BookBright
ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSTwelve-year-old Sai lives a double life in the kingdom of Mangkon: by day she works as Assistant to Paiyoon Wongyai, the country's celebrated mapmaker, carefully hiding that she is actually a girl from the Fens, the city's marshy slum, raised by her con-man father. When the queen announces a grand expedition to chart the unknown southern seas, Paiyoon offers Sai a place on the voyage, needing her rare talent for copying handwriting to disguise that his hands now tremble too badly to draw. Sai leaps at the chance for a new life, but once aboard the ship Prosperity, she discovers that the expedition has a secret goal: finding the legendary Sunderlands, a mythical continent said to lie beyond the treacherous Harbinger Sea, where dragons are rumored to guard the coast.
Free Battle of the Books questions for The Last Mapmaker
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 Last Mapmaker. 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 press her tin of savings into her father's chest to escape him?
✓ Answer
The Last Mapmaker by Christina Soontornvat
At the dock, Sai presses her tin of one hundred ninety leks into Mud's chest as a bribe to let her go. She gives up months of savings just to escape her father once and for all.
- First half
In what book does a girl reach through a cabin window to haul a dangling boy inside?
✓ Answer
The Last Mapmaker by Christina Soontornvat
After counting the ship's windows, Sai rushes into her master's cabin and unlatches the glass that swings into Bo's forehead. She grips his elbows and twists his body to free his ankle from the loop above.
- First half
In what book does a girl draw her first coastline using a master's golden lens?
✓ Answer
The Last Mapmaker by Christina Soontornvat
Sai borrows Paiyoon's golden eyeglass to look at the Deserdell coastline and feels she can see everything at once exactly the way it is. The lens lets her finally draw the bay correctly.
- Second half
In what book does a scientist explain that gray scavenger birds gather just before a kill?
✓ Answer
The Last Mapmaker by Christina Soontornvat
Mr. Lark identifies the harbingers flying south with the ship and tells Sai the word means omen. He is thrilled to study them, oblivious to the bloody work the birds are waiting for.
- Second half
In what book does a girl forge an order in her captain's hand that hands command to someone else?
✓ Answer
The Last Mapmaker by Christina Soontornvat
Rian pressures Sai to copy Sangra's handwriting on letters releasing Paiyoon and passing command to Rian. Sai's skill at imitating Paiyoon's script makes her the perfect forger.
- Near the end
In what book does a dragon study a girl through a translucent golden second eyelid?
✓ Answer
The Last Mapmaker by Christina Soontornvat
When the Slake rises in front of Sai's rowboat, her bearded neck dripping seawater, she watches Sai through her haw. The haw shows the true nature of a thing, and the dragon decides Sai is worth sparing.
