SuitabookThe Day My School Got Famous
Jen Carney
- Reading
- Pause after the school closure and again after the design challenge is introduced. Talk about fairness, family change and cooperation, then check how the ending handles Ferris’s worries.
- Themes
- Understanding people in difficult circumstances: Ferris is described as learning that everyone deserves understanding, while Nile’s behaviour is linked with tough circumstances. The stated lesson presents understanding others as a value the story supports, rather than merely describing disagreement.
- Foster and kinship-care families: Ferris lives with foster family members; Nile is his new foster brother, and another child’s possible adoption concerns Ferris. The book’s stance on this remains unclear.
- Cooperation amid conflict: Ferris finds Nile disruptive, but a school design challenge requires them to work together for a prize. The premise sets up conflict and possible cooperation, without establishing whether the partnership succeeds or what it costs.
- Worth knowing
- Be ready for references to an unexploded wartime bomb, school closure, temporary homeschooling, foster care, separation from family members and uncertainty about a younger child’s adoption.