BookBright
ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSTanya loves watching her grandmother sort through scraps of old family clothes: a blue patch from her brother Jim's pants, a piece of gold from Mama's dress, a bright square from her own Halloween costume. Grandma is turning the scraps into a patchwork quilt, a project she says will take a whole year to finish. Tanya cannot imagine waiting that long, but she agrees to help anyway. Months pass and the quilt grows patch by patch, until Grandma suddenly gets sick and the unfinished quilt is left folded on the back of her chair. Tanya has to decide what she can do to help while her grandmother gets better.
Free Battle of the Books questions for The Patchwork Quilt
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 Patchwork Quilt. 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 shout that a year is too long to wait for a blanket?
✓ Answer
The Patchwork Quilt by Valerie Flournoy
Tanya wants to start and finish in one afternoon, so she is shocked when Grandma says the work will take at least a year. Grandma just laughs and calls the making of it a joy, and the story really does follow the family through all four seasons.
- First half
In what book does a girl dress as an African princess for Halloween?
✓ Answer
The Patchwork Quilt by Valerie Flournoy
In the fall Tanya twirls around in long flowing robes that Mama sewed from several yards of colorful material. Grandma cuts squares from the leftovers, so Tanya gets added to the family's growing cover too.
- First half
In what book does an old woman refuse the heater and choose "the Lord's light"?
✓ Answer
The Patchwork Quilt by Valerie Flournoy
Every winter Mama worries about the cold coming through the big drafty window, but Grandma will not budge from her seat. She wants natural daylight to sew by, and she tells Mama she is going to sit right there and make her masterpiece.
- Second half
In what book do a grandmother's sons, daughters, nieces, and nephews come to pay their respects?
✓ Answer
The Patchwork Quilt by Valerie Flournoy
The whole extended family fills the house at Christmas with singing and laughing. It is the happiest scene in the story, which makes it hurt more when the family learns the very next morning that Grandma is sick.
- Second half
In what book do children finally get to visit their sick grandmother the day before New Year's?
✓ Answer
The Patchwork Quilt by Valerie Flournoy
Grandma needs almost a week of rest before Ted, Jim, and Tanya are allowed into her room. When they get there she looks tired and can only speak in whispers, and the visit ends quickly.
- Near the end
In what book does a girl secretly snip squares from her grandmother's old worn bed blanket?
✓ Answer
The Patchwork Quilt by Valerie Flournoy
Tanya tiptoes into Grandma's room at bedtime with scissors and lifts the end of the covering Grandma's own mother made for her. Early in the story Tanya called that old thing dirty, so cutting it into her project shows how much she has learned.
