Azzi In Between

Product Information

The first of a series of stories about the Casson children who live a somewhat crazy life with an eccentric mother and an often absent father. The children all star in their own book. In this story, Saffy thinks she is the second child, but is she? When her grandfather leaves her a stone angel in his will, she must go on a journey to discover the truth of her past. Wonderful! Arriving in the foreign country… ‘they are happy to find shelter’; ‘they have to get used to everything and to learn a new language’; ‘they are offended’; ‘some people don’t want to have them there’. [Translated by author] 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.

Dolan, A. (2014). Intercultural education, picturebooks and refugees: Approaches for language teachers. Children’s Literature in English Language Education Journal, 2(1), 92-109. Azzi’s story is linked to the stories of several people who share her experience of having to leave home: her father, her grandmother, and Sabeen, who had stayed in a refugee camp for many years and who is now a helper at Azzi’s school. Certain objects also tell their stories of the flight: beans, which were brought from the old home, Grandma’s blanket as a symbol of home and warmth and, of course, Azzi’s teddy bear, whose story can be followed by looking carefully at the illustrations.

Jenga Family Fun

A hasty nighttime departure with her parents leads to a long ride in a motor launch crowded with other refugees. In “the new country,” Azzi finds herself living with her parents in a one-room flat, going to a school where she doesn’t speak the language and pining for her left-behind grandmother. Her feelings of isolation are soon eased by Sabeen, an adult classroom helper who speaks her language and teaches her English phrases, and Lucy, a friendly classmate. Azzi in turn helps her parents settle in by sharing newly learned words and also by planting a handful of the beans her father had brought in her class’ summer garden. In time, her father receives a work permit that allows a move to a small house, and, joy of joys, her grandmother arrives to reunite the family. In Garland’s sequential panels, Azzi’s subdued emotional landscape is clearly mapped in her body language, occasional tears and sweet smile. Her city of origin is never specified, freeing the sharply felt anxiety and life-altering disruption she and her parents experience from particular locales or wars. 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. 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.

public Wi-Fi - this extends to the majority of our public spaces including the Reading Rooms, as well as our study desks and galleries at St Pancras (you won't require a login) Book Review courtesy of Books for Keeps, first published May 2017. Thank you to Books for Keeps for permission to reproduce their review.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.