Chapters 1-3, personal, development and desperation (Isy)
During the first three chapters of the introduction, Bridget, her criminal family and her new school are introduced. Her mum, dad and Uncle Grub drop her off at her very posh, ‘top-notch’ boarding-school, where she doesn’t want to go. The theme personal development is just the introduction of the characters, setting and basic idea of Bridget’s world. When the book first tells you about how her family speaks and acts around posh, rich people, and how they’re criminals, you get to know them. The same thing with the setting, when you are told about the walls, floor and lighting, you really get a feeling of where you are. Desperation is shown by Bridget’s feelings about her family and her new school. She feels sad, worried and lonely because she can’t make friends in case they find out about her family history and their parents’ get her family in trouble. She always watches her back and keeps to herself. She waits for parents’ night in anxiety so she can tell her mum and dad to get her away from this school! Analysis Question: Why shouldn’t Bridget make friends? If Bridget makes friends, then she might accidently tell her friend about her family history and get into big trouble. Also if she had a friend over, they might get suspicious and ask about something that they saw at her house. Just one friend could lead to jail for her parents and Uncle. Chapters 4-6 –escape, desperation, friendship (Anna) Bridget doesn’t like her new school and she desperately wants to escape, because she is worried her parents secrets will be revealed, if she stays in the school. She is desperate and tries to escape during the night but she gets caught. Bridget hates being in the school and she feels sad that she is mean to stay there. Bridget makes friends a boy, named Menzies, he shows her a letter he got from a refugee in a refugee camp. Bridget feels sad about what the refugees are going through and can’t understand why they are locked up. Later on, Bridget finds Menzies tied up in his closet by the class bullies, she unties him. Bridget talks to Menzies, and they become friends. Chapters 7-9, secretiveness, family and friend troubles and truth (Isy) At the start of chapter 7 Bridget is trying to keep her parents from telling anyone at parent night about her family secrets and her parents work. But she needs to distract them to tell them that she wants to move schools to keep the family out of jail. Secretiveness and family and friend troubles are displayed when Bridget tries to tell her mum and dad to be quiet about their jobs. When she tries to keep them away from other parents, they don’t help much, because they just invite Menzies to her house! She’s trying not to be noticed by the teachers, but Uncle Grub comes up with the idea of giving every teacher a Russian blender and brings his van to school. Bridget has to act fast to stop her family being in danger by stopping Uncle Grub and trying to lie to Menzies, who she shouldn’t even be friends with, but she just can’t. Truth is shown when Bridget admits to her parents that this school isn’t right for her. They tell her that it’s great that she doesn’t want to get them in trouble, but that they want her to stay at this school because it will give her a brighter future than they had. Analysis Question: Why do you think Bridget’s family is helping her and not trying to keep themselves out of jail? Because her parents probably need to make money for living, but with their history can’t get a better job, so if Bridget gets a good education then she won’t end up like them. 10-12 – Family, Friends, Sympathy, Change/Ideas (Anna) Menzies and Bridget go to Bridget’s house for the weekend for Dads Birthday Party, Menzies and Dave have fun and like spending time with the family, they meet a lot of Bridget’s relations. Menzies, enjoys meeting new people and playing games with a fun, cool family, unlike his own. Bridget finds Menzies in her room reading a letter and crying. The letter is from Jamal the refugee and he Menzies feels terrible about what they are going through. The letter is sad and Jamal talks about how terrible the detention centre is and how he is desperate to get out. Bridget reads the letter and feels sad about the refugees and they try to find a way to help them. Chapters 13-15, discovery, friendship and kindness (Isy) Menzies and Dave are at Bridget’s house the day after her dad’s birthday party. Her dad is missing from the house early in the morning, and then Bridget’s mum tells her of her dad’s plan with the government minister’s presents to save the kids in detention centres. When Bridget, Menzies and Dave arrive at the warehouse, Bridget goes inside. Discovery is shown when Bridget is trying to convince her dad not to send the gifts to the politicians in Canberra, Menzies walks into the warehouse and gets suspicious about her dad’s