BookBright
ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSArrietty Clock is a tiny girl who lives with her parents, Pod and Homily, beneath the floorboards of an old English country house. Like all Borrowers, her family survives by quietly taking small items from the human household above: a postage stamp for wall decor, a thimble for a cooking pot, a chess piece for a pedestal table. Arrietty has spent her whole life in dim passages and candlelit rooms, gazing at the outside world through an iron grating, and she is desperate to see something more. When her cautious father finally agrees to take her on a borrowing run, she slips away from the front step and comes face to face with a boy who can see her, and who changes everything.
Free Battle of the Books questions for The Borrowers
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 Borrowers. 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 is a young girl named Eggletina lost forever after she sneaks upstairs in yellow kid button-boots?
✓ Answer
The Borrowers by Mary Norton
Eggletina, Hendreary's daughter, went out through an unlocked gate after being told the sky was nailed up with cracks. She wore a blue dress and the lovely button-boots her uncle made with jet beads, but never came back. A cat had been brought in after her father was seen.
- First half
In what book does a girl press her face to a small iron grille in a moss-stained brick wall?
✓ Answer
The Borrowers by Mary Norton
Outside for the first time, Arrietty runs around the corner of the house to her own grating and calls her mother through it. Homily comes carrying a pickle-jar lid full of soapy water to throw out.
- First half
In what book does a boy threaten to hit a tiny girl with his ash stick?
✓ Answer
The Borrowers by Mary Norton
When the boy first sees Arrietty he whispers threats about his ash stick, saying he has seen things in India that ran and scrabbled at people. Arrietty bravely tells him to go ahead and hit her.
- Second half
In what book does a gardener tell the cook that a strange boy has a ferret called "Uncle something"?
✓ Answer
The Borrowers by Mary Norton
Crampfurl tells Mrs. Driver that he caught the boy with his nose down a rabbit hole, calling out a name like "Uncle" something. He doesn't realize the boy was actually trying to find Uncle Hendreary in the badger's set.
- Second half
In what book does a giant screwdriver suddenly stab through the ceiling of a tiny family's bedroom?
✓ Answer
The Borrowers by Mary Norton
Homily wakes from a dream to find a huge gray bar of steel poking down from the ceiling. The boy upstairs is prying up the floorboard so he can lower presents into their underfloor home.
- Near the end
In what book does a terrified cook climb onto the kitchen table after spotting tiny people scuttling below?
✓ Answer
The Borrowers by Mary Norton
When Mrs. Driver pries up the floor and sees the little family running and gasping below, she shrieks and scrambles onto a chair. From there she climbs onto the table and calls for Crampfurl until he breaks open the scullery door.
