BookBright
ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSTwelve-year-old Sarah Stickley Lawson, who goes by Stick, is an aspiring scientist on Hatteras Island, North Carolina, where she and her two best friends, Neb and Rain, run a detective agency called the Dime Novel Kids out of an abandoned lighthouse. Life on the island feels steady until January 1942, when Stick spots strange flashes out at sea just before a ship explodes offshore, the first sign that German U-boats have found their coastline. As ships keep burning within sight of the beach and her father sails off on what he promises is one last trading trip before the war changes everything, Stick and her friends turn their amateur spy skills on the real thing: a suspicious new postmistress, a pair of mysterious "artists" renting a shack in town, and two baseball players who showed up out of nowhere. The deeper the Dimes dig, the more they realize almost nobody on their small, tight-knit island is exactly who they claim to be.
Free Battle of the Books questions for Island of Spies
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 Island of Spies. 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 tell a bully the bottle he is tossing is nitroglycerin?
✓ Answer
Island of Spies by Sheila Turnage
Otto grabs Stick's unmarked bottle of distilled water and juggles it hand to hand, so Rain calmly warns him he could blow them all up. He lowers it very gently, which was exactly her point.
- First half
In what book does a girl snuff a candle with an upside-down jar in a water pan?
✓ Answer
Island of Spies by Sheila Turnage
Stick is secretly terrified of the dark, so she invented the Stick-O-Matic, which burns until the flame eats the oxygen and goes out on its own. She is certain she will patent it and make a fortune.
- First half
In what book does a wounded teacher pull glass from her leg and then ring the bell?
✓ Answer
Island of Spies by Sheila Turnage
A torpedo strike close to shore blows out the schoolhouse windows in the middle of the dinner hour. Miss Pope gets every child into the hallway, then rides the bell rope to warn the whole village with blood running into her shoe.
- Second half
In what book does a woman tell three children, "I can shoot you or recruit you"?
✓ Answer
Island of Spies by Sheila Turnage
Miss Agnes catches the Dimes red-handed in her parlor and snaps a photo of them with their sooty hands raised. She then blackmails them into becoming her underlings, handing out the code names Red Dime, Bristly Dime, and Little Dime.
- Second half
In what book does a man in dress blues take off his white hat at the door?
✓ Answer
Island of Spies by Sheila Turnage
Mr. Mac comes to the Lawsons' front door in uniform to report that Stick's father, James, is missing after his sloop went down near Wilmington. Stick refuses to believe it and runs to the ocean shouting for the sea to give him back.
- Near the end
In what book does a teenager pass off sticks as shotguns to scare a torch-lit mob?
✓ Answer
Island of Spies by Sheila Turnage
When a crowd surrounds Miss Jonah's fire chanting accusations, Faye's Brigade steps out of the dark with what look like guns across their chests. Faye later admits they are only sticks, and that she stationed the girls far back so nobody could tell.
