BookBright
ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSFor fifty years and more, Britain has been haunted by the Problem: ghosts, called Visitors, whose touch can kill. Young people sense them far better than adults, so kids with rapiers, iron and salt do the fighting. Lucy Carlyle, whose gift is hearing ghosts, joins Lockwood & Co., a tiny London agency run by Anthony Lockwood, with researcher George Cubbins and no adults at all. Then a job at 62 Sheen Road goes badly wrong. A furious ghost-girl in a sunflower dress attacks, the house burns, and the agency ends up owing money it doesn't have. Lucy has also secretly pocketed something from that burning room. When a rich client offers to pay their debt if they spend one night in Combe Carey Hall, home of the Red Room and the Screaming Staircase, Lockwood says yes.
Free Battle of the Books questions for The Screaming Staircase (Lockwood & Co.)
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 Screaming Staircase (Lockwood & Co.). 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 barefoot ghost-girl in a sunflower dress whisper "Lost and cold"?
✓ Answer
The Screaming Staircase (Lockwood & Co.) by Jonathan Stroud
At Sheen Road, Lucy's Listening Talent lets her hear the ghost-girl say "I'm cold" and then "Lost and cold," while Lockwood can see the ghost but cannot hear her. Lucy notes that the dress with its big orange sunflowers is not a modern design, and the girl turns out to have died decades before the Hopes moved in.
- First half
In what book does an inspector in a brown bowler spill his tea when a jarred ghost pulls a face?
✓ Answer
The Screaming Staircase (Lockwood & Co.) by Jonathan Stroud
Inspector Barnes taps George's ghost-jar while grumbling about the agency's collection, and the ghost's face bulges out right in front of his own. Barnes leaps back with a whoop like a howler monkey and soaks himself with tea, and George claims he simply forgot to keep the jar downstairs.
- First half
In what book does a boy cry out that something has grabbed him, but it's only a gooseberry bush?
✓ Answer
The Screaming Staircase (Lockwood & Co.) by Jonathan Stroud
During a night vigil beside a haunted willow tree, Lockwood creeps forward and suddenly gasps "Aaah! Something's got me!" Lucy shines her flashlight on him and points out that his long coat-tail is caught on a gooseberry bush, and George grumbles that the coat is far too long.
- Second half
In what book does a rich visitor order Pitkins' Breakfast tea and mistake the agency's researcher for an office boy?
✓ Answer
The Screaming Staircase (Lockwood & Co.) by Jonathan Stroud
Fairfax tells Lockwood to have his boy bring the sugar, so George, still in his apron, fetches tea on a dainty flowered tea set. When George sits down with a jam doughnut and Fairfax says the lad should wait outside, Lockwood has to explain that George actually works with him.
- Second half
In what book does a boy smuggle seven magnesium flares into a mansion by hiding them in a toilet tank?
✓ Answer
The Screaming Staircase (Lockwood & Co.) by Jonathan Stroud
Fairfax banned flares and even had the agents' bags searched, but Lockwood had the flares strapped inside his coat all along. He hid them in the toilet the moment they arrived, then retrieves the dripping packet once Fairfax has left them for the night.
- Near the end
In what book does a boy's ghost wear an oversized gray agency jacket and carry an Italianate rapier?
✓ Answer
The Screaming Staircase (Lockwood & Co.) by Jonathan Stroud
In the hidden passage beyond the Red Room, the agents meet the faint, weeping ghost of a boy in an old-fashioned agent's uniform. Lucy realizes he is the Fittes agent who vanished at Combe Carey Hall thirty years before.
