Encourage students to spend some time in the lives of two innocent young boys, who befriend each other during Germany's dark period of WWII. A charming, yet heart-wrenching story, students will learn to analyze the boys' friendship, their innocence, and the dangers they unknowingly face. Appealing and challenging cross-curricular lessons and activities incorporate research-based literacy skills to help students become thorough readers. These lessons and activities in this instructional guide for literature work in conjunction with the text to teach students how to analyze and comprehend story elements in multiple ways, practice close reading and text-based vocabulary, determine meaning through text-dependent questions, and more.

About Shell Education
Rachelle Cracchiolo started the company with a friend and fellow teacher. Both were eager to share their ideas and passion for education with other classroom leaders. What began as a hobby, selling lesson plans to local stores, became a part-time job after a full day of teaching, and eventually blossomed into Teacher Created Materials. The story continued in 2004 with the launch of Shell Education and the introduction of professional resources and classroom application books designed to support Teacher Created Materials curriculum resources. Today, Teacher Created Materials and Shell Education are two of the most recognized names in educational publishing around the world.