BookBright
ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSLaura Ingalls is seven years old when her family trades their horses and wagon cover to a Norwegian settler named Hanson for a dugout home dug into the bank of Plum Creek in Minnesota. Pa is certain the flat, treeless prairie will grow a wheat crop that will make them rich enough for a real house, horses, and everything the family has been doing without. In the meantime, Laura and her sister Mary wade in the creek, drive the cow to meet the herd each morning, start school in the nearby town, and discover that prairie life brings surprises, dangers, and neighbors both kind and unkind.
Free Battle of the Books questions for On the Banks of Plum Creek
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 On the Banks of Plum Creek. 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 family live in a dugout with morning-glory vines over the door?
✓ Answer
On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder
The Ingalls family moves into the dugout that Mr. Hanson had built into the bank. Morning glories of every color grow above the door, and the roof is covered in growing grass that hides the house entirely.
- First half
In what book does a father build a new house on a knoll with glass windows and boughten shingles?
✓ Answer
On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Pa borrows lumber on credit against the wheat harvest and builds a wonderful new house with sawed lumber walls. Laura and Mary watch every step and gather curly shavings to wear as earrings.
- First half
In what book does a snobby town girl show her classmates a wax doll that cries "Mamma" when squeezed?
✓ Answer
On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder
At her party in town, Nellie shows off her marvelous wax doll with real golden hair and blue silk dress. When she punches its stomach hard, the doll cries out, but she screams when Laura reaches a finger toward the silk.
- Second half
In what book does a girl receive a father's first letter with five dollars folded inside?
✓ Answer
On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder
After weeks of dread, Mr. Nelson finally brings a letter from Pa. Ma's shaking hands open it to find five dollars inside, proof that Pa is safe and earning a dollar a day in the wheat fields back east.
- Second half
In what book does a teacher hand a young girl a china jewel-box topped with a gold teapot?
✓ Answer
On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Miss Beadle gives Laura the gleaming white box with a wee gold teapot, cup, and saucer on its lid. Ma explains it is for keeping a breast-pin someday, and it sits proudly on the family's shelf.
- Near the end
In what book do insects march together shoulder to shoulder, all heading only west?
✓ Answer
On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder
After hatching the next summer, the brown grasshoppers all begin a strange march. Crowded shoulder to shoulder, they pour over the house, the stable, and even into the windows, refusing to turn aside for anything.
