FOR FREE RESOURCES PLEASE SCROLL DOWN TO THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST.

After I published my first novel Alice, a lot of teachers contacted me to ask if there was going to be a sequel. I was humbled to hear many students had connected with Alice and her friends Bilal, Khadra, and Camille. I decided to write a sequel, but perhaps not the one you were expecting… I am thrilled to introduce my second novel: Khadra!

Synopsis

“Khadra is trying to deal with her recent falling out with her best friend, Alice. As she reflects on Alice’s betrayal, she makes an unlikely new friend and finds unexpected purpose in helping him survive a dangerous situation. Set in Marseille, the second largest city in France, this second installment of the Alice series takes the reader on a journey of compassion and perseverance. Khadra can be read either separately from Alice or as a sequel.“

READING LEVEL

The novel has 4,000 words, 300 headwords, and a lot of words similar to English. I wrote it with level 2 and above students in mind. Here is a sample for you to read in order to decide if the language is appropriate for your students.

As with Alice, the language is simplified but rich and natural. I focused first and foremost on the story and developing interesting characters.

RESOURCES

For those of you who want to supplement this story, there is a cultural glossary at the end of the book and a YouTube playlist with useful videos, appropriate for Intermediate students. Here are some ideas on how to use these resources:

PRAISE FOR “KHADRA”

• Listen to one chapter or the entire book, read by me 🙂 Click here to access the recording.
• Ask compelling questions to engage students to relate the text to their own lives.
• Discover the district of Noailles where Khadra lives:
  • Watch the first 3 min of this video and ask students to list what makes Noailles so unique, according to the people who live there
• Explore what Ramadan and Aid el-Fitr mean for millions of Muslims:
  • Islam in France Infographic (From 2010, I could not find anything reliable that was more recent, if you do, please contact me and I will update!)
  • Ramadan Mubarak comprehensible presentation
  • What is Ramadan? 1 jour, 1 question
  • How do Muslims celebrate the end of Ramadan? YouTube playlist
• Cook delicious griwech and msemem, following the recipes in the cultural glossary and using the YouTube playlist
• Investigate the collapse of the 63 and 65 rue d’Aubagne using the YouTube playlist
  • What happened?
  • Who is responsible?
  • One year after the accident, what has changed?
• Compare and contrast your students’ special family tradition to the Aïd using a Venn diagram
• Share your activities with other teachers in this shared Google folder (as long as they don’t violate copyrights).
  

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