BookBright
ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSTwelve-year-old Christopher Forrester has always had a strange pull on animals: squirrels cluster around his feet, crows bring him coins, and swans follow him out of ponds. When his father sends him to spend the holidays with his grandfather Frank in the Scottish Highlands, Christopher is told to stay away from the hilltop lochan. He disobeys, and what he finds in the lake changes everything: a drowning griffin, a secret map of thirty-four hidden islands called the Archipelago, and a girl named Mal who has just survived a murder attempt and needs his help to get home.
Free Battle of the Books questions for Impossible Creatures
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 Impossible Creatures. 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 rescued animal vomit half-digested food onto a boy's sleeve right after he saves it?
✓ Answer
Impossible Creatures by Katherine Rundell
After Christopher hauls the baby griffin from the lake, it promptly throws up on his coat sleeve. The messy, funny moment marks the start of his fierce bond with Gelifen, whom he vows to protect.
- First half
In what book does a girl claim she is not a child because she moisturises her face every hour?
✓ Answer
Impossible Creatures by Katherine Rundell
Blocked from entering the Senate because children are forbidden, Mal insists she and Christopher are just short adults who moisturise hourly. Her bluffing fails to convince the guards, so they try to sneak in through a window instead.
- First half
In what book are a man's gold earrings called his coffin fund, worth enough to pay for his own burial?
✓ Answer
Impossible Creatures by Katherine Rundell
Anja teases Nighthand for carrying his death in his ears, but he calls it practical. His gold earrings are a Berserker tradition, valuable enough to buy a coffin and burial wherever he happens to die.
- Second half
In what book is a boy asked a riddle about two sisters, one giving birth to the other?
✓ Answer
Impossible Creatures by Katherine Rundell
Christopher is given the riddle of the two sisters and nearly panics before realizing the answer is day and night. Solving it lets the group pass the sphinxes' test.
- Second half
In what book does a boy climb a tree of solid gold and burn his hands snapping off its twigs?
✓ Answer
Impossible Creatures by Katherine Rundell
Christopher climbs the living gold tree to gather branches needed as a potion ingredient. The bark is burning hot from the sun, and he drops the twigs down to Mal.
- Near the end
In what book do dryads snap branches from their own trees to fuel a fire for a potion?
✓ Answer
Impossible Creatures by Katherine Rundell
The potion must be heated by dryad fire. Each dryad breaks off a branch and Erato, their queen, lights it with her own fingers, since dryad-wood only burns when a dryad sets it alight.
