BookBright
ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSCooper Dale is a Black fifth grader in Pittsburgh during the 1963 to 1964 school year, telling her story in short, first person poems. She wants to "shine," as her mother puts it, but her new teacher has a reputation as the strictest in the school, and a classmate named Wade Carter has taunted her with cruel nicknames since second grade. Cooper loves her family, her Sunday visits to her grandparents, and her closeness with her cousin Kate, but she also wrestles with wanting, at times, to look and be treated like the white kids around her. When she quietly colors a library book's illustration to match her own skin, she gets in serious trouble with her teacher, and the fallout shapes how she sees herself, her classmates, and the adults around her for the rest of the year. Real events of the era, including the assassination of President Kennedy and the arrival of the Beatles on American television, unfold alongside her struggles with a bully, a demanding teacher, and what it really means to shine.
Free Battle of the Books questions for Radiant
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 Radiant. 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 boy who mocks a girl's brown skin come back from vacation with a tan?
✓ Answer
Radiant by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson
Wade Carter has taunted Cooper about her brown skin since second grade, and their desks sit right beside each other. What confuses Cooper most is that Wade brags about the suntan he got on vacation.
- First half
In what book is a street so quiet that a girl can hear the last leaves falling?
✓ Answer
Radiant by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson
Nobody comes outside the weekend the president is killed because everyone is glued to the television, hoping Walter Cronkite will say it was all a mistake. Cooper imagines the whole country holding in one breath that would come out as a scream.
- First half
In what book does a girl get the red and silver transistor radio she wanted for Christmas?
✓ Answer
Radiant by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson
Everyone in Cooper's family gets new pajamas and one special gift, and hers is the radio her big brother and sister already own. It comes with a little earphone so she can listen in bed without bothering Maxine, and it is how she first hears the Beatles.
- Second half
In what book does a boy choose an African name for himself because it means wise?
✓ Answer
Radiant by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson
Robert introduces himself and explains that he picked the name Hakim himself. Cooper decides he sounds like someone who wants to shine, the same thing her mother is always telling her to do.
- Second half
In what book do nine puppies charge onto a lawn and chew a girl's pigtails and ears?
✓ Answer
Radiant by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson
Cooper and her cousin Kate wait in the grass while Pap opens the pen, and the Brittany spaniel puppies swarm them with needle teeth and sweet puppy breath. Cooper calls the whole experience heaven.
- Near the end
In what book is a girl told to walk home with a sad classmate instead of riding the bus?
✓ Answer
Radiant by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson
Mrs. Keating hands Cooper a note from her mother telling her to go to the Carters' house after school. Cooper's stomach turns, because the classmate she has to walk with is Wade, the boy who has bullied her all year.
