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ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSJessie Keyser is a thirteen-year-old girl living in the frontier village of Clifton, Indiana, in what she believes is the year 1840. She helps her mother, the village midwife, tend to neighbors and curious about the many small secrets the adults seem to share. When children in Clifton start falling sick with a mysterious illness, including her little sister Katie, Jessie's mother pulls her aside one night and tells her something that turns her whole world upside down: it is actually 1996, Clifton is a living history museum, and the children are dying of diphtheria while the museum's operators refuse to bring in modern medicine. With time running out for the sick children, Jessie must slip out of Clifton and find help in a world she has never seen before.
Free Battle of the Books questions for Running Out of Time
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 Running Out of Time. 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 discover that her entire village is actually a living history museum?
✓ Answer
Running Out of Time by Margaret Peterson Haddix
Ma takes Jessie to the King of the Mountain rock and reveals that Clifton is not a real 1840s village but a historical preserve where it is actually 1996. This is the central twist that changes everything Jessie thought she knew about her life.
- First half
In what book does a girl stow away in a bread delivery truck to escape past a guarded fence?
✓ Answer
Running Out of Time by Margaret Peterson Haddix
Jessie cannot get past the cameras on the tall fence or the guard at the gate. When a bread truck stops and its driver gets out to chat, she dashes to the back, opens the latch, and hides among racks of bread. The truck carries her right past the guardhouse.
- First half
In what book does a girl pick a papaya juice because it is prettier than the bottles of dark-colored soda?
✓ Answer
Running Out of Time by Margaret Peterson Haddix
Jessie has never heard of Coke or Pepsi and thinks they both look like cough syrup. She chooses a bottle of papaya fruit drink instead because it looks more appealing. It costs eighty-nine cents, which shocks her because in her world that amount would buy pounds of flour.
- Second half
In what book does a girl tell two strangers she is walking to lose weight?
✓ Answer
Running Out of Time by Margaret Peterson Haddix
When Jessie is cornered by Ray and Tol on the highway, she tries to get away by lying. She claims she lives in Waverly and is just out walking to lose weight, remembering the overweight environmentalist she met earlier. Tol pauses and says she isn't fat.
- Second half
In what book do two robins on a windowsill give a trapped girl an idea for escaping?
✓ Answer
Running Out of Time by Margaret Peterson Haddix
While Jessie is huddled by the locked door feeling hopeless, two robins chirp on the windowsill. She tells them to shut up, but when they return, she looks at the window and realizes it might still be unlocked from the night before. The window becomes her escape route.
- Near the end
In what book do reporters almost leave, thinking a news conference is a hoax by a kid?
✓ Answer
Running Out of Time by Margaret Peterson Haddix
When Jessie stands up and says she called the news conference, the reporters stare and start to leave, thinking it is a prank. One grumbles about wasting time, and Jessie feels like crying. Only her desperate plea about her sick sister and the other children keeps a few reporters listening.
