BookBright
ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSTwelve-year-old Ciara lives in Skael, a mountain village where magic is forbidden to everyone except the Emperor and his son. For five years she has secretly kept the floating, purring journal of Bianca of Skael, who learned magic a thousand years ago and whom the Warden calls "the fallen apprentice." When the Warden, the cruel official who runs Skael, finds out Ciara has the book, he arrests her mother, who is sick with the Skael Cough. Ciara escapes and hides in the ruined tower of the legendary Dragon Mage. There she traces a strange new symbol in the journal, and a huge black dragon appears and yawns. It is Scorch, the grumpy dragon who taught Bianca, and he has no idea he slept for a thousand years. He even thinks Ciara is Bianca. With the Emperor's soldiers due in two weeks and her mother locked in a dungeon, Ciara needs to learn magic fast, if she can get Scorch to teach her.
Free Battle of the Books questions for The Dragon's Apprentice
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 Dragon's Apprentice. 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 girl hide from guards until dark under an empty pig trough?
✓ Answer
The Dragon's Apprentice by James Riley
After escaping the Drakes, Ciara hides in the pigsty on her friend Herman's farm, lying in cold, smelly mud beneath the trough until the sun sets. The pig smell sticks to her, which leads to a very funny first meeting later that night.
- First half
In what book does a grumpy creature keep calling a cruel official the "War-man"?
✓ Answer
The Dragon's Apprentice by James Riley
Scorch keeps calling the Warden the War-man, or whatever his name is. He even wonders why the War-man's guards wear dragon helmets and call themselves Drakes, which is what humans call baby dragons.
- First half
In what book does tracing straight lines instead of curved ones bring a flood of rats down a chimney?
✓ Answer
The Dragon's Apprentice by James Riley
Scorch makes the hungry Ciara trace the food word in the air, and she draws its curved lines straight. Instead of dinner, a flood of rats pours down the chimney onto her, and Scorch, sounding amused, points out that it makes a fairly big difference.
- Second half
In what book does a giant fire-breather shrink into a fuzzy black cat?
✓ Answer
The Dragon's Apprentice by James Riley
Just outside Skael before dawn, Scorch surprises Ciara by turning into a small black cat, since he doesn't want to get any closer to the village without a disguise. He insists it isn't magic, at least not the way she means, and he hates it when she scoops him up and calls him the cutest black cat ever.
- Second half
In what book does a girl's hand pass through a disguise's face, above her friend's real head?
✓ Answer
The Dragon's Apprentice by James Riley
Meg can't believe the stranger in front of her is really Ciara, so she reaches out to touch the farmer's face. Because the illusion is taller than Ciara, Meg's hand passes through the empty air above her friend's actual head.
- Near the end
In what book does a fake flaming sword sink straight into a stone wall?
✓ Answer
The Dragon's Apprentice by James Riley
Ciara starts to feel dizzy while scolding the Warden and reaches for the wall with the wrong hand, so her illusion's flaming sword plunges right into the stone. The panicking Warden doesn't notice, but her mother definitely does.
