Lesson 1 (page 1 - 3)

Look at the front cover of the book.

  1. What might this book be about? Predict and infer using the front cover.          

  2. What questions do you have about the book from the front cover?

Look at the second picture. Does this add to your thinking?  

  3. What do you think is happening in this picture?

  4. Infer and predict from the image what you think is going to happen in the book.

  5. Explain what is happening in your own words.

  6. Where is the mayor? Why do you think he is there? What does it symbolise?

  7. Why do you think Rose shivered.

  8. Look carefully at the colours the authors used, why do you think he did this?

  9. What is the overall mood of this page? How do you know?

  10. True or false: the streets got busier during the war. Use evidence to back up your answer.

  11. Take note of the descriptive language used in the first paragraph. Change the descriptive language to make a new paragraph with the new words you have chosen. E.g. ‘…lorries grinding through the narrow streets…’ = ‘…lorries scraping through the tapered streets…’

Lesson 2 (page 4 - 9)

  1. What things stayed the same? What things might have changed?

  2. What is clever about the second picture?

  3. What can you see happening?

  4. Write speech/thought bubbles for characters labelled A, B and C in the picture according to what you think is happening.

  5. Where do you think the lorries were going?

  6. What do the words ‘leapt from the lorry’ tell you?

  7. Now you have the words to go with the illustration, what is Rose thinking?

   8. Compare and contrast how the 3 characters are feeling and why. Use the table below to help with your explanation. Use evidence from the text.

Lesson 3 (pages 10 - 15)

  1. How did Rose keep up with the lorry?

  2. Why did she follow the lorry? Use evidence from the text.

 3. Research what the words ‘Sieg’ and ‘Verboten’ mean. What could these words suggest about what Rose might encounter?         4. What does the phrase ‘she was so tired she almost felt like giving up’ tell us about Rose’s character?

 5. What do you think Rose can see ahead?

  6. What could Rose see?

  7. Why was she startled?

  8. What does the phrase ‘their sad and hungry eyes followed her’ mean?

  9. What does the phrase ‘the barbed wire moaned’ mean? What literary device has the author used?

  10. How do these children feel? Provide evidence for your answer.

Lesson 4 (pages 16 – 21)

1. Sequence the events from the book in the correct order.

• Soldiers went away
• A truck broke down
• Rose became suspicious
• Rose followed the truck
• War began
• Trucks started arriving
• Rose was startled

2. Why do you think Rose didn’t tell her mum?

3. What does the phrase ‘growing thinner’ mean?

4. What does the word ‘clasping’ mean? Why was she clasping the bag?

5. If you were in Rose’s shoes, what would you do? Explain your reasoning.

6. What evidence is there is suggest Rose has been to see the children more than once?

7. How do you think the children feel about Rose bringing them food?

8. Soldiers have come back to the town ‘exhausted, wounded, dispirited’. What do you think has happened? What other evidence is there in the text to back up your ideas?

9. Why are people leaving?

10. Where is Rose?

Lesson 5 (pages 22 - 27)

1. What is happening in this picture? Predict what might happen.

2. What is different about Rose in this picture compared to the others pictures of her from pages 1 – 18?

3. Why to do think the author/illustrator has done this?

4. What can you infer from this paragraph and image?

5. What do you think happened to Rose? Why?

6. Why were there ‘explosions of colour’?

7. Why does the author use the seasons winter and spring for the story?

8. What do you think the message of the book is?