Step 1: Read the story
If you have a sense of humour you will love this story. Oliver Phommavanh is a teacher and this is his first book. If you really like it he has gone on to write a few more and even a sequel to this one.
Have you ever felt slightly embarrassed by your parents or felt that you don't quite fit in with all the other kids at school? Well our main character Albert has to deal with being different to the other kids at school, because he is Thai. Starting high school is a whole new experience and Albert no longer wants to stand out from the other students. He discovers what it means to have true friends and he discovers how to be proud of his difference and embrace it.
Have you ever felt slightly embarrassed by your parents or felt that you don't quite fit in with all the other kids at school? Well our main character Albert has to deal with being different to the other kids at school, because he is Thai. Starting high school is a whole new experience and Albert no longer wants to stand out from the other students. He discovers what it means to have true friends and he discovers how to be proud of his difference and embrace it.
Step 2: Take some notes
Use the following questions to guide your note taking and the words in yellow could be your headings;
- Who is the main character/s?
- What other characters are in the story and what is their relationship to the main character/s?
- What are these characters like? Find words in the story that describe these characters and write them next to their name. For example in Thai- Riffic: Barry (Old man who Albert (Lengy) delivers flyers to) - He is opinionated and stubborn. At first he appears grumpy and unfriendly but he has a soft side and is quite forgiving. He has a dry sense of humour and can keep a secret with Albert.
- What is the setting? Where does the story take place? There may be more than one setting throughout a whole book, so choose the main ones. Try to write down some specific information. For example in Thai-Riffic, one of the settings was Thai-Riffic, the name of the Thai restaurant that Lengy's family own.
- What are the main events in the story? These are the things that happen. There will be several significant events in a whole novel. For example in Thai-Riffic one of the main events was when Lengy and his brother were delivering flyers to advertise their restaurant. They tried to deliver flyers to people with "no junk mail" on their letter boxes. They played a prank on an old man (Barry) by making paper planes out of the flyers and throwing them at his house.
- What are some things of interest? It might be the colour of something, a name or nickname given to something etc etc. For example in Thai-Riffic the slogan on the t-shirt for the restaurant was Life's Thai-Riffic!. Try to pick out the interesting bits of information that might make a good question for Readers' Cup Day!