BookBright
ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSClay O'Brian is stuck at home in the small town of Gerenford while a virus has shut down school and almost everything else. He misses his best friend, Levi, and he is tired of fighting with his sisters, grumpy DiRossi and know-it-all Juniper, over the family's one computer. Then, while he plays Frisbee alone in the woods of Mount Norumbega, a slim white dog with tall, red-lined ears and a too-fancy jeweled collar bursts out of the trees and chases off something creeping up behind him. What Clay doesn't know is that she is Elphinore, a royal hunting hound of the People Under the Mountain, left behind aboveground after a hunt. When Clay lets her lead, she takes him down hidden paths to a village where everyone has the head of an owl, and the forest around it hides even more, from a gloomy giant asleep under the ground to a lake that grants wishes at a price. A stolen shaker of magic salt turns his dad's work shirt into a dinosaur the size of a chicken, an owl-head boy named Amos becomes Clay's new friend, and soon his sisters get pulled into the magic too. But Elphinore still remembers her home under the mountain, and Amos warns that its people are dangerous and do not like humans. The story is told in the third person, mostly following Clay but sometimes slipping into the thoughts of the dog and his sisters.
Free Battle of the Books questions for Elf Dog & Owl Head
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 Elf Dog & Owl Head. 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 young hound secretly watch baby wyrms escape while the hunt chases their mother?
✓ Answer
Elf Dog & Owl Head by M. T. Anderson
Elphinore spots squiggly baby wyrms slipping away up a hill and realizes their mother is leading the hunt away from them on purpose. She decides the Master of the Hunt doesn't deserve to know, so she barks along with the pack as if she never noticed.
- First half
In what book does a little sister fling open the front door and yell, "RUN, SWEATER-SHEEP! RUN!"?
✓ Answer
Elf Dog & Owl Head by M. T. Anderson
The shirt-o-saurus chases Juniper's sweater-sheep through the house while Elphinore chases the dinosaur and the family chases Elphinore. Juniper lets the sheep escape, but the little dinosaur squeezes out the door right behind it.
- First half
In what book does a ruined forest tower hum one note, like a finger rubbed around a glass?
✓ Answer
Elf Dog & Owl Head by M. T. Anderson
Amos leads Clay to the ruins of a tower built by the People Under the Mountain during an ancient war. He tells a legend that the faint ringing is the frozen scream of a prince who fell through a magic door that led nowhere and keeps falling forever.
- Second half
In what book can't a girl say what she's drawing, though all her blue pencils are worn to nubs?
✓ Answer
Elf Dog & Owl Head by M. T. Anderson
DiRossi has secretly made friends with the gloomy blue giant Vud, and she starts taking Elphinore into the woods for hours with her sketch pad. When her mom asks what she is drawing, DiRossi has no answer, but her stubby blue pencils tell their own story.
- Second half
In what book does a boy build a papier-mache dragon mask over chicken wire in the basement?
✓ Answer
Elf Dog & Owl Head by M. T. Anderson
Clay secretly makes a dragon mask from newspaper strips and glue over a frame of garden chicken wire so he can hide his face at the Midsummer party. When his mom asks what it is for, he only tells her you never know when you'll need a mask.
- Near the end
In what book does a squirrel at a party complain a hound chases him whenever he gets his mail?
✓ Answer
Elf Dog & Owl Head by M. T. Anderson
While DiRossi dances, Clay stands alone by the food and meets a squirrel by the mixed nuts who is fed up with Elphinore chasing him. Clay apologizes and shells a whole pile of walnuts for him so they can call it even.
