Ask a friend

ASK A FRIEND

Sue Leather

TEACHER’S BOOK

ASK A FRIEND

Sue Leather

© 2018 – StandFor

Editorial Director Antonio Rios

Editorial Manager Cayube Galas

Editorial Coordinator Ana Carolina Costa Lopes, Renata Lara de Moraes

Series Editor Nick Bullard

Editorial Assistant Nathalia Thomaz

Contributor Fernanda Valezini Ferreira

Production Manager Mariana Milani

Production Coordinator Marcelo Henrique Ferreira Fontes

Proofreader Nicole Irving

Art Manager Ricardo Borges

Art Coordinator Daniela Di Creddo Máximo Design Yan Comunicação

Cover Design Yan Comunicação

Art Supervisor Patrícia De Michelis

Art Editors/Layout Anderson Sunakozawa, Lidiani Minoda

Illustrations Coordinator Márcia Berne

Illustrations Jefferson Costa

Operations Director and Reginaldo Soares Damasceno Print Production Manager

Dados Internacionais de Catalogação na Publicação (CIP) (Câmara Brasileira do Livro, SP, Brasil)

Leather, Sue

Ask a friend : standfor graded readers : level 1 / Sue Leather ; illustrated by Jefferson Costa. -1. ed. -- São Paulo : FTD, 2018.

ISBN 978-85-96-01491-5 (aluno)

ISBN 978-85-96-01492-2 (professor)

1. Literatura infantojuvenil em inglês

I. Costa, Jefferson. II. Título.

Índices para catálogo sistemático:

1. Literatura infantil em inglês 028.5

2.

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Literatura infantojuvenil em inglês 028.5

ASK A FRIEND

Sue Leather was born in Manchester in the U.K., and now lives in Vancouver, on the west coast of Canada. She is an English Language Teaching consultant, teacher trainer, editor, and writer.

Sue has written some thirty original graded readers for a range of publishers. Her reader Desert, Mountain, Sea has been in print since 1989. Her reader Dead Cold won the Extensive Reading Foundation award in 2005. She was the Joint Series Editor of Page Turners

Sue loves writing original readers because it allows her to combine two of her great passions, fiction and education. By creating stories, she can connect with language learners all over the globe. She says: “I hope that in some way I am lighting a fire in them, both for the stories and for the language.”

BEFORE READING

Match the names and faces with the descriptions. 1 2

Look at the front cover and read the back cover of the book. Decide if these sentences are True (T) or False (F)?

1. Janie lives in the USA. F

2. Janie is good with computers. T

3. Aisha is from Syria. T

4. Aisha and Janie live in a big city. F

a. Aisha’s mother. A Syrian refugee.

b. A Canadian schoolgirl.

c. The computer teacher at Redbridge School.

d. A 14-year old refugee from Syria.

1. Janie

2. Aisha

3. Mrs. Homsi

4. Ms. Rose

Janie

Janie Dawson is in the computer room at Redbridge School. She’s doing her math homework. Suddenly, she’s hungry. She looks at her watch. It’s 5.30! Dinner time. She gets up, and puts her things in her bag. She puts on her coat and hat, leaves the computer room, and walks across the school field. It’s November and it’s very cold, freezing. Janie walks fast.

There are some girls playing soccer on the field. It’s Sam Brown and her friends.

One of the girls shouts: “Hey, look! It’s Janie Dawson! Working again! What’s wrong, Janie? Can’t you speak?”

Suddenly all the girls are around Janie, laughing and shouting at her. “Janie! Come on! Come and play with us! You work too much!”

“Come on, computer geek!” says Sam Brown. She always calls Janie a computer geek just because Janie’s good with computers!

Sam Brown runs up to Janie. She puts her face right into Janie’s. She takes Janie’s hat from her head and throws it down. Sam Brown laughs in Janie’s face, and then she runs back to the other girls.

Janie picks up her hat and looks at the girls. She really doesn’t want to cry. She runs home.

Janie | Chapter 1

Chapter 2 Aisha

“Listen, class,” says Mr. Bale. “This is important. I want you to say hello to Aisha. Aisha is here in Ashton with her family from Syria.”

Janie and the other students look at Aisha. She’s at the front of the classroom with Mr. Bale. She’s a short girl, with black curly hair and big brown eyes.

“Welcome, Aisha,” says Mr. Bale. “We’re happy to have you here in our little town.”

“Hello,” say the students.

“Thank you. My English… not very good.”

