Under the Sun
Publication Information
Author:  Dorros, Arthur	Illustrator:
Title:  Under the Sun	Date:  2004
Publisher:  Harry N. Abrams	City:  New York
ISBN, paperback:  0-8109-4933-4	ISBN, hardback:
Recommended audience:
ABE/ABLE:   Yes	ESOL:
Family:	Young Adult:   Yes
Picture:
General Information:
Book Type(s):    fiction, historical fiction
HSE Descriptor(s):    social studies
Summary:
After his father sends him and his mother to relatives outside Sarajevo to escape the perils of the war in the former Yugoslavia, 13-year-old Ehmet must find the way through land mines, burned villages, and hostile bands of armed men to his grandparents in Croatia.
Teaching Ideas:
Tracing Ehmet's route on the map in the book or one with more detail would make his trip even more realistic. Ehmet was fortunate to have had experience in both urban and rural communities. Readers could keep a list of information/skills learned in each locale that help him survive. Readers could also keep a record of all the people who help him and why. Once Ehmet reaches the refugee camp, he encounters a bureacratic wall. Readers might compare it with bureaucracies they have known--education, health care, welfare, judicial system etc. Since the book ends with many questions, readers might want to predict what will happen to the characters they have met. The Internet offers many, many sites to extend knowedge of the breakup of the former Yugoslavia. Then students could participate in Process Drama in which they would assume roles and state their cases for why they would agree or disagree with the situations in the book.
Teaching Strategies:
Agree? Disagree? Why?    http://literacy.kent.edu/eureka/strategies/agree_disagree_why.pdf
DR-TA: Directed Reading Thinking Activity    http://literacy.kent.edu/eureka/strategies/dr_ta.pdf
Herringbone    http://literacy.kent.edu/eureka/strategies/herringbone.pdf
Reader's Theater    http://literacy.kent.edu/eureka/strategies/readers_theater.pdf
Types of Journals    http://literacy.kent.edu/eureka/strategies/types_of_journals.pdf
Keywords: select any link below for a list of resources which also have that keyword
Emotions-Personal Issues > personal issues > individual > resourcefulness Family > mothers > mother-child relationships Hardships > survival History > time period > 20th Century Social Studies > sociology > social issues > racism > race relations Social Studies > sociology > social issues > violence History > topic > war > children and war Ethnic Groups > Serbo-Croatian Geography > location > countries > Croatia

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