occupation. He hasn’t found out for sure about the occupation, but he thinks he knows, and Bridget thinks he knows too. Friendship and kindness is given by Menzies who w is told by Bridget that her dad illegally imports goods from other countries. While Menzies and Bridget are at school, they plan to go to Canberra to talk to the politicians, and since Dave is so kind, he drives them up to Canberra. Analysis Question: If you were Menzies, would you tell the police or at least your parents about the White family’s secret and destroy a friendship? No, I wouldn’t. Considering I wouldn’t want my friend in jail and I would be good friends with this person, I think it would be really mean to tell anyone about a secret like this. 16-18 – Help, Adventure, Politics, Bravery (Anna) At a big fancy dinner, Bridget asks Menzies’ Dad to help the refugees. A lady yells at Bridget and is angry that, Bridget would ask that, since she’s only a kid. Bridget has the idea to ask the Prime Minister to help the refugees, because he has so much power. Bridget and Menzies sneak out at night and go to parliament house. They search for the Prime Minister in his office but they can’t find him. Then they go into Parliament and yell at the members of parliament to help and free the refugees. Menzies yells at them and talks about the conditions the refugees are living in and how terrible it is that they are locking kids up. Chapters 19-21, persistence, determination and courage, and unexpected surprises (Isy) The next few chapters are about when Menzies and Bridget are in Canberra. Their first aim is to talk to Menzies dad, but after he thinks their idea is an impossible, they plan to speak to a more important person. Persistence is shown when Menzies and Bridget have to secretly make their way through parliament house. Menzies dad told them how he was only one member of the parliament and that he could do nothing, so they try to find the Prime Minister. Determination and courage is displayed when Bridget and Menzies enter a busy parliament room, full of politicians, Bridget tries to convince them that locking kids up in detention centres is wrong. Since they think she is just a small, ignorant child, they laugh, and she and Menzies are thrown out of parliament. Bridget would need to use enormous courage to speak in front of a full parliament and keep speaking strong. There are also a few unexpected surprises. An example is when Bridget and Menzies have just left the parliament room and they expect to be caught by security guards, but instead a bunch of journalists begin to swarm around them. Analysis Question: Do you agree with Menzies when he says “we’ve got heaps of room for refugees”? I personally disagree. I think that eventually Australia won’t have as many Australians as people from other countries. Refugees come to Australia because of their countries troubles, and cause more trouble for us. So I think they should solve their countries problems themselves and stop coming to Australia. |
22-24 – Help, New Ideas, News, Secrets(Anna)
On the drive back from Canberra, Bridget and Menzies read another letter from Jamal and decide to free Jamal and Bibi themselves. They plan on getting Jamal and Bibi’s Dad to help them, since they know from the letters how desperate he is to free his children. When Bridget arrives back at school, she is on the cover of the newspaper and it has an article about her family. The article reveals her families job and their secrets, and Bridget feels terrible and thinks her parents are going to be really angry. They find Jamal and Bibi’s Dad and he says he can help free them, but Bridget gives up and wants to help her family instead. Chapters 25-27, disappointment, sadness, strength (Isy) The journalists from parliament house have put Bridget’s family history in the newspaper which has told her whole school that she is a criminal. Bridget and Menzies meet Jamal’s dad with Bridget’s school principal, Mr Galbraith. A lot of sadness is shown by Bridget who wants to help Jamal and Bibi but can’t because she has to hide from the police before she and her family get put in jail. She is also sad because she is letting down Jamal and Bibi and her friends. She has tried so hard to hide her family’s employment and now all her secrets have been discovered. Bridget’s dad shows lots of strength when he and Bridget’s mum are told by her school principal that she is being expelled because she has too much drive and determination. Bridget’s dad says that maybe she should just leave the school because he thinks it’s good to have an aim and achieve it and that he doesn’t want waste any more money on this school if it doesn’t teach the kind of things that Bridget’s parents want for her. Disappointment is shown when Jamal’s dad (Mohammed Houssini), Bridget’s mum and dad, Menzies and Bridget when they all leave the Mr Galbraith’s office in a rush