“Don’t worry,” says Mr. Bale. “Sit down here. Maybe the class can ask you some questions… to get to know you?”

Aisha sits down at the front of the class. She looks nervous and afraid.

“OK, class,” says Mr. Bale. “Ask Aisha some questions.”

“Do you like Canada?” one boy with red hair asks.

“It’s nice,” Aisha says. “But very cold.” The boy laughs, but Aisha doesn’t smile. She looks sad.

It’s true, thinks Janie. It is very cold now in Ashton. Canada is a cold country, and in the winter Ashton is freezing. And Aisha comes from Syria, a hot country.

“Do you like sports?” asks one of the girls.

“No,” says Aisha.

“What’s your favorite subject?” Janie asks.

Aisha doesn’t speak. She doesn’t understand.

“I mean, what do you like – at school?” asks Janie.

“I like… computers.” says Aisha. For the first time, the girl from Syria smiles.

Bullies 3 Chapter

The next afternoon, Janie is leaving the computer room. She sees Aisha. She looks afraid. There are some bigger girls and boys around her. It’s Sam Brown again! Sam Brown and her friends are always unkind.

“Why don’t you talk to us?” asks one boy.

“Why can’t you speak English?” asks Sam Brown.

“Why is your family here?” asks another girl.

“Why do you look like that?” asks another.

One of the girls pushes Aisha. Aisha is ready to cry.

“Stop it!” calls Janie. She walks up to Aisha and takes her arm.

“Oh, it’s Dawson!” says one of the girls.

“Janie Dawson!” says another.

“What’s the matter, Dawson? Is she your friend?” Sam Brown asks.

One of Sam Brown’s friends starts to hit Janie.

The door of the computer room opens.

“What’s going on here?” Ms. Rose, the computer teacher, walks out of the computer room. She looks at Sam Brown and the others. “You! Go.” The students run away quickly.

Ms. Rose looks at Janie and Aisha. “Are you OK?” she asks.

“I’m OK,” Janie says. “Yes,” says Aisha.

“I can talk to them tomorrow,” says Ms. Rose. She smiles at them, and walks away.

“I’m sorry,” says Janie. “They’re bullies.”

Aisha looks at Janie. She doesn’t understand. “Bullies – very bad people,” Janie says.

“But why…?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” says Janie. “They don’t like people who are… different. Ashton is, you know, a small town.”

Aisha smiles, “Yes.” Then she says: “Thank you. Thank you very much!”

“You’re welcome,” says Janie.

Aisha looks at Janie. She doesn’t understand. Janie laughs. “That’s what we say in Canada when someone says thank you – we say, ‘you’re welcome.’”

Aisha laughs. “You come to meet my family tomorrow – OK?”

“Yes,” says Janie. “OK. Thank you!”

“You’re welcome!” says Aisha. And they both laugh.

Chapter 4 Refugees

The next day, after school, Janie goes to Aisha’s house with Aisha.

At Aisha’s house are her mother and father, Mr. and Mrs. Homsi, and her little sister Amira. Amira is six years old. She has dark hair and very large brown eyes. She is like Aisha, but smaller.

“You eat with us?” Mrs. Homsi says to Janie. Janie smiles: “Yes, please.”

The family and Janie sit at the table. Mrs. Homsi serves the food. There is meat and vegetables.

But it isn’t like the meat and vegetables that Janie usually eats. It’s interesting and good. “This is delicious!” says Janie.

Mrs. Homsi looks at Janie. She doesn’t understand. “Very good!” says Janie and smiles.

Mr. and Mrs. Homsi smile, and everyone starts to eat. But Aisha’s mother and father don’t speak much English. They speak in Arabic to Aisha and Amira. When they speak to Janie it is only one or two words: ‘OK’ or ‘good?’

After the meat and vegetables, Mrs. Homsi puts some lovely cakes on the table. Everyone eats a lot of cakes.

ASK A FRIEND

Alone in a new country, Aisha is a refugee from Syria in a cold Canadian town. But when she meets Janie in high school she finds a friend who she can talk to, and who shares her love of computers.

But Janie and Aisha don’t play computer games – they have something much more important to do online. Something useful for people across Canada.

StandFor Graded Readers provide a range of engaging reading materials for learners of English. Carefully graded by level, the series includes retellings of great classics, and informative, factual titles.

Level 1 | 380 Headwords

Level 2 | 580 Headwords

Level 3 | 800 Headwords

Level 4 | 1000 Headwords

Level 5 | 1350 Headwords