BookBright
ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSMr. Fox lives with his wife and four children in a cozy hole beneath a tree on a hill above the valley, and every night he sneaks down to steal food from one of three nearby farmers: fat Boggis, who raises chickens; pot-bellied Bunce, who raises ducks and geese; and tall, thin Bean, who runs a turkey farm and drinks gallons of his own homemade cider. The farmers know exactly who has been raiding them, and when their nightly ambushes keep failing because Mr. Fox's sharp nose always smells them out, Bean hatches a new plan. On the night they finally try it, the three farmers open fire at Mr. Fox's hole and shoot off his tail. He escapes, but now Boggis, Bunce, and Bean have surrounded the hill and they are not going away until the fox is dead.
Free Battle of the Books questions for Fantastic Mr. Fox
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 Fantastic Mr. Fox. 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 do hunters find only a bloodstained tail in the dirt instead of their target?
✓ Answer
Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl
After the three farmers shoot at the hole, a flashlight reveals only the poor tattered remains of a tail. "We got the tail but we missed the fox," Bean grumbles, tossing it away. The lost tail becomes a symbol of how close the hunters came and how lucky their target was.
- First half
In what book does a family of digging animals starve underground for three days and nights?
✓ Answer
Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl
While the farmers wait above with their guns, the family below slowly starves to death without food or water for three days and nights. The starvation forces the father to come up with the bold plan that drives the rest of the story.
- First half
In what book does a starving father pop up through a floor into a shed full of thousands of chickens?
✓ Answer
Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl
When the father pushes up the floorboards, he finds himself inside a huge shed teeming with white, brown, and black chickens by the thousand. He hits Boggis's Chicken House Number One on his very first try and dances with joy.
- Second half
In what book does a father tell his hungry son to grab carrots even though their family doesn't eat vegetables?
✓ Answer
Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl
The Smallest of the children remembers the Rabbits only eat vegetables, so the family takes ten bunches of carrots. It shows how the feast is being planned for all the underground families together.
- Second half
In what book does a badger say a homemade drink tastes "like drinking sunbeams and rainbows"?
✓ Answer
Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl
Badger gulps the cider, declares it like melted gold, and then like drinking sunbeams and rainbows. It's one of the most quoted lines in the book and shows how good a fierce farmer's secret stash can taste.
- Near the end
In what book do twenty-nine animals sit around a huge underground table for a stolen feast?
✓ Answer
Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl
The dining room is hollowed out of the earth and packed with the Foxes, Badgers, Moles, Rabbits, and Weasels. The book even lists each family by name, all the way down to six small Weasels.
