BookBright
ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSSixteen-year-old Kit Tyler grows up free and pampered on her grandfather's Barbados plantation, swimming in the ocean and reading whatever she likes from his library. When he dies and his debts swallow the estate, she books passage to Connecticut with the last money she can raise and arrives, unannounced, on the doorstep of an aunt she has never met. Wethersfield in 1687 is nothing like the sunlit island she left behind. Her uncle Matthew Wood is a stern Puritan farmer who distrusts her fine clothes and her habit of speaking her mind, her cousin Judith treats her with suspicion, and there are people in town who have not forgotten the day she leapt from a ship's boat and swam after a child's dropped doll, since well-bred young women were not supposed to know how to swim at all. Her cousin Mercy, who walks with crutches and is the household's steadiest worker, makes her feel welcome from the first. Restless and lonely, Kit finds an unlikely friend in Hannah Tupper, an elderly Quaker who lives alone by Blackbird Pond and whom half of Wethersfield already suspects of witchcraft, and starts secretly teaching a neglected local girl to read. As the colony's political troubles with a new royal governor deepen and a mysterious fever sweeps through town, Kit's loyalty to the people she loves is about to cost her more than she expects.
Free Battle of the Books questions for The Witch of Blackbird Pond
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 of Blackbird Pond. 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 dump the remaining corn meal in at once and ruin supper?
✓ Answer
The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare
Kit is supposed to add the meal to the boiling kettle a pinch at a time, and her patience runs out. The family swallows the lumpy pudding in silence, since there is nothing else for supper, and Kit learns that being useful is harder than it looks.
- First half
In what book do children acting out the Good Samaritan turn into genuinely brawling robbers?
✓ Answer
The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare
Kit hands the robber parts to the three rowdiest boys and the traveler's part to the priggish pupil they all dislike. The pretending becomes a real fight just as the schoolmaster and the Reverend Woodbridge arrive to inspect the school.
- First half
In what book is a rough lump of coral the only ornament in a poor woman's cabin?
✓ Answer
The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare
Hannah keeps it on a shelf, a present from the seafaring friend who brings her something from every voyage. Kit is charmed by the idea of a quiet old romance and is stunned when the friend walks in and turns out to be Nat Eaton.
- Second half
In what book does a father bless the wrong engagement while the suitor stands speechless?
✓ Answer
The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare
John Holbrook arrives meaning to ask Matthew Wood for Mercy's hand, but Judith assumes the proposal is for her and announces it first. John hesitates for one moment and is lost, and Kit, who knows he came for Mercy, can say nothing at all.
- Second half
In what book do sailors set carved pumpkin lanterns in a half built house's windows?
✓ Answer
The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare
On All Hallows Eve three men off the Dolphin light up William Ashby's unfinished house as a prank. The joke costs them the stocks, a heavy fine, and banishment from the town, and Kit guesses at once who one of them must be.
- Near the end
In what book does a ship come out of the fog with a fish tailed prow?
✓ Answer
The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare
At first light Kit sees masts, then sails, then the familiar curved tail on the prow of the Dolphin, and it feels like a miracle. She swims out to the ship, and Nat rows ashore to take Hannah away to his grandmother in Saybrook.
