BookBright
ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSCoraline Jones is a curious, slightly bored girl who has just moved with her parents into a flat in a large old house divided among odd neighbors: two retired actresses downstairs who keep Highland terriers and read tea leaves, and a strange old man upstairs who claims to be training a mouse circus. When her parents are too busy to pay much attention to her, Coraline discovers a locked door in the drawing room that seems to lead nowhere. When she finally gets hold of the old black key and opens it herself, she finds not the brick wall her mother showed her, but a dark passage into a world that mirrors her own in eerily perfect and then deeply wrong ways, a world where a version of her mother waits, smiling, with big black button eyes.
Free Battle of the Books questions for Coraline
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 Coraline. 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 woman with skin white as paper turn around to reveal big black button eyes?
✓ Answer
Coraline by Neil Gaiman
In the kitchen of the copied flat, a woman who looks like the girl's mother turns around to show eyes made of black buttons. She calls herself the other mother, and her button eyes become the story's most chilling image.
- First half
In what book does a girl phone the police to report that her parents have been stolen through a mirror?
✓ Answer
Coraline by Neil Gaiman
Desperate, the girl calls the police and reports a kidnapping by her other mother on the far side of the mirror. The officer thinks she is dreaming and suggests hot chocolate and a hug, leaving her to solve the problem alone.
- First half
In what book does a cat advise a girl to challenge a monstrous mother because her kind loves games?
✓ Answer
Coraline by Neil Gaiman
Sitting on the cold step at dawn, the cat tells the girl to challenge the other mother, since creatures like her love games even if they do not play fair. This advice plants the seed for the exploring game she later proposes.
- Second half
In what book do three pale ghost children whisper to a girl from the darkness behind a mirror?
✓ Answer
Coraline by Neil Gaiman
Imprisoned in the dark cupboard, the girl meets the faint, glowing shapes of children the other mother trapped long ago. They warn her and beg her to free their souls.
- Second half
In what book are two old actresses fused into one creature inside a spider's egg sac?
✓ Answer
Coraline by Neil Gaiman
Searching the ruined other theater, the girl finds the two old actress copies melted together into one two-headed thing in a sac. One of its hands clutches the second hidden soul.
- Near the end
In what book does a girl chase a rat carrying a glowing marble down outdoor stairs?
✓ Answer
Coraline by Neil Gaiman
In the top flat, the man made of rats falls apart and the largest rat flees with the third soul. The girl gives chase down the outside stairs, slipping and skinning her knee.
