BookBright
ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSHaley, a sixth grader in Brooklyn, has a father in prison and an uncle who has raised her since she was three years old. When her teacher Ms. Laverne pulls six kids out of class every Friday afternoon and sends them alone into an unused room called the ARTT room (A Room To Talk), Haley brings a voice recorder hoping to capture something she can never get back: the sound of people she loves before they disappear. The six students, each carrying a weight the others don't yet know about, slowly begin to open up, and what starts as an awkward experiment becomes something none of them expected.
Free Battle of the Books questions for Harbor Me
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 Harbor Me. 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 girl ask her uncle to buy her a voice recorder for a school project?
✓ Answer
Harbor Me by Jacqueline Woodson
Haley asks her uncle to buy her a voice recorder, telling him it's for a school project. In reality, she wants to record the stories her friends tell in the ARTT room so their voices will be preserved forever.
- First half
In what book do classmates rearrange their desks around a grieving boy at the window without anyone saying a word?
✓ Answer
Harbor Me by Jacqueline Woodson
After weeks of Esteban sitting alone by the window, Ashton and Amari silently move the desks to form a new circle around him. Nobody speaks, but Esteban looks up and smiles. The circle becomes smaller and the group becomes closer.
- First half
In what book does a boy's father explain that Black boys are seen as suspects "from the day we're born"?
✓ Answer
Harbor Me by Jacqueline Woodson
After describing how the police shot a boy who was playing with a toy gun, Amari shares what his father told him. His dad said it's like Black boys are suspects from the day they are born. The conversation forces the group to reckon with the different rules some of them live under.
- Second half
In what book does a girl say, "You're one of us now" to a boy who feels like an outsider?
✓ Answer
Harbor Me by Jacqueline Woodson
Holly tells Ashton he has the "white pass" and that feeling like an outsider is how a lot of other people feel every day. She says welcome home, and when he looks confused, she smiles and tells him he is one of them now. Ashton leans back and slowly smiles. It's Holly's way of saying he truly belongs in their group.
- Second half
In what book does a dying dog's breathing get faster and faster like he is winning a race?
✓ Answer
Harbor Me by Jacqueline Woodson
Tiago tells the group about holding his dog's head in his lap as the dog was dying. The dog's breathing got faster and faster, and Tiago imagined he was winning a race. When the breathing stopped, Tiago said, "You won the race." His mother let him stay like that for a long time.
- Near the end
In what book do two best friends discover their mothers were pregnant together and ate at the same diner?
✓ Answer
Harbor Me by Jacqueline Woodson
When Kira first braids Haley's hair and asks about her family, she realizes that Haley's mother was her old friend Beryl. The two women had been pregnant at the same time and went to a diner after their Lamaze classes together. This discovery gives Haley a precious connection to her dead mother through Holly's family.
