BookBright
ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSMatilda Wormwood is a remarkably gifted five-year-old who taught herself to read by age three and has already worked through most of the adult classics in the public library, yet her parents think books are a waste of time and treat her like a nuisance. Left alone in the house most afternoons while her mother plays bingo, Matilda finds her way to the village library and a kind librarian named Mrs. Phelps, but at home she faces a father who cheats his customers and a mother who values looks over learning. When Matilda finally starts school, she discovers a warm and brilliant teacher named Miss Honey who immediately recognizes her genius, and a monstrous headmistress named Miss Trunchbull who terrorizes the entire school. The story follows Matilda as she uses her quick mind, her courage, and a mysterious new power she discovers inside herself to fight back against the adults who underestimate and mistreat her.
Free Battle of the Books questions for Matilda
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 Matilda. 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 glue her father's pork-pie hat to his head?
✓ Answer
Matilda by Roald Dahl
Matilda squeezes Superglue around the inside rim of her father's favourite flat-topped hat as her first act of revenge. He cannot get it off and has to sleep in it.
- First half
In what book is there a tall narrow cupboard with broken glass on the walls and nails on the door?
✓ Answer
Matilda by Roald Dahl
The dreaded Chokey has a floor only ten inches square, so a child cannot sit or lean. Miss Trunchbull locks pupils inside it as punishment.
- First half
In what book does a shrivelled cook stagger onto a stage carrying an eighteen-inch chocolate cake on a china platter?
✓ Answer
Matilda by Roald Dahl
The cook is described as a tall shrivelled female whose body-juices seem dried out in a hot oven. She delivers the enormous cake that Bruce Bogtrotter is forced to eat.
- Second half
In what book do the children learn to spell hard words by singing "Mrs D, Mrs I, Mrs FFI"?
✓ Answer
Matilda by Roald Dahl
Miss Honey teaches her class to spell "difficulty" with this silly song about married women. Nigel proudly recites it for Miss Trunchbull, who finds the method perfectly ridiculous.
- Second half
In what book does a small girl whisper "Tip it!" at a glass on a teacher's desk?
✓ Answer
Matilda by Roald Dahl
Matilda whispers this command while staring at the glass holding the newt. Millions of invisible little arms seem to shoot from her eyes until the glass topples over and the water and newt splash all over the headmistress.
- Near the end
In what book does a teacher live in a crumbly red-brick cottage that looks like a doll's house?
✓ Answer
Matilda by Roald Dahl
Miss Honey's farm-labourer cottage is so small it looks more like a doll's house than a human home. An enormous oak tree shelters it from the rest of the world.
