1. Group G---cgammon26 (Replacement A)

Out of Nowhere by Maria Padian is about an exemplary high school student named Tom, his school is infested with Somalian immigrants. Tom is forced to interact with them even though he doesn’t really understand them and he starts to understand how the Somalians live and how difficult their lives are. Saeed is one of the Somalian immigrants and is friends with Tom, he and some others seem to be assimilating pretty quickly because they are connecting with other kids on the soccer team. He barely knows any English so he is avoiding that and might learn it later, "'Soccer,' he repeated, nodding vigorously. He pressed his hand against his chest. 'Yes. I play.'"(Padian 3). that quote shows Saeed connecting with Tom and that he barely knows english too.

In my book Out of Nowhere by Maria Padian it's about a high school student Tom Bouchard who lives in Maine. He goes to a school where Somalian immigrants are now attending. This school is known and being looked at for the immigrants. So far Tom plays soccer and 4 of the Somali kids play on the team. He's been trying to get to know Saeed. In their high school, their civil rights program is trying to express how to get along with everyone and treat people equally. Most of the Somali students don't speak the best English but they're trying their best to fit in. Tom recently has been getting into so little trouble but he's trying to help Saeed on his team. And a few of the others. So far my book doesn't explain the side of an immigrant. So I'm not sure how in the immigrant's point of view on assimilating and how and when they do that. In my book though Tom is trying to understand the culture and the person Saeed is. He's becoming friends with him and understanding his character. Tom is asking questions about Saeed and his background. Tom is experiencing lots of pressure as well. He's being pressured into soccer, college applications, and his girlfriend. He experiences lots of stress in his family because he's supposed to know what he wants when he doesn't. Tom is talking with Myla a girl from the places his volunteering to get his community service hours. She is older than him and is a woman who goes to college. She stalking him about his future. A quote Tom says is,  “ ‘ All this college talk drives me nuts. Way too many people have an opinion about my future.”(Padian 125) Tom is stressed out by the overwhelming amount of people trying to get an answer from him about college and his fellow volunteer Myla tries telling him to think of college as a privilege and not a punishment.