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ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSEleven-year-old Mo LoBeau, a rising sixth grader, waits tables at the Tupelo Café in tiny Tupelo Landing, North Carolina, standing on a Pepsi crate behind the counter. Eleven years ago, during a hurricane, she floated down the creek as a newborn on a makeshift raft. The Colonel, a man who crashed his car into a pine at the edge of town that same night and climbed out with no memory of his past, pulled her from the flood. Now he runs the café, and Miss Lana, a dramatic woman with a collection of Hollywood wigs, helps raise Mo. Mo writes letters to her "Upstream Mother" and sends messages in bottles upstream, hoping her real mother will answer. Then, one Wednesday in June, Detective Joe Starr drives in from Winston-Salem asking about a murder and about the Colonel's car, and Mo is stunned when the Colonel lies to him. The next evening, their stingy neighbor Mr. Jesse is found dead in his own rowboat. Mo's best friend Dale had secretly borrowed that very boat, so now Dale looks like a suspect. To clear his name, Mo and Dale form the Desperado Detective Agency and go after the real killer themselves.
Free Battle of the Books questions for Three Times Lucky (Mo & Dale Mysteries)
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 Three Times Lucky (Mo & Dale Mysteries). 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 is a car renamed after the T and H fall off its fender letters?
✓ Answer
Three Times Lucky (Mo & Dale Mysteries) by Sheila Turnage
Dale walks around the Colonel's new car in the café parking lot and announces it used to be a Thunderbird before the T and H fell off. Mo declares it an Underbird, and the name sticks.
- First half
In what book does a boy shriek "Clown!" at a cold-creamed face on the sofa?
✓ Answer
Three Times Lucky (Mo & Dale Mysteries) by Sheila Turnage
Mo and Dale creep up on what they think is the Colonel asleep on the sofa, and Mo bounces her bat off the sofa arm. The creamy white face that spins toward them belongs to Miss Lana, home from Charleston, and Dale runs straight into the wall.
- First half
In what book does a girl trip over an oar in a creek and hand it to a lawman?
✓ Answer
Three Times Lucky (Mo & Dale Mysteries) by Sheila Turnage
The root that tripped Mo turns out to be Mr. Jesse's oar, and she hands it to Starr saying, "Here's your murder weapon." Starr later says they don't know yet if it is, but his deputy bags it for the lab.
- Second half
In what book does a donor's note say, "Keep this money quiet or the rest goes to the Episcopalians"?
✓ Answer
Three Times Lucky (Mo & Dale Mysteries) by Sheila Turnage
In his office after the funeral, Reverend Thompson tells Starr that the first hundred-dollar bill slid under the church door came with this note. Mo, sitting in on the interview, wants to know where Mr. Jesse got that kind of money.
- Second half
In what book does a garden club lady pay extra to avoid a race car's tacky gas tank?
✓ Answer
Three Times Lucky (Mo & Dale Mysteries) by Sheila Turnage
When an Azalea Woman balks at an eighty-five-dollar ad on Lavender's race car, Mo says the fifty-dollar spot is the tacky one and tells Dale to give her the gas tank. The lady quickly takes the nice spot, and Mo notes that an Azalea Woman would rather be dead than tacky.
- Near the end
In what book do four fat aces beat a pair of fours in a hurricane card game?
✓ Answer
Three Times Lucky (Mo & Dale Mysteries) by Sheila Turnage
To keep calm while Hurricane Amy batters the house, Mo, Dale, and Miss Rose play cards by candlelight and eat junk food. Dale bites his lip, a sure sign he's bluffing, and bets it all on a pair of fours, but Mo is holding four fat aces.
