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ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSLola de La Peña, called Loli by her family, spends her days playing the obedient señorita while her mother heals a line of desperate travelers with sal negra, a strange black salt with real healing magic that the family found after settling in Coloma, Alta California, in 1848. At night Loli sheds her dress for riding pants and a black mask and becomes Salvación, a masked rider who drives off anyone who threatens the town, working alongside her older brother Víctor, the only person besides her parents who knows her secret. Life in Coloma is already fragile, with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo freshly signed and Yankee newcomers starting to circle the family's salt claim, when a smooth-talking stranger named Damián Hernández rides in with fifty armed men, wagons of food, and a promise to win Alta California back for México. Loli distrusts him from the start, but her father welcomes him as a guest, and Loli soon realizes that protecting her family, her mother's calling, and the whole town may mean facing down a man far more dangerous than anyone Salvación has stopped before.
Free Battle of the Books questions for Salvación
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 Salvación. 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 do a woman's gloves come off to reveal fingertips stained red?
✓ Answer
Salvación by Sandra Proudman
Mamá's own hands are stained black from sal negra, so the red on the unconscious stranger is instantly frightening. It is the family's first glimpse of sal roja, the salt that destroys instead of heals.
- First half
In what book do a brother and sister invent a masked protector one night while looking at the moon?
✓ Answer
Salvación by Sandra Proudman
Lola and Víctor dreamed up the disguise together, tucked under a starry sky and wondering what was out there. She admits she was never good at anything that needed more planning than action, which is why she keeps needing her brother back.
- First half
In what book does a girl pull a box of pistols from the base of an old mirror?
✓ Answer
Salvación by Sandra Proudman
Lola goes for the pistols Abuelito gave Papá because she believes they carry luck, even though everyone assumes they will be Víctor's one day. Mamá catches her in the act and yanks the box straight out of her hands.
- Second half
In what book does a boy promise not to go easy on a girl before their horse race?
✓ Answer
Salvación by Sandra Proudman
Lola challenges Alejandro to race across the valley at sunrise, and Carisma runs him down at the very end. For a few minutes the two of them forget they are supposed to be enemies.
- Second half
In what book does an arrow strike the ground and pinch a girl's ear as a warning?
✓ Answer
Salvación by Sandra Proudman
The shot comes when Lola steps too close to the edge of the scorch. The Indigenous man who fired it turns out to be the one person who knows how to stop the spread.
- Near the end
In what book does a glowing path lead three teenagers to a cliff they have to jump from?
✓ Answer
Salvación by Sandra Proudman
The red light runs straight over the edge into pitch darkness, and Alejandro argues the path would not lead anywhere they could not survive. Lola stops arguing and jumps first.
