Summary

Winter is cold muddy in Syria, Riad wears a thick jacket, but his classmates tie t-shirts around their necks as scarves and put plastic bags over their shoes to keep them dry. Omar and many of the other students are quite ill. The class huddles around a wood-burning furnace during the school day.

Riad’s class is learning to read and they practice singing the Arabic Alphabet. Riad enjoys learning to read and write in Arabic. Riad likes the book the class is using to learn to read, but he notices that the characters in the book seem European and unfamiliar to the Syrian students. Riad’s teacher makes the dirty students sit in the back of the classroom, because of their smell. The students in the back do not receive any help during the day, and Riad’s teacher threatens to beat them...