BookBright
ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSBadger is a badger who works as a rock scientist. He lives alone in his Aunt Lula's brownstone in the town of North Twist. He spends his days behind the pocket doors of his rock room, doing what he calls Important Rock Work. He likes his quiet life just the way it is. Then one day a cheerful, chatty skunk named Skunk shows up on the doorstep. Skunk carries a small red suitcase tied shut with twine. He says Aunt Lula sent him, and that he is Badger's new roommate. Badger never wanted a roommate. He especially did not want one who cooks big breakfasts, interrupts his rock work, and seems to know every chicken in town. As Skunk settles in, the quiet brownstone fills up with noise, mess, and surprises. Badger has to decide how much room he is willing to make for someone so different from himself.
Free Battle of the Books questions for Skunk and Badger
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 Skunk and Badger. 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 small potato shoot across the kitchen and earn the name Rocket Potato?
✓ Answer
Skunk and Badger by Amy Timberlake
Skunk gives a bowl of potatoes a shake and one flies loose across the room. He says he will get it later, so Rocket Potato settles into its own corner of the kitchen and stays there for a long while.
- First half
In what book does a roommate offer chamomile tea to someone who looks prickly?
✓ Answer
Skunk and Badger by Amy Timberlake
Badger has just ordered Skunk to leave him alone, and Skunk answers by suggesting a soothing tea. He decides it might be too late for chamomile, then says goodbye. Meeting grumpiness with kindness is what slowly wears Badger down.
- First half
In what book does a roommate ask to hear the story of the Touring Pegmatic Rock?
✓ Answer
Skunk and Badger by Amy Timberlake
Badger identified his troublesome specimen as tourmaline pegmatite, and at lunch the next day Skunk cheerfully mangles the name. Badger tells him about fire, lava, and magma deep inside the Earth, and Skunk hangs on every word.
- Second half
In what book does someone point at four fleshy birds and insist, "Those are turkeys"?
✓ Answer
Skunk and Badger by Amy Timberlake
Badger crosses his arms and points at four sunbaked birds, certain they are turkeys. Skunk corrects him at once, because they are Transylvania Naked Neck chickens, and Skunk names chicken breeds the way Badger names rocks.
- Second half
In what book does a wise green parakeet give a hen a magic kernel of corn?
✓ Answer
Skunk and Badger by Amy Timberlake
On her long journey Chicken Little gets past starlings, tricky frogs, and battling army ants before she meets the parakeet. She is told to eat the kernel in a Time of Need, and saving it is what lets her bring back the Quantum Leap.
- Near the end
In what book does someone walk all over town in pickaxe-and-dynamite pajamas?
✓ Answer
Skunk and Badger by Amy Timberlake
Badger rushes out of the brownstone in such a hurry that he forgets to change out of his loud pajamas. He decides they are at least nonrestrictive and sweat wicking, and keeps searching North Twist all day anyway.
