BookBright
ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSIan Henry is sixteen, growing up on his family's old Vermont land, and used to handling more than a teenager should. He hides food from the school cafeteria for the huge stray dog he ends up calling Gather, works odd jobs to cover propane and car repairs, and watches out for his mother, whose 'bad back' keeps landing her in the hospital in ways Ian understands better than he lets on. When a new girl named Sylvia sits down next to him in biology and an overdue tax notice shows up addressed to a grandfather who's been dead for years, Ian's carefully managed life starts to come apart faster than he can patch it. The story follows one long, hard stretch of his life, the people who show up for him along the way, and how far he's willing to go to hold on to his dog, his mother, and the only home he's ever known.
Free Battle of the Books questions for Gather
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 Gather. 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 boy smash his thumb with a hammer when a dog woofs beside his ear?
✓ Answer
Gather by Kenneth M. Cadow
Ian is sitting on the Rock, the old farmhouse doorstep in his yard, cracking beechnuts on October 24 when a huge stray with a head bigger than his own comes out of the woods and grunts about seven inches from his head. That startled swing is how the two of them meet.
- First half
In what book does a boy get paid eighty dollars for a job he was promised fifty for?
✓ Answer
Gather by Kenneth M. Cadow
Peter offers fifty dollars to sticker a mountain of slab wood before the snow flies, and Ian stacks the piles as tall as he is and separates out the hardwood without being asked. Peter hands him four twenties instead.
- First half
In what book does a family cook Thanksgiving dinner outside after the oven runs out of propane?
✓ Answer
Gather by Kenneth M. Cadow
Ian drags his grandfather's old grill and the woodstove into the yard and rigs a whole outdoor kitchen in about forty five minutes so his mother will not spiral. They end up eating in kitchen chairs with blankets around their backs, looking out over the valley.
- Second half
In what book does a boy open a bill showing over twelve thousand dollars in unpaid property taxes?
✓ Answer
Gather by Kenneth M. Cadow
Ian had been planning to hand over his savings and be a hero, but his father skipped payments for years and the town piled on fines and interest. Losing the house and land is the pressure that drives everything that follows.
- Second half
In what book does a boy grade his girlfriend with a kiss for counting maple taps correctly?
✓ Answer
Gather by Kenneth M. Cadow
Ian and Sylvia snowshoe into the woods before dark and he quizzes her on which trees could be tapped for sugaring and how many taps each one should get. She scores a hundred, and when he tells her the kiss is her grade she guesses A plus plus.
- Near the end
In what book does a boy carry his enormous dog across a railroad bridge as a train comes?
✓ Answer
Gather by Kenneth M. Cadow
The ties have open air between them and the animal will not move, so Ian gets his head between the dog's legs and hoists a hundred or a hundred and fifty pounds of dog onto his shoulders. A flailing paw opens his cheek, and that scar stays with him for the rest of the book.
%20-%20Willa%20Cather.jpg)
