The Sugar Glider students comments

WRITING ABOUT THE SUGAR GLIDER

GROUPS 1º E, 1ºI, 1ºL, INTERMEDIATE LEVEL, 2008-09, EOI AVILES

Group 1.


What’s the relationship between Don and Sylvia like? How does it change from the beginning to the end of this story? What do you think it will be like in the future?

The relationship between the couple at the beginning of the story isn’t very good. During the story both, Don as Sylvia, realize the mistakes that they have committed in their relationship as couple. Don, with the pass of the time and in the critical situation in which he is, realizes how much he loves Silvia and he wants to spend the rest of his life with her and their daughter, Judy. He is sorry because he has spent a lot of time with the planes and flying but he hasn’t spent much time with his family. Silvia also realizes that there is still love between her and Don to try to be a happy family.

If you want my honest opinion, they could be very happy. There is love between Don and Sylvia and the relationship between the couple and Judy has been recovered. They can be a happy family and enjoy life.

Group 2.

Who has been your favourite character in this story? Give reason for your answer, including a description of that character.

My favourite character is Judy. In the story Judy is a very intelligent, mature, strong and courageous girl. She is a person who is interested in things because she asks her father all things that she doesn’t understand. She gives many ideas, for example, about how to ride the wild horses. She knows how to control in panic situations, for example during the accident. She is very familiar, she has always wanted her parents to be together. For all these reasons she is my favourite character.

Group 3.

Judy proves to be a very brave girl during the story. Why?

Judy was a brave girl during the story because she knew how to dominate (her) panic. For example, after the accident, she saw her father's friend died. She spent days lost in the jungle waiting for someone to find them. She rode wild horses. When her father fell from the horse she had to go to get help. She had to travel with offenders to find uranium, knowing they were carrying guns. Then she had to jump from the plane of Forsha. For all those reasons ... this girl was very brave.

Lourdes_1ºL

2. What’s the relationship between Don and Sylvia like? How does it change from de beginning to the end?


Don Radcliffe and Sylvia were married, but they divorced a year ago. Don is a pilot, so he had a very stressful life, because he had to spend a lot of time travelling, and he didn’t spend enough time at home with his family. This made Sylvia unhappy and caused a lot of problems between them.

They have a daughter called Judy. She is fourteen years old, and Don hasn’t seen her since he left to work flying around the islands of the Pacific.

The relationship between them changed at the end of the story. When Don was at hospital, Judy and Sylvia visited him, and said that they wanted him to come back home with them.

3. Who has been your favourite character in this story? Give reason for your answer, including a description of that character.

My favourite character in this story is Judy, Don’s daughter. She is fourteen years old. She lives with her mother in a farm in the country.

Judy has long dark wavy hair and she always wears tied back. She is tall and her father thinks that she is as pretty as her mother.

In my opinion Judy is a clever girl because she knows a lot of things about the mine. She is interested in learning about everything, like airplanes, the history of “The Sugar Glider” ... And it isn’t very common in girls of her age. She is also brave; she showed it when she helped her father after the accident. And finally she is very loving with everybody, especially with the old Copeman couple, Paul and Beulah.

6. Write a different ending to the story.

Sylvia knew about the accident through the TV news. Then she decided to go to find her daughter and Don.

A few days later, in the middle of a big forest when she was looking for them with the police, she heard Judy’s laughter. She knew that they were nearly. She started to shout “JUDY, JUDY”, and she ran and ran. Then she saw her daughter in the distance. Judy saw Sylvia too, and started to run Judy said that her father was injured, and showed the way to the police. Later they were travelling to the hospital on a helicopter.

After a week Sylvia went to visit Don, and told him that he could go to her house for a time, and when his leg was better he could go away to fly again. Don told Sylvia that he didn’t want to fly again, he wanted to go back home and get married to her. Judy accepted AND THEY LIVED HAPPILY EVER AFTER…..

Angela_1ºL

Apparently The Sugar Glider is the story of a flight of no return; however it is the story of how a man recovers his family.

There had been many problems between Don and Silvia in the past, and at that point there was a huge gap between them.

At the beginning, Don wanted to recover Silvia, but he didn’t know how because she had a new boyfriend, Patrick. Don wanted to gain her trust again but he didn’t want to do the same wrong things.


As the story goes on problems arrive, but at the end the relationship between them strengthens. Finally they forget old problems and they realise that they want to be together as a real family.

Don is my favourite character in the story. He made mistakes in the past, but afterwards he realised that family was the most important thing and he could feel it despite the distance. Perhaps Don wasn’t a brave person, but he decided to return home. However, he was afraid because he didn’t know what it was going to happen when he came back.

Don demonstrated he was friendly with Paul because he helped him and he showed he was a sensible person because he decided to return despite his mistakes. In his relationship with Judy, he was very sensitive and insecure due to the fact that she was disappointed with him. From my point of view, Don is an honest and loyal person who wanted to take care of his friends and family.

