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ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSFifteen-year-old Dylan Thomas Jude lives with his gruff grandfather, Pops, in a small house attached to Pops' Auto Shop. Dylan fixes cars, writes poems, and watches birds from a rock by the creek out back, where a great blue heron hunts. His mother left three years ago, and the huge sign Pops put up beside the shop door has driven away most customers and Pops' gentle worker, Larry. One summer morning, a red-tailed hawk lands a dozen feet from Dylan, and the stoat in her talons wriggles free, a clue that the hawk may be hurt. Cars are easier for Dylan than people, and he wonders whether the skills that fix engines could help a wounded bird. He sets out to learn what happened to her. Dylan tells the story in short poems.
Free Battle of the Books questions for The Poetry of Car Mechanics
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 Poetry of Car Mechanics. 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 stoat meant to be breakfast wriggle free from deadly talons?
✓ Answer
The Poetry of Car Mechanics by Heidi E. Y. Stemple
On the morning Dylan first sees the red-tailed hawk, she lands a dozen feet from him with a stoat pinned under one foot, but the stoat squirms loose and escapes. Replaying the moment in slow motion, Dylan realizes the stoat shouldn't have been able to get away, and he can't shake the feeling that something is wrong with that hawk.
- First half
In what book do a mother and son decorate shoeboxes for treasures, but hers stays empty?
✓ Answer
The Poetry of Car Mechanics by Heidi E. Y. Stemple
On a rainy weekend, Dylan and his mom decorate shoeboxes with colored paper, newsprint, and feathers she collected, to keep their treasures in. His box fills up with poems, but hers stays empty, and when he asks why, she says he is too big to put in a box.
- First half
In what book does turning off a window fan reveal peepers and two duetting screech owls?
✓ Answer
The Poetry of Car Mechanics by Heidi E. Y. Stemple
Dylan can't sleep because he keeps thinking about the hurt hawk. The night is cool, and he shuts off the fan in his window and listens. He hears trucks on the far-off highway, peepers singing love songs, and a screech owl whinny, then realizes there are two, duetting.
- Second half
In what book does a freshly oiled Chevy get a test drive it doesn't need?
✓ Answer
The Poetry of Car Mechanics by Heidi E. Y. Stemple
After changing the Chevy's oil, Dylan lies so Pops will okay a test drive, then uses the car to drive himself to the library to look for information on the hawk. He realizes that he is now not only a thief but a liar, too.
- Second half
In what book does a girl in a backyard exercise a bird on a creance line?
✓ Answer
The Poetry of Car Mechanics by Heidi E. Y. Stemple
Hearing a hawk's scream, Dylan jogs behind the house and finds a girl about his age flying a hawk on a tether, a dance he doesn't understand but finds beautiful. She is Peregrine, and the creance line is the last test to make sure the bird is fit for release.
- Near the end
In what book does a vulture with a hole through its beak land on a visitor's gloved arm?
✓ Answer
The Poetry of Car Mechanics by Heidi E. Y. Stemple
Tom, who admits he shouldn't have favorites, hands Dylan a long leather glove aged by countless talons, and the vulture settles on his outstretched arm. Dylan is repulsed by its wrinkled pink face until Tom explains that the bare face keeps parasites out and the hole helps it smell rotting dead things.
