BookBright
ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSCharlie Thorne is twelve, already a student at the University of Colorado, and so far ahead of her classes that she skips most of them to ski. One day at Snowmass, right after she skis off the fifty-foot cliff ending Deadman's Drop, she notices two strangers following her, and after a chase on skis and in a stolen truck she wakes up on a CIA jet. The agents are her much older half brother, Dante Garcia, and his partner, Milana Moon. Dante knows about the forty million dollars Charlie took from a giant software company that stole a program she wrote at age eight, and he uses it to force her to help. The CIA wants Pandora, an equation Albert Einstein supposedly hid before he died, one that could make it easy for anyone to build a nuclear weapon, and a hate-filled terrorist group called the Furies wants it too. Starting from a transcript of Einstein's dying words, Charlie has to beat the Furies to it on a chase that runs from the Colorado slopes to the ancient streets of Jerusalem.
Free Battle of the Books questions for Charlie Thorne and the Last Equation
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 Charlie Thorne and the Last Equation. 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 twelve-year-old flip a reverse somersault off a cliff called Deadman's Drop?
✓ Answer
Charlie Thorne and the Last Equation by Stuart Gibbs
Instead of going to her physics class, Charlie skis an illegal couloir at Snowmass that ends in a fifty-foot cliff. She has already worked out the math from the ski lift, so she nails the landing and takes a bow for the applauding skiers.
- First half
In what book does an abandoned mother refuse to give her baby son his father's surname?
✓ Answer
Charlie Thorne and the Last Equation by Stuart Gibbs
Dante and Charlie share a father, an accountant named Larry Thorne, who left Dante's mother when she was three months pregnant. That's why Dante is a Garcia and not a Thorne. As far as Dante is concerned, the one thing the siblings have in common is disliking their dad.
- First half
In what book does a girl grab a skater's board and shout, "I'll bring it back"?
✓ Answer
Charlie Thorne and the Last Equation by Stuart Gibbs
When Marko bursts out of the library with Einstein's book, Charlie is the only one who sees him, so she snatches a skateboard from one of the students by the fountain. The owner yells "Not cool!" as she runs for the ramp after the thief.
- Second half
In what book does an agent tell a Hebrew-speaking crowd his sister is linked to a terrorist cell?
✓ Answer
Charlie Thorne and the Last Equation by Stuart Gibbs
When Dante catches Charlie in the bazaar, she begs the angry fruit seller in Hebrew to save her from a kidnapper. Dante surprises her by answering in Hebrew himself, flashing his badge, and turning the whole crowd against her before paying off the fruit seller.
- Second half
In what book does an agent say, "I don't like you saying 'girl' like it's a character flaw"?
✓ Answer
Charlie Thorne and the Last Equation by Stuart Gibbs
Stuck on the clue in the church, Charlie grumbles that she's only a twelve-year-old girl. Milana points out that history's famous geniuses were all men only because women were denied education and chances, and she tells Charlie the only thing stopping her now is herself.
- Near the end
In what book is a burner phone duct-taped to a stranger's bumper while on hold with tech support?
✓ Answer
Charlie Thorne and the Last Equation by Stuart Gibbs
Charlie buys a phone, asks a Jerusalem teenager for directions at a gas station, and secretly tapes it to his car. The Mossad chase the decoy down a country road near Beit Shemesh while Charlie, Dante, and Milana race for the airport.