Another important character is Judy. Despite the fact the trip was a danger, Don had no choice and he couldn’t leave his daughter out of his new adventure. There were a lot of incidents during the story. The plane crashed and Paul died.

She proved her bravery because she found wild horses and she managed to handle them. Later her father was injured and Judy had to continue alone looking for help and she had to ride a whole day. She was the prisoner of people who wanted to kill her but finally she ran away and she even rescued her father.

Ricardo_1ºL


At the beginning of the story it is a bit complicated because they got divorced a year ago. The reason was Don’s job. He thought more about his job than his family. However, he had a flying accident with his daughter and he realized that he wanted to spend more time with her and come back home with his wife.

In the future they will live together and they will be very happy because Don will start the flying school.



I think Judy is the best because she is an adventurous teenager and she is very intelligent because after the flying accident she could find help and save her father and after that she was a prisoner but she was be able to escape.

She is a gentle, affectionate and very brave girl

Write a different ending to the story.

When Judy arrived to rescue her father he was very ill and when he arrived at the hospital he died. Silvia and Judy couldn’t believe it and Judy had to go to the psychologist for five years.

After some years Sylvia met a very good man and they got married. They lived very happily in the farm and Judy went to university and lived in Australia with her boyfriend.

Laura G_1ºI



At the beginning of the book, Don and her wife Sylvia feel like strange persons. They love each other, but the year Don spent out of home, made Sylvia find a new life.

At the end, and without the character of Forsha, they felt the old love that made them get married.

In my opinion, in the future, they will live together some time above all for their daughter, but the year that they lived separated would made them divorced .


My favorite character is Judy. She is very young, but in the most important moments, she shows big determination, strong faith and a very good heart. Her adventurous spirit and the love that she feels for her father, makes her go on and on to help her father.

Write a different ending to the story.

When Forsha showed them his FBI credentials, nobody could believe that he would be the infiltrator.

All the operation was right, but the final complications made it very risk. ‘At the end everything was good, and that’s the most important’ said Forsha.

He apologized to Sylvia and Judy for not telling them all the truth, but he was not allowed to do it. The operation lasted for four years, and the government could not run the risk of losing all their job. Sylvia understood his situation, and they lived together for about five years, but the continuous secret operations made them become strange people.

On the other hand, Judy ended her studies, and helped her father in Don’s flight school. They were very good friends for the rest of their lives.

Nacho_1ºI


1. The relationship between Sylvia and Don

Sylvia and Don were a couple. They were married and they lived in Australia with their daughter Judy. Now, they are divorced.

Don left his family, because for him the most important thing it was his work, “to fly”. Now, he has come back to do a job. At the beginning, Sylvia is very surprised, but she has already met Patrick. Don feels regret, and he thinks that he can return with his ex-wife and his daughter.

In the last chapter, it seems that they will be together, because he understands that the most important thing is the family. Sylvia has discovered that Patrick is a small-minded person; he is guilty that Judy was in danger.

I’m sure that they will be happy.

2. In my opinion, the worst character

The character that I don’t like is Patrick Forsha, the new “friend” or “boyfriend” of Sylvia. I don’t like him, because he seems a cruel person. In the end, it is discovered that he is a bad person.

I suppose that he loves Sylvia, but he isn’t a self-confident person, and he is afraid to lose Sylvia, but I don’t believe that he would be a good husband and father.

I think that he must spend the rest of his life in jail. From my point of view, he is guilty of Paul’s death and Don and Judy‘s troubles, too.

3. Judy, a brave girl.

Little Judy, is fourteen years old, and she had grown up without her father.

When Don came back, he promised Judy to take her for trips in the Sugar Glider. She was very excited, but she didn’t know that she would live a hard experience with her father.

In the story, she was very brave and clever, her father was very proud of her. She saw how Paul died, and when her father had an accident. Besides, she trained “brumbies”, which were wild horses. She rode on the brumby and she looked for help for her father, but she was kidnapped. She was afraid, but in the end, she returned with her father.

She had realized that Patrick was a bad guy, and she only wanted her parents to be together.

Eva_1ºI



Don and Sylvia were married in the past, but Don’s job forced him to spend many days away from his family. Because of this Sylvia felt alone and decided to break off their marriage. That hurt Don who took a job in the Pacific Islands trying to get away from pain. He spent a whole year in which he realized how important his family was in his life and how he missed them, so he came back to try to repair the damage.

At the beginning of the story, Sylvia and Don’s relationship is cold and distant, but their love starts to reappear, moreover, Sylvia’s new boyfriend is a stupid businessman, busier than Don has ever been. Along the story the relationship changes, and the experience that they live together, finally, joins them again.

I think, in the future, things may not change. In fact, they could be worst. Now Judy is fourteen, she is a teenager yet, and she will become more independent, and she won’t want to spend with her parents as many hours as when she was younger. Don doesn’t have enough money to set up the flying school and he will have to leave his job if he wants to stay more time with his wife. Leaving his job will probably make him unhappy, because it is his real passion.

Which character have you liked the least? Give reason for your answer including a description of the character.

