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ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSThis graphic novel follows Aster, a boy in a big magical family that lives in an old house in the woods, protected by carved standing stones. In his family the girls learn witchery, like spells, potions, and scrying, and the boys learn to shapeshift into animals and fight demons. Aster hasn't found his first animal form yet, and the magic he really likes is witchery. He spies on the girls' lessons and practices spells in secret, even though his mother tells him that magic isn't for him. One day a girl with a broken leg named Charlie catches him making a bush burst into blackberries, and she promises to keep his secret. Then, on the night the boys go into the forest to meet their animal spirits, Aster's cousin Sedge follows a strange red light past the standing stones and disappears. Soon other boys go missing too. Aster wants to help, but the only magic he's good at is the kind he isn't supposed to use.
Free Battle of the Books questions for The Witch Boy
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 Witch Boy. 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 cousin follow a glowing red wisp between two standing stones and vanish?
✓ Answer
The Witch Boy by Lee Knox Ostertag
During the Finding, Sedge chases the wisp across a creek toward the rune-carved stones that mark the family's boundary, telling Aster he is talking to an animal spirit. Aster watches from the creek as Sedge walks into a red glow and disappears.
- First half
In what book does an uncle teach that spells take time, so shapeshifters handle life-or-death battles?
✓ Answer
The Witch Boy by Lee Knox Ostertag
When Aster asks whether the witches can't protect themselves, Uncle Kieran says they can, with the standing stones and other magics, but witchery takes time and is better used for other things. When it comes to battle and the struggle of life or death, he says, "that's where we come in."
- First half
In what book can six stones be tossed to tell things about the future?
✓ Answer
The Witch Boy by Lee Knox Ostertag
In Aunt Iris's lesson on the house's weapons, passed down from mother to daughter, she explains that the weapons channel and magnify your will. Aster, listening in secret outside, writes "stones - future" in his notebook.
- Second half
In what book does a demon's rotary telephone get hidden deep under a bunk bed?
✓ Answer
The Witch Boy by Lee Knox Ostertag
After the red demon tells Aster to give it a call when he's ready, it vanishes and leaves the old telephone behind. Aster lies on the floor and shoves the phone into the dark space under a bunk bed.
- Second half
In what book does a girl break her leg jumping a dirt bike off a cliff on a bet?
✓ Answer
The Witch Boy by Lee Knox Ostertag
Charlie tells Aster that some boys at school, who are all about fifteen, were bothering her, and she bet none of them could ride their bikes off a certain cliff and make it to the other side. When they said she had to try too, she offered to go first, but the bike was too big for her to control and she landed on her leg.
- Near the end
In what book does a dad turn into a cougar mid-leap to bite a demon's neck?
✓ Answer
The Witch Boy by Lee Knox Ostertag
When the red demon bursts into the house, Aster's dad, Tohor, changes into a big tawny cat in the middle of his lunge. He sinks his teeth into the demon's neck while Aster works on the binding circle.
