BookBright
ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSMolly Ayer is a seventeen-year-old Penobscot Indian living in foster care in Spruce Harbor, Maine, who is caught trying to steal a worn copy of Jane Eyre from the public library. To avoid juvenile detention, she arranges to complete fifty hours of community service cleaning out the attic of Vivian Daly, a ninety-one-year-old woman who lives alone in a large Victorian house on the coast. As Molly sorts through boxes packed with old clothes, letters, and keepsakes, Vivian begins to open up about a life full of secrets, and the two discover they have more in common than either expected.
Free Battle of the Books questions for Orphan Train
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 Orphan Train. 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 chaperone's black cape drape like the wings of a crow?
✓ Answer
Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline
Mrs. Scatcherd stands at the front of the train car in her black cape, giving the children strict rules about behavior. She is one of the sponsors who escorts the orphan train children westward, and her imposing appearance makes her far more intimidating than Mr. Curran.
- First half
In what book does a man trick squirrels into showing themselves by clicking two coins together?
✓ Answer
Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline
Mr. Grote is a woodsman who lives off the land. He hunts red, fox, and gray squirrels to feed his family. He shows Dorothy that clicking two coins together mimics the squirrels' chatter, which tricks them into revealing themselves in the trees.
- First half
In what book does a teacher surprise a girl with currant bread and have the whole class sing happy birthday?
✓ Answer
Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline
Miss Larsen sends Dorothy out to the porch for firewood, and when she comes back the entire class is standing and singing happy birthday. Miss Larsen found the date in Dorothy's paperwork and asked her landlady to bake currant bread. Dorothy is moved to tears because nobody at home remembered.
- Second half
In what book does a girl find an obituary for a long-lost sister who died just five months earlier?
✓ Answer
Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline
Molly discovers that Vivian's baby sister Maisie, who was adopted as Margaret, lived to be eighty-three years old but died just five months before Molly found her. Lost, found, and lost again. Molly struggles with how to tell Vivian.
- Second half
In what book does a landlady declare, "You're as handy as a pocket in a shirt"?
✓ Answer
Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline
Mrs. Murphy says this when she catches Vivian mending a dress with the needle and thread Fanny gave her. It's a sign of how well Vivian is settling in at the boardinghouse, using her sewing skills to fix clothes from the lost-and-found trunk.
- Near the end
In what book does a man describe being traded from one farmer to another in exchange for a pig?
✓ Answer
Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline
Dutchy tells Vivian how after running away multiple times from an abusive farmer, a neighbor traded a pig for him. The neighbor sent him to school and got his dusty piano tuned, which changed his life. Dutchy jokes that the pig was massive, so it was a worthy trade.
