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ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSThirteen-year-old Vincent Fox can jump into paintings and walk around inside them, and the worlds he finds there are real enough to hurt him. On one visit to a Carl Spitzweg landscape, a grumpy gnome has to pull him free just before a steam train races past. Vincent lives in Kensington with his Grandpa Arthur and Arthur's friend and business partner, Henry Wiggles, while his mum travels for work as a photographer. Only his family and Nora Ferrara, director of London's National Gallery, know his secret. When a painting called The Storm, by the Dutch painter Van Goyen, is stolen from an art collector's villa in Chelsea, Vincent decides to find it by hunting through the hidden doorways that link all of Van Goyen's paintings. Along the way he runs into Holly Cormack, an Arsenal fan from Tower Hamlets who can do the same thing, and the two make a bet on who will find the stolen painting first. Meanwhile, Van Gogh's The Starry Night, one of Vincent's favorites, has turned gray and musty inside, and his fingers start to fade when he visits it. At home, the grandpas are whispering over a mysterious mailing tube that holds nothing but a note about some copied maps and a café in Rome, and then they announce that they have won a climbing trip to the Italian Alps.
Free Battle of the Books questions for The Picture Visitors: A Case for the Van Gogh Agency
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 Picture Visitors: A Case for the Van Gogh Agency. 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 big woolly sheep jump in fright when a boy lands on its back?
✓ Answer
The Picture Visitors: A Case for the Van Gogh Agency by Christina Wolff
Vincent starts his hunt for the stolen painting in one called Sheep and Goats. He fixes his eyes on the billy goat but lands on the back of a big, woolly sheep instead, which leaps in fright and tumbles him into the meadow.
- First half
In what book do ladies on a frozen port hold masks to shield their faces from the winter sun?
✓ Answer
The Picture Visitors: A Case for the Van Gogh Agency by Christina Wolff
Racing through Van Goyen's paintings, Vincent crosses the frozen surface of a winter port town where it seems everyone in the seventeenth century is out on the ice. Skaters, farmers' children, horses, and hens crowd around him, and he is nearly run over by a sled.
- First half
In what book does a glowing red curtain of light block a museum room's only exit?
✓ Answer
The Picture Visitors: A Case for the Van Gogh Agency by Christina Wolff
Peering out into the Galleria Borghese in Rome, Vincent sees a windowless room with a shiny marble floor, paintings on the walls, and stone statues on tall round plinths. The one exit is blocked by a security light barrier, and the room smells faintly of lemon disinfectant.
- Second half
In what book does a girl spend a birthday party helping a man fish his false teeth from a toilet?
✓ Answer
The Picture Visitors: A Case for the Van Gogh Agency by Christina Wolff
When Vincent accuses Holly of secretly searching a Monet behind his back, she says she spent the day at Nana's seventy-fifth birthday party. She served cake and drinks and helped Mr. Jenkins fish his false teeth out of the toilet, which she would gladly have swapped for a Monet.
- Second half
In what book does a boy tumble onto a sailboat's stern, landing exactly where a girl is sitting?
✓ Answer
The Picture Visitors: A Case for the Van Gogh Agency by Christina Wolff
On the third day of their race to find Waterloo Bridge, London, a hole in a sand dune drops Vincent onto a little sailboat on a river. He lands right where Holly is sitting, and she squeals that he scared her to death.
- Near the end
In what book does a man race a Mini through London, slowing only once for a pigeon?
✓ Answer
The Picture Visitors: A Case for the Van Gogh Agency by Christina Wolff
Henry drives Arthur and Vincent across London to Piccadilly Circus at night in the Mini, running red lights the whole way. He takes his foot off the gas just once, for a pigeon ambling across the road, and it is the most hair-raising car ride of Vincent's life.
