BookBright
ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSTaylor Greer grows up dirt-poor in Pittman County, Kentucky, determined not to end up pregnant and trapped like so many girls around her. She saves enough money to buy a beat-up Volkswagen and drives west with no clear destination, planning to stop wherever the gas tank runs out. The tank dies in Taylorsville, Illinois, which is how she gets her new name. But the real surprise comes in Oklahoma, when a stranger on a dark Cherokee Nation reservation silently places a toddler in Taylor's car and walks away. The child is Cherokee, visibly abused, and has no one. Taylor drives on into Arizona with this small, silent girl she names Turtle, not sure what she has taken on but unable to leave the child behind.
Free Battle of the Books questions for The Bean Trees
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 Bean Trees. 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 the narrator rename herself based on wherever her gas tank runs out?
✓ Answer
The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver
Marietta Greer leaves Kentucky determined to start over, letting fate pick her new name. She coasts on fumes through several Illinois towns before reaching Taylorville, becoming Taylor Greer.
- First half
In what book does a cat scratch the carpet to bury invisible poop because of split personality?
✓ Answer
The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver
Lou Ann's cat is called both Snowboots and Pachuco, since she and Angel gave it different names. She believes the conflicting parental treatment is what makes the cat act out an imaginary burial routine on the rug.
- First half
In what book does an old woman wear red bobby pins and red patent leather shoes to dinner?
✓ Answer
The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver
Edna Poppy lugs the borrowed TV in for the dinner party. She is dressed entirely in red down to her shoes, and is the gentler counterpart to her bigoted housemate Virgie Mae Parsons.
- Second half
In what book do farm kids stain their hands black hulling walnuts in the road?
✓ Answer
The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver
Taylor explains to Estevan why the poor country kids in Pittman County were called Nutters. They earned money for school clothes by gathering walnuts, but the staining hulls marked their hands as a giveaway of their poverty.
- Second half
In what book does a market post a sign reading, "PLEASE DO NO STEAL ANY THING"?
✓ Answer
The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver
Lee Sing leaves her usual sign by the register when she goes to check on her century-old mother in the back. That mother is a figure no one in the neighborhood has laid eyes on for years.
- Near the end
In what book does a library encyclopedia reveal that wisteria roots host microscopic helper bugs called rhizobia?
✓ Answer
The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver
At the Oklahoma City library, Taylor reads to Turtle about how tiny rhizobia live in knots on wisteria roots and pull nitrogen out of the soil to fertilize the plant. Taylor compares this invisible support system to how her own community works.
