BookBrightABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSIn September 1935, ten-year-old Halle Newton lives on a farm in western New York, tending apple trees, doing chores, and racing home from the small country schoolhouse to spend afternoons with her best friend Thelma. That ordinary life falls apart when her mother starts coughing up blood and the family doctor says the word everyone in town fears: tuberculosis. Halle's mother is sent to the J. N. Adam Hospital, a sanatorium built high in the hills above Perrysburg, where in 1935 the only real treatment for TB is complete rest, good food, and hour after hour of sunlight and fresh air. Left at home with a father who has grown harsh and distant since her mother's illness began, Halle faces cruel classmates who call her a "filthy-lunger" and refuses to give up on seeing her mother again. When Halle's own health takes a dangerous turn, she ends up at the same hospital her mother is fighting to leave, and she has to find her own way to hold her family together.
Free Battle of the Books questions for Light and Air
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 Light and Air. 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 is a girl named Hallelujah Grace but called Glory by her mother?
✓ Answer
Light and Air by Mindy Nichols Wendell
Halle Newton does not advertise her full name, but she loves her mother's nickname for her, which comes from old hymns and from the blue morning glories on the porch railing. The name follows her all the way to the sanatorium, where a new friend tells her it is wonderful.
- First half
In what book does a patient learn by accident that she has pneumonia, not tuberculosis?
✓ Answer
Light and Air by Mindy Nichols Wendell
Nurse Beulah assumes Halle already knows and mentions it while explaining why she is kept away from the other children. Halle is terrified at first because her Gran died of pneumonia, until the nurse explains that she is young and strong and past the worst of it.
- First half
In what book does a girl taste sponge candy that melts on her tongue like dark honeycomb?
✓ Answer
Light and Air by Mindy Nichols Wendell
Rita gets fancy boxes of chocolates from her wealthy father and does not care for this one, so Flossie talks her into sharing with the new girl. It is a small peace offering in a room where Rita otherwise keeps her distance.
- Second half
In what book does a girl dressed as Greta Garbo keep saying, "I want to be alone"?
✓ Answer
Light and Air by Mindy Nichols Wendell
This bit of gossip comes in Thelma's first letter to Halle at the hospital. Their classmate Jennie dressed up as the movie star for Halloween with dramatic eyebrows drawn on in her mother's eye pencil, until the teacher made her quit. It is exactly the sort of small town news Halle is homesick for.
- Second half
In what book does a girl turn eleven on the eleventh day of the eleventh month?
✓ Answer
Light and Air by Mindy Nichols Wendell
Miss Tillson spots the date in Halle's records and makes a whole event of it, since the birthday lands on Armistice Day. Halle had completely forgotten her own birthday in the confusion of arriving at the hospital.
- Near the end
In what book does a father give his daughter a walnut box with a carved pencil groove?
✓ Answer
Light and Air by Mindy Nichols Wendell
Papa missed a whole week of visits because he was busy finishing Halle's late birthday present, which he made with his own hands. The box holds stationery from Thelma, and Halle finds her folder of paper dolls tucked underneath the writing paper.
