BookBright
ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSTwelve-year-old Mavis Elizabeth Betterly, known as May B., loves school and dreams of one day becoming a teacher, but when her family's wheat crop fails on the Kansas frontier, her father pulls her from school and sends her to help a newly married couple fifteen miles west. May has always struggled to read, and leaving school feels like the end of her hopes. She arrives at the Oblingers' small soddy expecting to work through Christmas, but the young Mrs. Oblinger is miserable on the open prairie, and May quickly senses that something is very wrong.
Free Battle of the Books questions for May B.
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 May B.. 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 two siblings bet their Christmas candy on who will spot the horizon first?
✓ Answer
May B. by Caroline Starr Rose
Before May leaves with Pa, Hiram takes her to the gentle rise where wildflowers grow. They shake hands on a bet. Whoever first sees where the earth touches sky wins the other's Christmas candy. It's a sweet goodbye between siblings.
- First half
In what book does a girl run across empty prairie until a sod house is just a tiny speck?
✓ Answer
May B. by Caroline Starr Rose
Overwhelmed by being abandoned, May pushes open the door and runs and runs until the soddy is just a speck. But then she realizes there are no trees, no stones, no wagon ruts to guide her. She turns back, knowing she must stay close or lose her way.
- First half
In what book does a girl find deep yellow scratches on a door and tracks in a moonlit garden?
✓ Answer
May B. by Caroline Starr Rose
May hears rasping and whining outside the door at night. When she cracks it open, she sees deep yellow scratches cut into the wood and tracks at the edge of the moonlit garden. A wolf has visited. May realizes she is not alone after all, but not in a comforting way.
- Second half
In what book does a girl sweep a wet finger under a cornmeal sack for a few more grains?
✓ Answer
May B. by Caroline Starr Rose
May's food supply is running dangerously low. She obsessively checks her rations and runs a wet finger under the cornmeal sack to gather every last grain, showing how desperate her hunger has become.
- Second half
In what book does a girl use scissors from a sewing box to chop off her own hair?
✓ Answer
May B. by Caroline Starr Rose
May finds scissors in Mrs. Oblinger's sewing box and cuts her hair short and jagged in front of a tiny looking glass. Unlike everything else in her life, this is something she chose to do, not something forced on her.
- Near the end
In what book does a girl open her reader and find an empty space where she ripped out pages?
✓ Answer
May B. by Caroline Starr Rose
When May sits down to read again, the pages fall open to a gap in the center where she tore out poems and burned them in despair. She flips through to see which pieces remain, including most of the poem that once defeated her.
