BookBright
ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSPage and Turner Reed are ten-year-old twins living in New York City, and Turner tells their story through graphic novel panels. Their parents are almost always away on business trips, so the twins are stuck with a long line of nannies. When Page talks Turner into sneaking their father's most prized possession out of his study, a rare British first edition of Dracula, and taking it up to the New York Public Library to find out what it is worth, she tells him exactly why: 'Because obs he thinks it's worth more than us!' A librarian named Ms. Literati, who wears a ring of old-fashioned keys, offers to look into what the book is worth and tells the twins to come back the next day. When they return, their messenger bag starts thumping, scoots away under a table on its own, and turns up empty with the book gone. The library itself has started acting strange too, with a dragon-shaped hole smashed through a painted ceiling and a giant beanstalk growing up through the cafe floor overnight. Tracking down their father's missing book pulls Page and Turner into a hidden world underneath the library, where they become junior volunteers for a woman with a much bigger secret than either of them expects.
Free Battle of the Books questions for The Night Librarian
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 Librarian. 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 say it is like the book inside a bag wants out?
✓ Answer
The Night Librarian by Christopher Lincoln
Turner's messenger bag starts thumping on a reading table like something alive is trapped inside it. Page's guess turns out to be exactly right, because the old novel in there really is trying to get somewhere.
- First half
In what book does a pirate with a crutch and a parrot insist that the story comes first?
✓ Answer
The Night Librarian by Christopher Lincoln
Long John Silver is homesick for his dockside pub in Bristol and for his wife, then hauls himself up and says every character has to sail on no matter what. It is the rule the escaped characters live by, and it explains why they always go back.
- First half
In what book does a bag spill out a trench coat, dark glasses, a false nose, and bandages?
✓ Answer
The Night Librarian by Christopher Lincoln
Ms. Literati dumps a doctor's bag on a table to show what the newest escapee left behind. Turner knows his father's H. G. Wells shelf by heart and instantly works out that they are hunting Griffin, who is nothing but empty air without that disguise.
- Second half
In what book does a detective's card partner turn out to be the ape everyone suspected?
✓ Answer
The Night Librarian by Christopher Lincoln
Page was certain the escaped orangutan was behind all the trouble, but Dupin's whist partner strolls in with a tray of refreshments, proving the ape never left its own story. That dead end sends the twins hunting for the real culprit.
- Second half
In what book does a vampire fume that he only rated a six-sentence invitation to a lawyer?
✓ Answer
The Night Librarian by Christopher Lincoln
Dracula is built out of letters and journal entries, and the Count is furious that Jonathan Harker got page after page while he got a few polite lines. That grievance is why he has been filling a red journal of his own down in the basement.
- Near the end
In what book do swordsmen and armored riders burst out of glowing books to fight?
✓ Answer
The Night Librarian by Christopher Lincoln
Ms. Literati's plan is to answer the villains with fiction's greatest heroes, so the first wave brings the Three Musketeers, the Knights of the Round Table and Don Quixote on his bony horse. Books get opened like doors and the heroes come charging out.
