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ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSEvery year, the elders of a gloomy town called the Protectorate leave their youngest baby in the forest as a sacrifice to a witch they believe will destroy them if they refuse. What they do not know is that a kind old witch named Xan has been rescuing those babies all along, carrying them across the dangerous forest to loving families in the Free Cities. But one year, Xan accidentally feeds a baby too much moonlight instead of starlight, filling the child with enormous magical power. Xan names the girl Luna and raises her as her own granddaughter, locking the dangerous magic away inside her until she is old enough to control it. As Luna approaches her thirteenth birthday, her sealed magic begins to stir, strange memories surface, and the truth about her past starts pressing through the cracks.
Free Battle of the Books questions for The Girl Who Drank the Moon
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 Girl Who Drank the Moon. 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 the dangerous forest crossed by only one road, owned and operated by a gang of bullies?
✓ Answer
The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill
The Elders own the only safe Road across the dangerous forest, which is full of geysers, mud pots, and bad air. Their control of the Road is one of the ways they keep the people of the Protectorate poor and trapped.
- First half
In what book do paper ravens, swallows, and swans suddenly come to life and attack a young man's face?
✓ Answer
The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill
When Antain visits the locked-up mother, her folded paper birds rise into murmurations, sharpen their wings like knives, and slash him bloody. The scars he gets that day never fully heal, and they change the path of his life forever.
- First half
In what book is there a head sister who literally feeds on the sorrow of her prisoners?
✓ Answer
The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill
Sister Ignatia is a Sorrow Eater. She manufactures grief throughout the Protectorate so she has an endless supply to feed on. The mother in the Tower discovers she can lock her sorrow away behind hope, which is the first crack in the head sister's power.
- Second half
In what book does a child labor to pronounce a single word, finally coughing out "Mmmmmmagic"?
✓ Answer
The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill
Luna struggles to speak a word she has heard her whole life but could never remember. Her grandmother's spell locked it away, but in the hidden workshop the word finally breaks free from her tongue.
- Second half
In what book does an old woman transform herself into a small brown swallow for a long journey?
✓ Answer
The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill
Xan picks the swallow as her travel form because it is small and almost invisible to predators. She wishes later she had chosen an albatross since the swallow tires so quickly.
- Near the end
In what book does a tiny dragon suddenly grow lopsided body parts like a melon-sized nose and one huge ear?
✓ Answer
The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill
Fyrian finally begins to grow into a proper Simply Enormous Dragon, but bits and pieces of his body inflate at different rates. His nose, one eye, a wing, a foot, and his rump each balloon while he stumbles after Glerk.
