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ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSThirteen-year-old Matthew is stuck at home in Leonia, New Jersey, in the spring of 2020, isolated with his mom and his 100-year-old great-grandmother while COVID closes school and keeps his reporter dad stranded in Paris. After Matthew accidentally fires a toy arrow that startles GG and spills a chocolate drink on her, his mom takes away his Nintendo Switch and assigns him a new job: help GG sort through the dusty boxes she has kept sealed since before he was born. Inside one of them is an old photograph of two girls that brings GG to tears, and slowly, box by box, she begins to tell Matthew a story she has never told anyone else, about her childhood in Ukraine in the 1930s and a secret that has shaped her entire life. As Matthew pieces together GG's past alongside his own frustrations with quarantine, missed friends, and a father he cannot see, he realizes there is far more to his great-grandmother than he ever imagined.
Free Battle of the Books questions for The Lost Year: A Survival Story of the Ukrainian Famine
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 Lost Year: A Survival Story of the Ukrainian Famine. 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 an arrow knock a chocolate drink can out of a great-grandmother's hands?
✓ Answer
The Lost Year: A Survival Story of the Ukrainian Famine by Katherine Marsh
Matthew fires without looking and hits the Ensure GG is holding in the open doorway, soaking her pants brown. GG surprises him by laughing, but his mom is furious and takes his Switch away for two weeks.
- First half
In what book does a girl use her father's old accounting ledger to record interviews?
✓ Answer
The Lost Year: A Survival Story of the Ukrainian Famine by Katherine Marsh
Helen wants something that looks more serious than a school notebook when she starts asking neighbors what their relatives in Ukraine have written them. By the time she stops, she has nine accounts written down in Pop's ledger.
- First half
In what book does a girl invent a secret piano recital to explain her afternoons away from home?
✓ Answer
The Lost Year: A Survival Story of the Ukrainian Famine by Katherine Marsh
Mila needs a cover for her visits to Nadiya, so she stages a committee announcement for Katya and makes her promise to back up the recital lie. She feels the cost of it too, thinking of herself as her own father's daughter, a master of lies.
- Second half
In what book does a boy sneak his great-grandmother mini Snickers and 3 Musketeers from old Halloween candy?
✓ Answer
The Lost Year: A Survival Story of the Ukrainian Famine by Katherine Marsh
Matthew raids the bag his mom stashed at the back of the pantry to cheer GG up after she tells him about her little brothers. She always picks the 3 Musketeers, and their secret chocolate stash becomes the thing that ties them together.
- Second half
In what book does a girl march in a May Day parade in her red scarf, heart elsewhere?
✓ Answer
The Lost Year: A Survival Story of the Ukrainian Famine by Katherine Marsh
Mila still wears her Young Pioneer scarf and sings the songs, but after learning what happened to her cousins she cannot feel the old pride. The moment she can slip away, she heads off with a pound of chocolate for Nadiya.
- Near the end
In what book does a man say his youngest brother is "dead to me. Absolutely dead"?
✓ Answer
The Lost Year: A Survival Story of the Ukrainian Famine by Katherine Marsh
Pop is talking about Lev, the brother who rose high in the Party and refused to help their starving family. Helen has no idea how closely that despised uncle's household will end up tangled with her own.
