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ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSSafiyyah is an eleven-year-old girl who lives with her family in an apartment inside the Grand Mosque of Paris, where her father, Baba, works alongside the mosque's rector, Ammo Kader. She spends her free afternoons at the library with the librarian Madame Odette, studying maps and atlases and dreaming of becoming an explorer. When Germany invades France in the summer of 1940, that dream gets pushed aside. Paris is bombed, her best friend Isabelle flees the city, and her father starts acting strangely, locking his office door and sneaking out of the apartment after dark. Safiyyah is determined to find out what Baba is hiding, even if uncovering the truth means putting herself in danger under the watchful eyes of the German soldiers now patrolling her streets.
Free Battle of the Books questions for Safiyyah's War
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 Safiyyah's War. 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 crowd turned away from a packed shelter shout "To the Métro!"?
✓ Answer
Safiyyah's War by Hiba Noor Khan
Safiyyah is alone on the street when the sirens sound during the first bombing of Paris, and a red-haired stranger pulls her along with the running crowd. She never reaches the steps, because someone running the other way knocks her to the ground beside a tree, and then a blast slams her down again.
- First half
In what book does a lost cat wear a gold coin engraved with the name of a street?
✓ Answer
Safiyyah's War by Hiba Noor Khan
Safiyyah feels the coin on a thin satiny ribbon hidden under the animal's thick white fur and uses it to track down the right address. The house turns out to be boarded up and empty, because its wealthy owners have already fled the city.
- First half
In what book does a duck egg blue typewriter lie on the floor with two keys broken off?
✓ Answer
Safiyyah's War by Hiba Noor Khan
Soldiers have raided Monsieur Cassin's home and carried off his finished manuscript, snapping the O and P keys in the process. He is a Jewish academic, and the Nazis have been seizing the work of scholars like him across occupied Europe.
- Second half
In what book are names hidden inside cigarette papers and slipped to a man in a bowler hat?
✓ Answer
Safiyyah's War by Hiba Noor Khan
Baba writes the names of Jews who need help inside the papers, rolls the cigarettes back up and sticks them shut. Safiyyah drops the packet by an American man's café table and hands it back as though it had always been his.
- Second half
In what book does a filthy, silent child arrive swallowed up in a man's long black coat?
✓ Answer
Safiyyah's War by Hiba Noor Khan
Baba finds Hana hiding alone in the attic of a derelict building and brings her home in his own duffel coat. Only when she finally sees the girl's face does Safiyyah realise the stranger is her classmate.
- Near the end
In what book do oranges and lemons burst from a dropped box and roll across the snow?
✓ Answer
Safiyyah's War by Hiba Noor Khan
A trader knocks over a crate while haggling at the illegal market, and the fruit glows against the white ground. Safiyyah dives on two oranges before anyone else can reach them.
