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ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSEleven-year-old Viji has always looked out for her older sister Rukku, who has a disability that makes her seem younger even though she was born first. When their father turns violent against both girls on Viji's birthday, Viji decides she cannot protect Rukku at home anymore. At dawn the next morning, she wakes Rukku and leads her onto a bus bound for Chennai, carrying little more than a change of clothes and a book from a favorite teacher. The city turns out to be no easier than home. The sisters work off a broken teashop glass, dodge a threatening bus driver, and adopt a stray puppy they name Kutti before finding a rundown bridge to sleep on, one already claimed by two homeless boys, Arul and Muthu. The four kids form a fierce, makeshift family, picking through garbage dumps to earn money and discovering that Rukku has a gift for stringing bead necklaces that sell for real cash on the beach. As the rainy season closes in and their luck starts to run out, Viji has to decide how far she will go, and who she can trust, to keep the family she has built together.
Free Battle of the Books questions for The Bridge Home
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 Bridge Home. 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 one sister leap off a bus at the exact moment the other jumps on?
✓ Answer
The Bridge Home by Padma Venkatraman
Rukku refuses to board the bus to the city, so Viji steps out to pull her, and the two of them swap places by accident as the bus starts moving. Only the conductor's whistle stops the driver in time for Viji to climb back on and stay with her sister.
- First half
In what book does a girl mishear a mealtime prayer as being addressed to O. R. T. Narayan?
✓ Answer
The Bridge Home by Padma Venkatraman
Arul prays in English before the group eats, and Viji, who knows only her mother's Tamil prayers, hears our father who art in heaven as somebody's name. Their gentle arguments about whose God is real run all the way through the story.
- First half
In what book do children arrange six bead necklaces in a neat line on a beach walkway?
✓ Answer
The Bridge Home by Padma Venkatraman
Muthu suggests selling Rukku's necklaces after she works out for herself that selling things is how a person gets money. Two college students stop to look, and within an hour nearly every necklace is sold.
- Second half
In what book does a hungry girl's wailing send two boys running from a graveyard?
✓ Answer
The Bridge Home by Padma Venkatraman
Two rich boys sneak in at night daring each other, convinced the place is haunted, and Rukku picks that exact moment to moan that she is hungry. Muthu nearly bursts holding in his laughter, and Arul tells Rukku she just made their hiding place safer than ever.
- Second half
In what book does a girl carry squashed earthworms off the road and lay them on muddy earth?
✓ Answer
The Bridge Home by Padma Venkatraman
After a downpour, Rukku finds worms crushed on the pavement and moves them one by one, and Arul guesses she is hoping they will come back to life. He tells Viji to leave her be, saying that someone should mourn the worms.
- Near the end
In what book does a small girl order a crying stranger, "Don't cry. Come and play with me"?
✓ Answer
The Bridge Home by Padma Venkatraman
Lalitha marches straight over to Viji at the school Celina Aunty takes her to visit, then is baffled when Viji thanks her, since she does not think she gave her anything. Their painting session is the first time Viji enjoys herself in months.
