BookBright
ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSTwelve-year-old Tee has been dragged to Nome, Alaska, while her father researches a book about sled dogs, and she's stuck playing caretaker to her little brother Jack. On her first hike with her beagle Henry, something unseen in the wilderness terrifies the dog, leaving him shaking and subdued. When the daughter of her father's research assistant, a sharp, bookish girl named Quin, tells Tee that locals call this presence Shadow, a dark figure people have glimpsed near the old trees along Dorothy Creek for decades, the two girls set out to find it. What they discover in a ruined cabin deep in the brush is something between a ghost and a living dog, a black husky with pale blue eyes who seems to want something from them but cannot quite let them in.
Free Battle of the Books questions for Legend of the Ghost Dog
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 Legend of the Ghost Dog. 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 brother home from Vietnam lunge at a frightened pup and get bitten on the arm?
✓ Answer
Legend of the Ghost Dog by Elizabeth Cody Kimmel
Jim returns from the war shaken and forgets how to read frightened animals. When he grabs at the wounded pup, the dog snarls, leaps, and bites his arm. The moment changes the family's relationship with the dog forever.
- First half
In what book does a girl describe a creek where miners panned for gold and people have spotted a wraith?
✓ Answer
Legend of the Ghost Dog by Elizabeth Cody Kimmel
Quin explains that Dorothy Creek is dotted with abandoned mining cabins from the gold rush, and that locals tell of a phantom seen most often when the northern lights are out. This sets up the central mystery of the book.
- First half
In what book does a girl sweet talk a snarling animal saying, "It's okay, boy. We're friends"?
✓ Answer
Legend of the Ghost Dog by Elizabeth Cody Kimmel
Quin calmly speaks to the snarling animal as she takes one suicidal step after another forward. Her unusual way with dogs keeps the creature from attacking while Tee braces for the worst.
- Second half
In what book does a girl say her father is stuck, waiting for the lightning bolt of inspiration?
✓ Answer
Legend of the Ghost Dog by Elizabeth Cody Kimmel
Tee tells Quin that her father has hit a wall on his book about people and dogs in Alaska. He has gone through the letters and clippings at the historical society in Nome, and he is still waiting for the lightning bolt of inspiration.
- Second half
In what book does an oversized mailbox by a friend's front walkway read "The Hendersons" beside a weather-beaten wooden house?
✓ Answer
Legend of the Ghost Dog by Elizabeth Cody Kimmel
When Tee arrives at Quin's house for dinner, she notices the simple one-story home and the oversized mailbox labeled with the family name. The detail makes the house feel cozy and welcoming, like the beach houses she remembers from Cape Cod.
- Near the end
In what book are three children rescued from a freezing cabin by a tiny birdlike woman with iron gray hair?
✓ Answer
Legend of the Ghost Dog by Elizabeth Cody Kimmel
After the spectral animal leads them out of the storm-buried cabin, Tee and the others follow a small figure through the snow. They reach a warm cottage where the rescuer is revealed to be a small woman with iron gray hair and a weather-creased face.
