BookBright
ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSTwelve-year-old Nisha has always struggled to find her voice, preferring to listen rather than speak, but she has found one place where words flow freely: the diary she writes to her deceased mother, a Muslim woman who died the day Nisha and her twin brother Amil were born. The year is 1947, and Nisha's family lives in Mirpur Khas in what is about to become Pakistan, where their Hindu father is the head doctor at the city hospital and their beloved cook, Kazi, is a second parent to the twins. As tensions from India's impending independence and partition begin to crack open their town, men come to the door demanding the family leave, Muslim boys chase Nisha and Amil on their way to school, and riots grow close enough that the family huddles in a pantry listening to their house being ransacked. Kazi, who is Muslim, cannot safely cross the border with them, and when Papa announces the family must flee on foot to the new India, Nisha faces a journey that will push her to the edge of what she thought she could survive.
Free Battle of the Books questions for The Night Diary
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 Night Diary. 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 narrator gifted a notebook covered in purple and red silk with sequins and mirrored glass?
✓ Answer
The Night Diary by Veera Hiranandani
Kazi, the family cook, gives Nisha this beautiful silk-covered journal for her twelfth birthday. He tells her she is the one who should record what is going to happen because the grown-ups will be too busy.
- First half
In what book does a doctor friend press two tiny gold coins into the twins' palms at a goodbye party?
✓ Answer
The Night Diary by Veera Hiranandani
Dr. Ahmed, Papa's Muslim friend from the hospital, gives Nisha and Amil tiny gold coins and tells them to always be well. Nisha tucks her coin into her bag along with her diary and her mother's jewelry.
- First half
In what book does a brother spill two jugs of water at dawn, leaving his family dangerously short?
✓ Answer
The Night Diary by Veera Hiranandani
Papa tells Amil he is almost a man and should carry Dadi's pack too, so Amil takes both packs along with two water jugs. The jug caps pop off and the water makes a glug glug noise as it drains into the dry ground. Papa scolds him sternly.
- Second half
In what book does a sister count footsteps to one thousand and beyond while her brother lies dying of thirst?
✓ Answer
The Night Diary by Veera Hiranandani
While Papa walks to get water, Nisha counts footsteps to keep Amil calm and conscious. She matches her counting to his breathing as he weakens. The counting is a habit from when she would comfort him after nightmares as a small child.
- Second half
In what book does a girl finally meet her uncle and discover he has a cleft palate and cannot speak?
✓ Answer
The Night Diary by Veera Hiranandani
When Nisha wakes inside the uncle's home, she sees a man with a topi whose lip is raised in the middle, exposing his gum and teeth. Her father never told her that Rashid Uncle has a cleft palate. He communicates by writing on a small chalkboard.
- Near the end
In what book do men with knives stop a train of refugees by blocking the tracks?
✓ Answer
The Night Diary by Veera Hiranandani
About an hour into their journey across the new border, men block the tracks to attack the Hindu passengers. The brakes scream, bodies tumble, and Papa pulls the family into the middle of the car. The scene captures the train massacres of partition.
