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ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSTwelve-year-old Lucretia Sanderson and her mother, Eliza, a painter who refuses every interview, move from a lake in Vermont to Candle Island, Maine, after Lucretia's father dies in a car accident on an icy road. They arrive by ferry on a June morning with Hog, the horse Lucretia's grandmother gave her, and before they reach land a fierce island girl named Murdock Kelly yells "Hey, New York!" at Lucretia and cannonballs off the old wharf. The farmhouse they bought sight unseen comes with everything in it, even a skiff named Sprite, and it once belonged to Murdock's family, who lost it three years ago. On their very first day, Lucretia's mother finds a tiny doorknob that opens a hidden room behind a closet, where Lucretia later finds a crumpled poem. Lucretia also rescues a starving baby bird, names him Gulliver, and learns he is an osprey she isn't allowed to keep. Soon Murdock's cousin Bastian is teaching her the island's waters, the man whose lost cat they rescue turns out to be a well-known art critic who wants to interview her mother, and three rich summer kids start making trouble. Then there is the beautiful voice Lucretia hears singing from somewhere inside the rocks of a lonely bluff. Six mysteries wait on the island, and Lucretia has brought one of her own.
Free Battle of the Books questions for Candle Island
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 Candle Island. 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 does a girl mistake a muddy, croaking chick in the grass for a frog?
✓ Answer
Candle Island by Lauren Wolk
Exploring a quiet cove at the end of a trail on her first day, Lucretia hears a hoarse croak in the spartina grass and thinks it must be a frog. It turns out to be a hand-sized bird with a hooked beak and long black talons, which she guesses is some kind of baby gull.
- First half
In what book does a fierce local girl pay a quarter for a chipped saltshaker painted with violets?
✓ Answer
Candle Island by Lauren Wolk
Working at the ShopWorn thrift shop, Murdock dumps out one of the boxes of Bellingham things the Sandersons have donated and pulls out an old white saltshaker with violets on it. She pays Mrs. Healy a quarter and walks out, and Mrs. Healy supposes the shaker was from when Murdock lived in the house.
- First half
In what book does a horse knock down a boy yanking its bridle "as if he were made of straw"?
✓ Answer
Candle Island by Lauren Wolk
Riding down an unmarked lane with Gulliver in her sling, Lucretia meets Caroline, Jasper and Trevor, Jasper says the land is private, and Trevor says they can take her horse. When Jasper grabs Hog's bridle and yanks hard, Hog swings his head and flattens him, and Lucretia gallops away.
- Second half
In what book is a nervous man holding a shrieking chick told, "Not unless you're a haddock"?
✓ Answer
Candle Island by Lauren Wolk
Lucretia wraps the screeching Gulliver in a towel and hands him to Mr. Latimer while she fetches fish, and he holds the bird well away from his crisp linen shirt. When he leans away and asks if the bird bites, Lucretia's answer means only fish need to worry, not art critics.
- Second half
In what book does a girl leave her pink-and-orange sweater on a branch for birds to weave into nests?
✓ Answer
Candle Island by Lauren Wolk
After Katie Cooper said pink and orange don't go together, Lucretia tried to give away her favorite sweater, but her father pulled it out of the clothing drive box and quoted Søren Kierkegaard about the despair of not being who you are. She wore it to his funeral, and the day they left Vermont she draped it over a low limb by the lake for birds and mice.
- Near the end
In what book do a mother and daughter sail home just ahead of a fog like a great white beast?
✓ Answer
Candle Island by Lauren Wolk
With her mother acting as mate, Lucretia sails Sprite out into the bay, where her mother laughs as spray hits her face and they are both happy for a while. When fog starts gathering in the distance, Lucretia heads for home, and they reach the cove not far ahead of it.
