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ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSShiori, the only daughter of Kiata's emperor, has a secret she guards carefully: she can do magic, and magic is strictly forbidden in her kingdom. On the day of her betrothal ceremony, she dives into the Sacred Lake chasing her enchanted paper bird, Kiki, and encounters a young dragon named Seryu who gives her a fragment of his pearl. When Shiori spies on her mysterious stepmother, Raikama, and discovers that the woman harbors dark sorcery, she races to warn her brothers. But Raikama catches her before she can reach their father, and in a single terrifying confrontation, curses all six brothers into crimson-crowned cranes and exiles Shiori to a remote northern island with a walnut bowl locked over her head. The curse is brutal: every sound Shiori makes will kill one of her brothers. Now, voiceless and unknown, the princess must find a way to break the enchantment, weave a magical net from the deadly nettles of Mount Rayuna, and learn the truth about the stepmother she was so certain she understood.
Free Battle of the Books questions for Six Crimson Cranes
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 Six Crimson Cranes. 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 in a dragon mask steal a princess's bag of honeyed sweet potatoes?
✓ Answer
Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim
At the Summer Festival, a masked boy with green-streaked hair trips Shiori's brother and snatches her food. He turns out to be the dragon Seryu in human form.
- First half
In what book does a girl sail a tiny one-sail boat south through bitter cold to find her brothers?
✓ Answer
Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim
After leaving the island, Shiori buys a boat barely long enough to lie down in and braves the winter sea. She folds birds from dried kelp to keep her hands busy when she is not rowing.
- First half
In what book does a girl strip leaves and pound thorns off nettles until they become threads of starlight?
✓ Answer
Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim
After hours of work, Shiori learns that removing every leaf and thorn turns the burning nettles into shimmering threads called the blood of stars. She needs hundreds for the net.
- Second half
In what book do a girl and an injured lord stand back to back as wolves circle them?
✓ Answer
Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim
Returning from the plum grove, Shiori and Takkan are surrounded by wolves. She refuses to flee and fights alongside him, even though he is still weak from his earlier wounds.
- Second half
In what book is an old guard found dead in the snow with blackened lips from poison?
✓ Answer
Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim
Oriyu, the old sentinel, is discovered dead with blackened lips. Shiori recognizes the poison Four Breaths, which turns the victim's lips black within an hour of drinking it.
- Near the end
In what book does a girl block a sentinel's horse and empty every hunter's quiver of arrows?
✓ Answer
Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim
To save her brothers from being shot during the hunt, Shiori interrupts the riders, flings Pao's bow into the snow, and races from horse to horse stealing their arrows.
