| Complete units of work for each stage of the book, and includes useful background information about the novel and author.
Tomorrow, When the War Began is the story of eight country teenagers who spend five days of their summer holiday in a remote wilderness area, known by local people as 'Hell'. On their return, they find their farms and homes deserted, and their phones and radios silent. They discover that their region has been invaded by foreign forces and that their parents and friends have been captured and detained at the local showground. The group returns to Hell and begin to plan their attempts to gather information, make contact with their families or potential rescuers, and hide from the invaders. Through their ordeal the group learns to act more like a trained commando unit than a group of seventeen and eighteen-year-olds. They each discover personal strengths and weaknesses, and forge strong bonds of loyalty and friendship.
Students from all junior high school years will enjoy reading this book. It is, however, particularly suited to years 9 and 10 for inidividual reading and class discussion. Good quality audio tapes of the novel are available and may help to support the reading of less able students. Providing slower readers with a taped reading of alternate chapters, encouraging them to listen to one chapter and then read the next on, may be useful in the classroom. |