BookBright
ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSIn the winter of 2000, a big brown suitcase sits in a glass cabinet at a small museum in Tokyo, Japan, where children come to learn about the Holocaust. It came from the Auschwitz Museum, and painted across the front in white are a girl's name, Hana Brady, a birth date, May 16, 1931, and Waisenkind, the German word for orphan. The museum's director, Fumiko Ishioka, and the children who volunteer there want to know who Hana was, so Fumiko turns detective and starts writing to museums around the world. This true story moves back and forth between Fumiko's search and Hana's own life, which begins in the 1930s in Nové Město na Moravě, a small town in Czechoslovakia famous for cross-country skiing. Hana skates, skis, races her red scooter and helps out in the family store with her big brother, George. Then the Nazis take over, and Hana loses her school, her friends and, one by one, her parents, until she and George are sent to the Theresienstadt ghetto.
Free Battle of the Books questions for Hana's Suitcase
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 Hana's Suitcase. 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 skater in red with white fur on her sleeves imagine she's a dancing princess?
✓ Answer
Hana's Suitcase by Karen Levine
Skating is Hana's greatest love, and she works hard perfecting her pirouettes on the frozen pond in Nové Město na Moravě. In her special red skating outfit she imagines herself a dancing princess, and her parents, friends and brother applaud both the performance and the dream.
- First half
In what book does one man's uncut star cloth lead an officer to declare the town judenfrei?
✓ Answer
Hana's Suitcase by Karen Levine
On a late September day in 1941, a Jewish man who has had enough of the rules pins the entire cloth to his coat instead of cutting out the star. The furious Nazi officer in charge declares that the town must be made free of Jews immediately, and the very next morning Father is taken away in a big black car.
- First half
In what book does a girl spend her eleventh birthday in a warehouse with candies and a candle stub?
✓ Answer
Hana's Suitcase by Karen Levine
For four days and four nights, Hana and George stay in a dark, airless warehouse, sleeping on mats among hundreds of adults who are waiting to be sent to Theresienstadt. That is where Hana turns eleven, on May 16, 1942.
- Second half
In what book does a woman with glasses on the end of her nose sort papers in a closed museum?
✓ Answer
Hana's Suitcase by Karen Levine
Stuck at the Terezin museum on a holiday, Fumiko follows a rustling sound to the last office on the right and finds Ludmila sorting through a huge stack of papers. Ludmila is so startled that she almost jumps out of her chair.
- Second half
In what book does a famous painter, now a fellow prisoner, teach children about perspective and texture?
✓ Answer
Hana's Suitcase by Karen Levine
Hana's art teacher, Friedl Dicker-Brandeis, had been a famous painter before she became a prisoner at Theresienstadt too. She teaches serious things like perspective and texture, but more than anything she wants her classes to help the children forget their surroundings for a while.
- Near the end
In what book does a woman on a long flight home picture her own little sister in danger?
✓ Answer
Hana's Suitcase by Karen Levine
On the flight home from Prague, Fumiko thinks about Hana having a big brother and can't help picturing her own little sister, whom she has always protected. The thought makes her shudder, and after an hour she falls into her first deep sleep in a long time.
