BookBright
ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSThe Nine Moons of Han Yu and Luli tells two stories, set twelve hundred years apart, in alternating chapters. In Chang'An, China, in 731, eleven-year-old Han Yu has always had a way with animals, and people whisper that he is Tiger Boy. When a lung illness sweeps through the city and his family is taken away to a monastery hospital, Han Yu is left alone with his dog, his goat, and three magpies. Then a merchant arrives with goods that Han Yu's father was supposed to carry west to the city of Tianshui, six hundred and fifty li away. Han Yu decides to make the trip himself, and he uses the tea he was given to trade for a camel to buy Lotus, a mistreated camel he has cared for in secret. In New York City's Chinatown in 1931, eleven-year-old Luli Lee lives at 59 Mott Street, above her parents' Jade Palace Restaurant and the Silk Roads Gift Shop run by her honorary uncle, Quong. Customers have stopped coming, and a man from the bank brings a notice warning that the family could lose their building. Luli has a Grand Plan to bring people back by turning Quong's musty back room into a museum for his treasures, including a frame of old silk covered in calligraphy that Quong says is a poem.
Free Battle of the Books questions for The Nine Moons of Han Yu and Luli
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 Nine Moons of Han Yu and Luli. 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 a laughing toddler left glowing with golden pollen after a swarm of purple butterflies?
✓ Answer
The Nine Moons of Han Yu and Luli by Karina Yan Glaser
When Han Yu was two, he ran ahead to chase a toad by a canal and was suddenly surrounded by butterflies with gleaming purple wings. Instead of being scared he laughed, and moments like this made people in Chang'An whisper that he had a mysterious way with animals.
- First half
In what book does a cheerful traveler tell a bowing boy, "Save that for the emperor"?
✓ Answer
The Nine Moons of Han Yu and Luli by Karina Yan Glaser
Han Yu meets Du Fu, a cheerful young man whistling along a mountain path, after Lok trots over to greet him. Han Yu trusts Lok's judgment, and Du Fu becomes the first true friend he has ever made outside his family and his animals.
- First half
In what book does a neighbor knock before sunrise to ask if the family adopted a rhinoceros?
✓ Answer
The Nine Moons of Han Yu and Luli by Karina Yan Glaser
The morning after Yiyi moves into the Lees' apartment, he bangs pots at five o'clock so loudly that Mr. Malone comes upstairs to investigate. Yiyi, who rarely likes anyone, pulls in his favorite neighbor and insists on making him tea.
- Second half
In what book does a guard bring a class a five-hundred-year-old handscroll in a wooden box?
✓ Answer
The Nine Moons of Han Yu and Luli by Karina Yan Glaser
Francisco leads Luli's class into a long, nearly empty room, where a guard named Jonathan brings out a wooden box holding a Ming dynasty handscroll. Francisco unrolls it from right to left, showing farmland, then mountains, then a desert that vanishes in a wisp of smoke, and explains that handscrolls tell about a journey.
- Second half
In what book does a breathless plan get misheard as "selling bunions as art"?
✓ Answer
The Nine Moons of Han Yu and Luli by Karina Yan Glaser
When her friends beg to hear her plan, Luli blurts out all in one breath that she wants to make steamed buns and sell them from a pushcart. Francie thinks she said something about selling bunions as art, and Sam and Peter explain what bunions are before Mikey calls the real plan excellent and Francie calls it brilliant.
- Near the end
In what book does a boy tie wool hats snugly under his animals' chins on a cold night?
✓ Answer
The Nine Moons of Han Yu and Luli by Karina Yan Glaser
On a chilly night camping beside a lake in the desert, Han Yu fits wool hats over Lok's and Lotus's heads and ties them securely under their chins. Earlier the camels had shaken off every hat he tried, but this time they all huddle together in the soft sand until the sands sing them to sleep.
