BookBright
ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSStella Martinez can't wait to start fifth grade with her best friends, Latasha and Emiko, and on the first day the three find their desks side by side in Miss Marin's class. They all love Witchlins, a TV show about witches, and Stella also loves drawing, churros and her big brown dog, Oz. But fifth grade is full of reading, and reading takes Stella much longer than everyone else. She keeps finishing last, even though she gets a perfect score on the first-day math assessment. Soon Witchlins announces a new online game that goes live the same day as a new guidebook full of tips, and the guidebook is crammed with words and has hardly any pictures. As her friends race ahead in the game, Stella falls behind and keeps her reading trouble a secret. On top of that, her class has to write stories for the Young Authors Competition, when Stella would much rather draw. Bright, full-color comic panels tell this warm, funny story about dyslexia, friendship and finding your own way.
Free Battle of the Books questions for Mixed-Up
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 Mixed-Up. 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 miss the word "not" on her school supply list?
✓ Answer
Mixed-Up by Kami Garcia
The supply list says to bring a silent reading book you have not read before, but Stella planned to bring one her class read last year. She wonders how she missed the word not when she looked at the list twice.
- First half
In what book does a girl guess a pioneer woman is helping a bandit because a heading says "friends"?
✓ Answer
Mixed-Up by Kami Garcia
Stella doesn't get through all the text on a textbook page about traveling west, which says wagon trains were often attacked by bandits. She spots the word friends in the heading and a picture of a man taking a woman's trunk, so she guesses the woman must be helping him.
- First half
In what book does a girl exchange frogs for a speed potion in an online witch game?
✓ Answer
Mixed-Up by Kami Garcia
On Monday, the kids compare how far they've gotten in the new Witchlins game, and one girl says she exchanged frogs for a speed potion. Stella privately admits she hasn't even read the first chapter of the guidebook.
- Second half
In what book does a girl apologize for disrupting Science class, only to hear she's not in trouble?
✓ Answer
Mixed-Up by Kami Garcia
Stella waits in the hallway, sure she's in a lot of trouble because her parents have been talking with Miss Marin for twenty minutes. Miss Marin invites her in and tells her she isn't in trouble and that they want to talk about how she's doing in school.
- Second half
In what book does a girl choose forty-four sounds and six syllable types over every word in the world?
✓ Answer
Mixed-Up by Kami Garcia
Stella works every day with Mrs. Wukitch on the Wilson Reading System. Mrs. Wukitch offers to teach her either every word in the world or forty-four sounds and six syllable types she can use to read most words, and Stella picks the sounds.
- Near the end
In what book does a witch in a girl's comic fail to magically fill her cat's empty dinner bowl?
✓ Answer
Mixed-Up by Kami Garcia
In the graphic novel Stella draws, her witch Stel says "Dinner is served" for her black cat Mortimer, but the bowl stays empty. Stel cries "Not again!" and asks Mortimer what is happening to her magic.
