participating in the GRA. I heard Pernille speak last year at a conference and she was so inspiring. I knew I wanted to be a part of this initiative!

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I am Mrs. Matte and I teach 3 classes of 6th grade English Language Arts classes (about 82 students) at Tom Cox Intermediate. We were fortunate to have Alan Gratz visit our school for an Author's Talk almost two weeks ago.  We are super happy to be a part of the GRA and look forward to making new friends through the reading of this book.  Yee-haw!

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My name is Mrs. Briggs and we are a group of 23 5th graders from Nebraska. We are so excited to connect with all of you.

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We are a class of 25 Grade 6 students.  We previewed the book today and we are so looking forward to hearing the journeys that our three protagonists take throughout this book!  We look forward to sharing this journey with all of you as well.

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My name is Brenda Edins, and I teach a 4th - 6th grade ELA class of seven high ability/twice-exceptional learners.  We are about to complete a novel on the human rights abuses of the Soviet Union against the Baltic States in WWII.  We are getting very excited about connecting that learning through Refugee!  Thank you for the opportunity to join in!

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My name is Mrs. Beetge. I teach two classes of grade 6 girls at an all girls Catholic School in Durban, South Africa. This is our first year as part of GRA. We will be using Refugee as a cross- the -curriculum literature study. We are very excited to read everyone's thoughts and share our own as the weeks progress. We are extra excited about these amazing global connections.

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I am reading Refugee to my 34 5th grade students at St. Vincent de Paul School.  We look forward to participating in the GRA.
Jenifer Spinale

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My name is Mrs. Kronour.  I have a wonderful small group of grade 5 gifted students.  We are located in Kettering, Ohio. We are close to Dayton where the Wright brothers did their work. Our class is so excited to connect and share our thoughts with all of you!

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My name is Mrs. Jankiewicz and I am here with a group of 8th graders. We are looking forward to sharing this book with all of you!

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Hello! I am Mrs. McCann. Our school is Wiley International Studies Magnet Elementary, a public school in Wake County, NC. We are 3 classes with a total of 68 students  in grade 5. We are excited to be a part of GRA this year.

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We are 6th, 7th, and 8th graders living in Denver, CO in advanced English Language Development classes here. Our families come from all over the world including Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, Africa and parts of the Middle East. We are reading chapters 3 and 4 of Refugee today!

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We are located in Brampton, ON, Canada. We are a grade 5/6 class known as The Fantastic Fixes. Looking forward to connecting

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Greetings from Mrs. Baez's class in Wisconsin! 

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Greetings from Mrs. Baez's class in Wisconsin! 

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We are a group of 9-12 graders in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Many of us were born in countries outside of the United States, so we are excited to connect our own experiences to what we read about in Refugee. After we read the first section, we will add our comments!

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Hello from Gillette, Wyoming. We have 3 classes of ELA students reading Refugee this year. This is the first year we have participated
and are so excited to hear what others have to share about this book and share some of our own thoughts and feelings about the story. We are a little behind as we are just beginning to read tomorrow so I hope we are able to keep pace with all of you.
epoh

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La classe de Mme Homeniuk  Maple Ridge, BC, CANADA

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La classe de Mme Homeniuk  Maple Ridge, BC, CANADA

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Our class is very curious about learning more about the historical events in the book. Some students also predicted this week that the stories will be linked by ancestors of each child's story. We looked at pictures of the city of Aleppo before and after the Syrian Civil War began and are shocked and horrified by the devastation.

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We are a group of 29 6th grade students who live in beautiful Huntsville, which is part of Muskoka. Muskoka is known as cottage country! Our teacher is Ms Gefucia. This is our second read aloud after reading "Restart" by Gordon Korman. We are excited to read and discuss "Refugee" with all of you!

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This is some of us. We couldn't all fit!

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Hello. We are a 5th grade class in West Orange, NJ. I (Mrs. Iovino) teach two sections of students. We are excited to share our thoughts here!

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Mrs. Iovino/Harrington's 5th Grade Class, New Jersey

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Mrs. Iovino/Harrington's 5th Grade Class, New Jersey

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Overall, our class is feeling very emotional about what we have read so far.  Some of the words we used to describe our feelings are: overwhelmed, paranoid, suspenseful,  nervous, scared, worried.  We came up with a few questions/comments:

I wonder if the three children are going to make it to their final destination

I wonder if the Nazis are tricking Josef's family (and other families) by bringing them on the boat.  We think this because the people are being nice to them.

