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ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSHuck Finn is a scrappy thirteen-year-old in a small Missouri river town who has been taken in by the Widow Douglas and her sister Miss Watson after his drunken, abusive father disappeared. Just as Huck starts to adjust to school and rules and regular meals, his father shows up and drags him off to a remote cabin across the river, locking him in and beating him when drunk. When pap's violence gets bad enough, Huck stages his own murder and escapes by raft — only to discover, on a nearby island, that Miss Watson's enslaved man Jim has also run away, having overheard that he was about to be sold south. The two of them set off down the Mississippi together, hoping to reach the free states, and everything that happens to them on that river will test what Huck truly believes about loyalty, right and wrong, and what it means to be a friend.
Free Battle of the Books questions for The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
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 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. 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 two runaways find a floating frame house with a dead man shot in the back inside?
✓ Answer
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
During a flood, the pair paddle out to a two-story house drifting downriver and climb in through an upstairs window. Jim covers the dead man's face with rags so the boy will not see it, and only much later is it revealed who the dead man was.
- First half
In what book does a man named Boggs ride into an Arkansas town drunk, threatening to kill Colonel Sherburn?
✓ Answer
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Old Boggs rides in for his monthly drunk and curses Colonel Sherburn outside the biggest store in town. Sherburn warns him he will endure it only until one o'clock, then steps out into the street and shoots him dead before his daughter can reach him.
- First half
In what book does a freedom seeker confess he once slapped his deaf little daughter for not shutting a door?
✓ Answer
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Jim tearfully tells about hitting his little 'Lizabeth before realizing she had gone deaf from scarlet fever and could not hear him. The narrator says he believes Jim cares for his family as much as white folks do for theirs, a quiet but important moment.
- Second half
In what book does a mob dig up a coffin in a graveyard during a thunderstorm?
✓ Answer
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
To settle the dispute between two pairs of supposed Wilks brothers, the lawyer Levi Bell proposes digging up the corpse to look for the tattoo. The townspeople march to the graveyard in a lightning storm and find the bag of gold on the dead man's breast.
- Second half
In what book does a king sell a runaway companion for forty dirty dollars?
✓ Answer
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
The king sells his chance in Jim for forty dollars because he has to go up the river and cannot wait for the two hundred dollar reward, then loses most of the money to loafers in a Pikesville doggery. The narrator returns to find the raft empty and sets out to rescue Jim from Silas Phelps's plantation.
- Near the end
In what book does a fanciful boy demand they dig a captive out with case-knives instead of pickaxes?
✓ Answer
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Tom insists they dig Jim out with case-knives the way the best authorities do in prison stories. After a night of digging that leaves their hands blistered, he relents and lets them use picks while pretending the picks are case-knives.
