BookBright
ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSXavier Oak is at his family's lake cottage with his dad and his pregnant stepmother, Nia, when he wakes and hears a goat bleating outside. The lake is gone. The cottage now sits on a tidy farm with a red barn, goats, and chickens, and when the family sets out to explore, they walk into an invisible wall. Three years later, Xavier is sixteen, the family has learned to farm, and they are convinced they were abducted by aliens. Then Xavier watches a swarm of tiny glowing lights build a second farmhouse in minutes, and the Jacksons arrive from Tennessee. Their father, Riley, insists the government is holding them somewhere on Earth and starts building a hot-air balloon to escape. As Xavier falls for Riley's daughter, Mackenzie, the plan puts both families at risk.
Free Battle of the Books questions for Best of All Worlds
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 Best of All Worlds. 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 family return from circling an unseen wall to find a crib on their deck?
✓ Answer
Best of All Worlds by Kenneth Oppel
On the second day, the family follows the invisible wall for almost thirty-three kilometers and ends up right where they started. Waiting at the cottage is a crib, which Xavier reads as a message that Nia's baby will be born there and they are not going anywhere.
- First half
In what book does a toddler discover Cap'n Crunch by sneaking into a neighbor's empty kitchen?
✓ Answer
Best of All Worlds by Kenneth Oppel
When the family visits the still-empty house, Noah keeps slipping away, first to a toy castle and then to the kitchen. Having grown up on honey and farm food, he is amazed by the sugary cereal and wants to know why his family doesn't have it.
- First half
In what book does a teenage girl's dramatic eye makeup make her look like an ancient Egyptian queen?
✓ Answer
Best of All Worlds by Kenneth Oppel
When Mackenzie Jackson first steps onto the porch with juice and cookies, Xavier notices her boots, her braid, and the dark makeup around her eyes. Next to her, he suddenly feels scruffy after three years in stained farm clothes.
- Second half
In what book do dark iridescent green birds with narrow yellow beaks peck an orchard's apples and pears?
✓ Answer
Best of All Worlds by Kenneth Oppel
Xavier wakes to birdsong for the first time in years and finds a flock of starlings in the Oaks' orchard. They peck a few holes in each piece of fruit, which Nia says will make it rot, and the Oaks expect to have less than half their usual amount of fruit to preserve.
- Second half
In what book does a neighbor cannibalize a barbecue to make the burner for his homemade balloon?
✓ Answer
Best of All Worlds by Kenneth Oppel
Once the coyotes seem to be gone, Riley finally finishes the metal frame that will hang beneath the balloon. He and Xavier test it by hanging weights from it, seat the propane tank in its cradle, and run a hose up to the burner Riley made from the barbecue. When it flares up perfectly, Riley whoops, hugs Xavier, and tells him to take the girls for a swim.
- Near the end
In what book do midges, first mistaken for locusts, whisper "Shhhhh" as they pass over the crops?
✓ Answer
Best of All Worlds by Kenneth Oppel
At dawn, after a night of guarding the farm from coyotes, Nia spots a swarm in the pale sky, and Xavier's first thought is locusts, the next plague. Instead the glowing midges pass over the Oaks' crops without harming them, making a whispering sound like they want a secret kept, and head toward the Jacksons' farm.
