BookBright
ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSLook Both Ways is a collection of ten interconnected stories, each following different students from Latimer Middle School on the same afternoon as they walk home through their neighborhood. The book isn't a single protagonist's story but a neighborhood portrait: a girl recovering from a sickle cell crisis and her booger-philosophizing best friend, four cash-strapped kids who hustle candy to buy their sick mom ice cream, a skater girl carrying grief over her sister's death, a boy paralyzed by anxiety over his mom's safety, a girl who catalogs the ordinary world in a notebook, a gaming genius navigating a brutal rumor, and others. Each story covers roughly one block of the walk home, and the accounts quietly overlap and connect across all ten chapters.
Free Battle of the Books questions for Look Both Ways
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 Look Both Ways. 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 do kids bring vanilla ice cream home to a mom on chemo?
✓ Answer
Look Both Ways by Jason Reynolds
Bit's mother has relapsed and is back on chemo, which is leaving her queasy. He and his crew turn ninety cents into ice cream with sprinkles so she has something cold and sweet on her hardest day.
- First half
In what book do bullies yank a boy's tie so hard he ends up cutting it off?
✓ Answer
Look Both Ways by Jason Reynolds
Marcus and his boys play a game they call Snatch the tail off the donkey on Stevie. He buries the cut tie in his bag like a dead fabric snake and tells his mom he lost it.
- First half
In what book does a boy show up at his friend's door bleeding from rose thorns?
✓ Answer
Look Both Ways by Jason Reynolds
Bryson opens the front door to find Ty out of breath with mangled red flowers in his shaking palm. Ty brings them because Bryson got jumped on Burman Street the day before for sticking up for him at lunch.
- Second half
In what book does a kid steal a newspaper and a lighter from a store owner just out of loyalty?
✓ Answer
Look Both Ways by Jason Reynolds
After Fredo cracks a joke about Simeon's mother, Kenzi reaches over the counter and snatches the newspaper and lighter, scolding Fredo about cigarettes. It is petty payback between friends who actually like each other.
- Second half
In what book does a kid believe an old woman mixes tobacco spit into her dog's food?
✓ Answer
Look Both Ways by Jason Reynolds
Satchmo recalls neighborhood rumors that Ms. Adams flavored Brutus's meals with her tobacco juice. It's part of why he sees the dog and its owner as terrifying.
- Near the end
In what book does a school custodian make a kid an emotional support pet out of a broom head?
✓ Answer
Look Both Ways by Jason Reynolds
Mr. Munch detaches the bristles from his push broom, draws on eyes and a mouth, and glues on dust-cloth ears for Canton. He hands it over after Canton has a panic attack about his mother's safety.