Josef will be 13 (an adult) in a few months, could he/will he be sent to a concentration camp? In the first chapter of the book the soldier said to him, "I will come for you soon enough!."

I wonder if refugees change as a result of their experiences.

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Hello, I am Mrs. White! I have a group of about 8-12 6th grade students participating in the GRA for Refugee. This is our first time participating in the GRA. We are slightly behind because our group meets after school two days a week. We will be sure to post our comments when we finish each section! We are excited to connect with students from other areas of the world!!

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My name is Linda Craddick, and I will be reading and studying Refugee with my 120 7th grade students. We're a little late to the game as our last unit went a little longer than expected. Thank you for creating this Padlet! I look forward to reading about the discussions and activities happening around the world with our students!

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Nebraska
Class thoughts:
*The book feels intense with all of the events happening
*Upset by the actions of Hitler
*Feel bad for what the families are going through
*Feel that people should not have to go through something like that.
*One student feels that Josef's story is the most interesting.

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Mrs. Williams' Grade 5/6  Ballantrae, Ontario, CANADA

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Mrs. Williams' Grade 5/6  Ballantrae, Ontario, CANADA

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We just finished the second section and we didn't want to stop reading!  We are going to be sad when the book is done.  At the end, we predict that there will be a GIANT cliffhanger.
Here are some of our thoughts and questions:
Erica:  I wonder what will happen to Isabel and her family since the gas ran out on her boat.
Abe:  How are Mahmoud and his family going to get over to Greece if the smuggler fails them?
Alisa:  I am wondering if Josef will get caught by the Nazis.
Trent:  Will Isabel make it to the  USA?
Jakub: How will Isabel get to the USA if they ran out of gas?

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Mrs. Doraiswamy's class  Grade 5, Virginia, USA

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Mrs. Doraiswamy's class  Grade 5, Virginia, USA

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I like how the book ends in each chapter with a cliffhanger.
I like how it connects the past with the present.
I like it because it connects real life with fiction.
I like how there is humor when it is a tense situation- angry birds or the Isabel's grandpa Lito flirting with Amara.
I like how Mahmoud is going to Germany, while Josef is going to Cuba from Germany and Isabel is going from  Cuba to the US.
we wonder if Josef will get caught later.

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I just stumbled across this padlet and have been enjoying reading what everyone has thought so far. I'm a teacher of two 5th grade classes, 18 students each. I'm impressed by what I've seen so far, this book has already changed my students' outlook on the world and themselves

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Mme Homeniuk's class    Maple Ridge, BC, CANADA

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Mme Homeniuk's class    Maple Ridge, BC, CANADA

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Our class identified a moment of kindness shown in each of the character's journeys so far:
Mahmoud - When he bought the TMNT toy for his brother Waleed
Isabel - When the officer let her father go the night of the riot
Josef - When the Nazi soldier let him go on the train

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Ms Gefucia's Class, Grade 6  Huntsville, ON, CANADA

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Ms Gefucia's Class, Grade 6  Huntsville, ON, CANADA

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We think Isabel might have to find something to use a paddle until the engine cools down.
We are worried if Josef is caught by the Nazi's he will be seperated from his family and sent to a concentration camp. We also think the ship they are on might be a trap. We are worried for Josef.
We are concerned the smuggler won't work out as well for Mahmoud's family. It sounds very risky.
We are excited to keep reading!

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Ms. Victor's class grade 8       Ottawa, Ontario, CANADA

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Ms. Victor's class grade 8       Ottawa, Ontario, CANADA

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If Josef tells the other passengers about the other boats on their way to Cuba, will that cause chaos?
We think that somehow each character's families will connect in the end.
We think that Isabel and Ivan will have a romance even though it is a small boat.

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Ms. Victor's other grade 8 class, Ottawa, ON, CANADA

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Ms. Victor's other grade 8 class, Ottawa, ON, CANADA

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Perhaps some of the stewards support Hitler (they were angry when the picture was taken down) and will prevent the passengers from entering Cuba.

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I tried to add our school to the map but didn't know how. Hints?

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I tried to add our school to the map but didn't know how. Hints?

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Class Thoughts and/or Comments from Missouri

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Class Thoughts and/or Comments from Missouri

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*One students feels like Josef's family on the boat will be targeted for being Jewish and possibly exterminated.
*Another student feels that when and if they escape to America, it will not be as expected.
*We thought the "wet feet/dry feet rule" was fair and also unfair. It was also interesting to learn about.