because they don’t believe in his rules for the school. Bridget’s dad especially feels disappointed because he has spent so much money on this school, and now it doesn’t believe in planning then succeeding. Analysis Question: What kind of skills and strengths would you need if you had your daughter expelled, your family history spilled out, and then went to help somebody else with his family problems? I think that you would need to be confident in your beliefs and opinions and have lots of determination. Chapters 30-33, initiative, worry, trust, and failure (Isy) These next three chapters are when Bridget, Menzies, Mohammad and Bridget’s dad go to the detention centre to do the ‘job’. Bridget shows initiative when a bunch of journalists and a camera crew come to her after they fail their job, and she stands up for what she thinks is right. She tells the journalists what she believes and shown determination when she is trying to tell them about Jamal’s letter. Worry is shown by Bridget who thinks that she and Menzies are going to be tunnelling under the fence, breaking in and rescuing Jamal and Bibi, so she is worried about going to prison and failing to rescue Jamal and Bibi. She has told Gavin about the job and he is worried for them all too. Bridget knows that Gavin doesn’t have left in prison, but doesn’t want him to get into trouble there. Bridget shows Gavin that she trusts her when he tells her that if she does get caught, to own up to it and not to run away, because a life on the run is harder than jail. When Bridget’s dad and Mohammed both are thrown out of the detention centre for trying to convince the manager not to lock up kids, they all seem sad because of their failure to achieve their goal. Analysis Question: Why do you think that Bridget’s dad didn’t want to do a more practical (jail break) job and instead go a talking job? Bridget’s dad probably wanted to keep Menzies and Bridget out of as much trouble as possible, and keep them out of jail. So doing a digging / break in job wouldn’t be a good idea. 34-36 – Honesty, Rescue, Strength, Progress, Desperation (Anna) Menzies and Bridget sneak out of the hotel and make a plan to dig a hole to the detention centre where they can free Jamal and Bibi. They are desperate to help their friends and know that they deserve justice. They do a long 4 hour walk to the detention centre and even though they are tired and have sore feet they keep walking because they are strong and desperate to help Jamal and Bibi. They arrive at the detention centre fence and crawl along the ground and start digging. They hide under a towel as they dig and try to finish digging before the sun comes up, they are tired and in pain but they do it anyway. Chapters 37-39, persistence, crazy ideas, accusations and sadness (Isy) These chapters are about finishing the job without going to jail. Sadness is shown when Menzies, Mohammed, Bridget and Bridget’s dad when they think it’s all over after several problems that all eventually get solved along the way of the tunnelling. But when Menzies dad arrives and more cars afterwards, Bridget is really sad because she thinks that the cars coming are police cars coming to arrest her. Menzies and Bridget are so persistent when they both have such sore arms but they keep digging for Jamal and Bibi. Also when Mohammed digs with determination to save his kids and how they all dig for him and when they all keep digging through the dawn. All the characters think each other is crazy for doing things like Menzies and Bridget digging a hole to get into the detention centre and Bridget’s dad (at first) scratching the pipe. Dave accuses Bridget, Bridget’s dad and Mohammed of being terrorists, which makes them very hurt and sad. Then Bridget’s dad accuses Menzies dad of being part of the job, and Menzies is confused about Dave’s involvement in the job. Analysis Question: Why doesn’t Menzies dad help Bridget, her dad and Mohammed out of possible prison? Menzies dad is, in my opinion, selfish and mean. He only cares about his family and wants anyone who does something bad, in jail. I think he is very mean, even to Menzies. 40-41 – Excitement, Bravery, Compassion, Hope, Justice, Success (Anna) As Bridget thinks that it is all over and that there is nothing they can do to save Jamal and Bibi, heaps of cars drive up to them full of people desperate to help the refugees and help Bridget and Menzies. They admire fairly Bridget and tell her how they are proud of her, and that she stands up for what is right. Many of them start digging the hole and go into the detention centre where they talk to the refugees. Bridget and Menzies meet Jamal and Bibi for the first time and they play a game of soccer with them. More and more cars arrive and it is hopeful that with all the people supporting the refugees, that they will soon be allowed out of the detention centre and be able to be free. |