The worst character in the story is Patrick Forsha, He is the typical, stupid, selfish and coward without scruples business man of TV films. He is tall with shiny black hair and wears a light business suit. As a good “evil man” he designs a stupid plan to separate Don and Sylvia that finally has the opposite effect.

Judy proves to be a very brave girl during the story. Why?

Judy proves to be incredibly brave several times during the story. First she survives a plane crash and watches how a friend of the family dies, but she forgets that quickly and goes on with the journey. Later she proves that she is also intrepid catching and breaking in wild horses. Then, when her father falls from the horse and breaks his leg she must look for help by herself. Finally, when she is kidnapped she designs a plan to rescue her father and capture the bad guys.

Antonio_1ºI


Group 1:

2. It has been a year since they divorced. During that time Don worked hard and flew around the beautiful islands of the Pacific. He thought about his ex-wife and his daughter very much. Don’s heart is beating fast when he recognizes Sylvia, because he loves her and she loves him too. But now Sylvia has a boyfriend, Patrick Forsha. He’s a rich man but a bad person. Don felt badly because he left his family in the past but now he wants to return home again, and so do Judy and Sylvia.

In the future Sylvia and Don will get married again and will have two more children. Don will start his flying school and Judy will learn to fly. Her father will be her teacher. They will be a happy family.

Group 2:

3. My favorite character in this story is Judy Radcliffe, Don’s daughter. She’s a teenager and she is fourteen years old. She is tall and thin and she has long dark and wavy hair and the same pretty face as her mother.

Personally, I think she’s a very brave girl, because she rode alone on her wild horse through the forest for two or three hours, she found help and saw how Patrick killed several men; finally she saved her father. She is the heroine of this story.

Group 3:

6. When Judy and the rescuers found Don, he was dead; Judy started to cry and felt guilty about this. She had spent a lot of time coming.

Patrick was happy because now he could get married to Sylvia, but Judy hated him with all her might because it was his fault that his father was dead. Sylvia didn’t love Patrick but she didn’t want to be alone.

Judy told her mother that Patrick was a bad person and he had killed her father, but Sylvia didn’t believe her. ‘It was too horrible for him!’ she said.

After the wedding Sylvia and Patrick lived together in a big house in the city centre of Canberra, the capital of Australia, but Judy didn’t want to stay with Patrick, so she went to her grandmother’s house and lived there until she was eighteen years old.

Cristina N_1ºI


Don and Sylvia were married and they had a daughter, called Judy. Don was very busy with his job (he was a pilot) and their relationship was badly damaged. They decided to split up and Don left Australia to continue his job.

A year later, his friend Paul proposed him to build a pilot school (he wanted Don and Sylvia’s relationship to be better. He went to Australia again and he would like to be happy with Sylvia again, but now she had a boyfriend called Forsha, who was a very rich person.

Finally, Sylvia's boyfriend died so Don and Sylvia could get married.

My favourite character is Judy, Don's daughter. I like her because she is very clever.

She seems like an adult woman. She is very interested in Australia's history, and sometimes she talks to Don and Paul about some topics, like Warrangi's history and other things. She has her own opinion about some important and serious topics, like the exploitation of Warrangi mines. She is very brave too, for example, she can ride a horse and she can look for help alone.

In fact, she isn't the main character, but she is the most important character in the story.

At the end, the police take Sylvia's boyfriend to prison because he is a drug dealer too.

Don discovers a drink in one of his new flying schools which can make dead people live again, and he gives it to Paul.

They are very good friends again and they buy a big horse to Don's daughter with the flying school money, and they help the police to close Warrangi's mine, so Judy is very happy.

Finally, Don and Sylvia have another baby, called Paul, like Don's friend. Three years later, Paul dies again, but this time, Don's potion doesn't work.

Pablo G_1ºI


At the beginning the relation between Don and Silvia was very cold. Don and Sylvia had been divorced for a year perhaps because Don had been flying too much time and he had left his family for his job.

At first Don thinks that a year is long enough to forget and he returns to Australia after a year of jobs flying around the islands of the Pacific. But his ex-wife has another person in her life: Patrick, a rich man with a dark secret.

Don hopes he can see more of Sylvia because he still loves her but she has always hated that his passion of flying comes before his family.

During the story Don and Sylvia will think about their feelings and finally they will try to have another chance.

I think that this couple won’t have a future because Don loves flying and he will never give up flying.

My favourite character in the book is Joe, a good-looking, brown-skinned Murri Boy.

He is a young man that Judy meets in the mine of Warrangi. He is very brave; he fights for his land rights and for his people. He understands how important land is for him and other Murri families. Also he helps Judy and Don and puts his life in danger for them.

I think that Judy is very brave and clever. She is only fourteen but she solves a lot of very difficult situations: she tames the brumbies, runs to look for help, and cheats the bad men. Besides, she has got her own ideas, for example about the Murris and his rights….

Judy is the most important character in this story, her audacity and courage save the life of his father and also she prevents the foreign government from getting the uranium.

Laura R_1ºI

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The Sugar Glider students comments