This term in Year 9 English, students have been working through a novel study unit featuring three engaging books: Goodnight Mister Tom, The Road to Winter, and A Weekend with Oscar.

They’ve been involved in a range of activities to help them explore the story, characters, and themes in more depth. From written responses to creative tasks and group discussions, students have had the chance to think critically and express their ideas in different ways.

In this book fear is explored by grief and loss, Jamie spends the whole book grieving the loss of his dad, it also made him more scared about losing his mum, on page 140, “Jamie is talking to the doctor about if mum will even wake up.” that scares him not knowing what will happen to his brother Oscar, Jamie promised him mum he would protect Oscar throughout everything, he never told anyone about their mums absence in case Oscar got re-homed. Ultimately fear is shown a lot in this book and how Jamie got through it by himself.

Jamie kept his mum’s disappearance to himself the entire time she was away. Once Jamie realized that his mum wasn’t coming back for a couple more days, he hid his mum’s absence from her clients and friends. On page 75, “Jamie cancelled an appointment with her client Margie on her behalf”. He knew that if anyone knew about her absence it would be reported and Oscar would most likely be re-homed, after their dad’s death Helen pulled Jamie aside to make sure that if anything happened to her Jamie would have to protect Oscar, which he did. Overall I believe Jamie made the right decision but he should have told an adult that he can trust to not report it and potentially have somewhere to stay.

The first theme in ‘Road to Winter’ is resilience. Finn shows great resilience throughout the book; he must grow and change to become more resilient. The death of Rose takes it toll on Finn. This is shown in the book when Rose starts to struggle during childbirth “Ray starts to press up and down on her chest, but her body is so small and wasted he’s afraid to push too hard. The towel between her legs is soaked with blood. After a few minutes Ray checks for breathing again. There’s nothing. He keeps trying, but eventually he has to stop.” Pg. 122.  He must show resilience when Rose sadly passes away after childbirth if he doesn’t, he knows that Willow Kas and himself will be hunted down and killed by the wilders.