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ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSDanny Blackgoat is a sixteen-year-old Navajo boy living at Canyon de Chelly, where he herds a flock of sheep, watches over Crowfoot, the smallest sheep in the flock and his favorite, and greets each sunrise with a prayer and a pinch of corn pollen from the pouch his grandfather gave him. That life ends in a single morning when soldiers ride into the canyon, burn his family's hogan, and drag Danny and his family away along with hundreds of other Navajo families. Marched south at gunpoint, Danny tries to escape, is caught, and is beaten and humiliated for it. He ends up hundreds of miles from home in a Texas army prison, surrounded by strangers who see him only as trouble, and has to figure out who in this dangerous new place can actually be trusted.
Free Battle of the Books questions for Danny Blackgoat, Navajo Prisoner
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 Danny Blackgoat, Navajo Prisoner. 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 is the smallest sheep in a flock of twenty-four named Crowfoot?
✓ Answer
Danny Blackgoat, Navajo Prisoner by Tim Tingle
Crowfoot is Danny's favorite, and Danny teases him that he is getting so big he soon will not fit through the corral gate. Naming the little sheep early makes what the soldiers do to the flock hit much harder.
- First half
In what book does a boy wonder why a woman of his own people would marry a bilagaana?
✓ Answer
Danny Blackgoat, Navajo Prisoner by Tim Tingle
Peeking through the wagon curtains, Danny realizes that Rick's wife Susan is Navajo, which finally explains why the driver has been kind to him. Bilagaana is the Navajo word for a white man.
- First half
In what book do men laugh at a friend clutching his chest, thinking that he is joking?
✓ Answer
Danny Blackgoat, Navajo Prisoner by Tim Tingle
Jim Davis has a heart attack by the morning campfire and the other men keep cracking jokes about calling a doctor. Danny is the only one who realizes Davis is actually dying in front of them.
- Second half
In what book do fangs sink into a teenager's leg just below the knee?
✓ Answer
Danny Blackgoat, Navajo Prisoner by Tim Tingle
Danny climbs into bed after visiting Jim Davis, feels something move under the covers, and is bitten before he can get away. The bite nearly ends him, and the scars it leaves become proof of what Mr. Dime is willing to do.
- Second half
In what book do field workers cheer when a boy throws a bully's rock safely across the field?
✓ Answer
Danny Blackgoat, Navajo Prisoner by Tim Tingle
After the rock misses, Danny picks it up and tosses it from hand to hand exactly the way Mr. Dime had. Throwing it away where nobody could be hurt wins him friends who later stand beside him.
- Near the end
In what book does a boy watch a flagpole every morning for a month and give up hoping?
✓ Answer
Danny Blackgoat, Navajo Prisoner by Tim Tingle
The month of waiting is described as the longest of Danny's life. Every morning he hears the bugle and watches the flag climb all the way to the top, until he finally tells himself the plan is off.