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My 7th graders and I are excited to be reading Refugee. We look forward to discussing it with others during GRA.

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Kindness examples...
Khup -Mahmoud's dad makes jokes to make them feel better.
Kira - Josef tried to get candy his sister.
Jocelyn - The fisherman agreed to take care of Isabel's cat.

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Mrs.Williams' Grade 5/6  Ballantrae, Ontario, CANADA

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Mrs.Williams' Grade 5/6  Ballantrae, Ontario, CANADA

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We just finished the fourth section and we think it was the most interesting part so far!  It was probably the most intense part so far as well. Here are some of our thoughts and predictions:
Jakub - We are excited for  more exciting moments in the book. I wonder if Mahmoud's family will find Hanna again.
Jakob - I think that Josef's dad is going to go to Cuba.  He is going to go back in the water and want to die.
Lyndon - I think that Isabel's mother might have her baby on the boat.
Sophie - I think that a  shark might appear in Isabel's story.
Grace - I think this might have been the climax in the book.

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Mrs. Shortridge's Grade 6/7 Surrey, British Columbia, CANADA

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Mrs. Shortridge's Grade 6/7 Surrey, British Columbia, CANADA

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We think that Josef’s dad should seek help. Is Josef’s family going to be sent back to Germany again?  Will Josef’s dad recover?

How will Isabel’s mother survive?  She’s pregnant and sick.  How will she give birth safely?  Isabel might need a paddle to get where they want to go. Will Isabel even get to where they are supposed to be going? What if a shark comes to attack the people in the water on the side of the boat?

Are they going to find Hana? They might run into Hana a couple of years later, but they may not recognize her.  How will Mahmoud survive with no food or money?

Will all of the characters reach their destinations?

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We are a grade 5/6 class from North Woods Public School in Ethel, Ontario

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We are a grade 5/6 class from North Woods Public School in Ethel, Ontario

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Mrs. Williams' Grade 5/6   Ballantrae, Ontario, CANADA

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Mrs. Williams' Grade 5/6   Ballantrae, Ontario, CANADA

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WOW!  Can it get more intense?  We thought that Week 4 was full of action but Week 5 had even more action and cliffhangers!   Here are some our thoughts and predictions:
Owen: I think that everyone has run into a problem but they will all come up with a good solution.
Jackson:  I predict that someone from Isabel or Josef's perspective is going to help Mahmoud
Simon:  I feel bad for Isabel because her best friend died.
Jessica H.:  I wonder if everyone will have a happy ending.
Kaitlyn: I can't believe that Ivan died.
Trent: I hope Isabel and Josef's dad will be able to recover mentally.

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Mrs. Williams Grade 5/6  Ballantrae, Ontario, CANADA

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Mrs. Williams Grade 5/6  Ballantrae, Ontario, CANADA

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Wow! Wasn't that an AMAZING book!  We all loved this book and we all wish that there was a Refugee 2.
Here are our final thoughts:
Erica: I actually liked the cliffhangers. It made me want to keep reading.
Owen:  I think that it taught us a lot about refugees had to go through in the three characters journeys.
Jessica W.:  I want to know what happened to Hana.
D.J.:  The ending made us all gasp in surprise.
Saleena:  I thought that overall the book was a really good book to read and I think that Alan Gratz is a great author.  I can't wait to read Ban This Book!
Alisa:  I thought that it was really different from what we would usually read.
Sophie: The cliff hangers never stopped and always surprised us.

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Mrs. Williams Grade 5/6  Ballantrae, Ontario, CANADA

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Mrs. Williams Grade 5/6  Ballantrae, Ontario, CANADA

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This was the best book ever. It was sad that this book ended.  We wish that Alan Gratz wrote a sequel to this book.  Here are our thoughts:
Tyler:  I wish that Mahmoud's family would have found Hana after the boat incident.
Simon: I liked how the book ended, except for Josef's part.
Erica:  I liked how Mahmoud and his family met Ruthie when she was a lot older.
Lyndon:  Refugee is a well-written book but I am a Sci-Fi guy.
Alisa:  I thought that there were too many cliff hangers.
Kaitlyn: The book was really good. I wish it never ended.
D.J. : I wish there were not as many sad parts as there were.