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ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSOn April 10, 1815, Mount Tambora on the Indonesian island of Sumbawa exploded in the most powerful volcanic eruption in recorded history, a blast a hundred times stronger than Vesuvius and ten times stronger than Krakatoa. It killed more than one hundred thousand people outright, sent a plume of ash and sulfuric acid twenty-seven miles into the stratosphere, and wrapped the entire globe in a veil of particles that would block the sun for years. What followed was 1816, a year with no real summer anywhere in the Northern Hemisphere, a year of crop failures, famines, food riots, and desperate mass migrations. Most people living through it had no idea why the weather had gone haywire, and this book traces both the disaster and its astonishing reach, weaving together the volcanic catastrophe with the story of a young writer named Mary Godwin who spent that ruined summer at a villa on Lake Geneva, trapped indoors by Tambora's storms, and who used those storms to write one of the most famous novels ever created.
Free Battle of the Books questions for A World Without Summer: A Volcano Erupts, A Creature Awakens, and the Sun Goes Out
SPOILERSEvery one of these has the same answer, and that is the point. In a real battle the question is read aloud with a dozen other books in play, and students have a few seconds to place it. Here is what a battle might ask about A World Without Summer: A Volcano Erupts, A Creature Awakens, and the Sun Goes Out. Use them as a quiz, a trivia round, or BOTB practice.
Where in the book they come from
- Early in the book
In what book do British officials send troops to fight a battle that is really a distant exploding mountain?
✓ Answer
A World Without Summer: A Volcano Erupts, A Creature Awakens, and the Sun Goes Out by Nicholas Day
From hundreds of miles away the booming sounded exactly like cannon fire, so the British searched for attacking ships and besieged posts that did not exist. The real source was Tambora.
- First half
In what book do birds freeze and fall from trees, numb enough to gather by the handful?
✓ Answer
A World Without Summer: A Volcano Erupts, A Creature Awakens, and the Sun Goes Out by Nicholas Day
During the freezing June in New England, birds dropped hard and cold from the trees. When they flew into houses for warmth they were so numb that people could gather them by the handful.
- First half
In what book does a hungry crowd gather in a marketplace under flags demanding Bread or Blood?
✓ Answer
A World Without Summer: A Volcano Erupts, A Creature Awakens, and the Sun Goes Out by Nicholas Day
In East Anglia a crowd assembled with red-and-white flags and a banner reading Bread or Blood. The protestors only wanted cheaper flour, but the riots ended with five men hanged.
- Second half
In what book do townspeople hear trumpets in a storm and fear the apocalypse has come?
✓ Answer
A World Without Summer: A Volcano Erupts, A Creature Awakens, and the Sun Goes Out by Nicholas Day
A military regiment rode through a Belgian town blowing trumpets during a thunderstorm. Three quarters of the inhabitants rushed outside and fell to their knees, sure they heard the seven trumpets from the Book of Revelation.
- Second half
In what book does a king proclaim, "Tranquility reigns throughout the kingdom," while his people starve?
✓ Answer
A World Without Summer: A Volcano Erupts, A Creature Awakens, and the Sun Goes Out by Nicholas Day
Louis XVIII opened the legislative season insisting all was calm and that he suffered more than his people. The author flatly notes that both claims were untrue, and that the royal family sacrificed nothing.
- Near the end
In what book does a woman, left alone, begin a story, "It was on a dreary night of November"?
✓ Answer
A World Without Summer: A Volcano Erupts, A Creature Awakens, and the Sun Goes Out by Nicholas Day
With Percy and Byron gone on a trip, Mary sat down with her notebook and wrote the opening line of what became her novel. She then wrote furiously for a week.
