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ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSThirteen-year-old Audrey Alcott has a strange, unwanted talent: she always knows when someone is lying, whether it is a friend, a stranger, or her own mom. That talent recently helped her uncover a painful betrayal close to home, and now she has decided the safest thing to do is stop having friends altogether. Hundreds of miles away in Pennsylvania, seventh grader Aaron Archer has an equally strange gift, he remembers almost everything he has ever seen or heard, though all that knowledge does not stop him from accidentally getting his favorite teacher in serious trouble at school. That summer, both kids get sent, with barely any warning, to el Viaje a la Confianza, a six week wilderness trek across the Texas desert led by a gruff, booming camp director named Jare. Placed on the same four person team with a grieving girl named Kate and an anxious, oversized boy named Louis, Audrey and Aaron have to survive blistering heat, ugly rivalries, and one grueling challenge after another, all while figuring out who they can actually trust. Then one of the meanest campers disappears without a trace, and the whole group has to decide how far they will go to find her.
Free Battle of the Books questions for Connect the Stars
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 Connect the Stars. 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 principal turn up bald as a billiard ball with his eyebrows shaved off?
✓ Answer
Connect the Stars by Marisa de los Santos and David Teague
Principal DuPlessy bet a rival principal a head shave that his quiz team would finally win, and a razor mishap took the eyebrows too. Every look in the mirror reminds him of the loss, and he blames Mrs. Dunaway for it.
- First half
In what book does a camper blister the backs of his knees by rushing his sunscreen?
✓ Answer
Connect the Stars by Marisa de los Santos and David Teague
Enod Marx misses the soft skin behind his knees and ends up with a second degree sunburn that leaves him unable to walk. Jare says he set the record for quickest calamity and makes his teammates carry him back to camp.
- First half
In what book does a boy want the air mattress last so he can dream about it longer?
✓ Answer
Connect the Stars by Marisa de los Santos and David Teague
Louis has barely slept since the trek began, and Audrey, Aaron, and Kate all offer him their turns with the prize. He wants his turn last because looking forward to it might be the thing that finally lets him sleep.
- Second half
In what book are a girl's parents' faces scratched out of the photo in her luggage tag?
✓ Answer
Connect the Stars by Marisa de los Santos and David Teague
Audrey looks at the picture of herself with her mom and dad whenever a hike gets brutal, and one afternoon she finds their heads clawed away, probably with a rock. Daphne did it, and Aaron quietly guesses she did it because she wishes her own family were more like Audrey's.
- Second half
In what book does a girl jam a railroad spike into a crack and use it as a rung?
✓ Answer
Connect the Stars by Marisa de los Santos and David Teague
Jare has been making Kate lug a railroad spike around all camp as a punishment, and she finally finds a use for it. Louis boosts her onto his shoulders, she steps up onto the spike, and she sweeps the hat off the top, and everyone but Daphne and Randolph claps.
- Near the end
In what book does a dehydrated boy's pinched skin stay pinched like Play-Doh?
✓ Answer
Connect the Stars by Marisa de los Santos and David Teague
Randolph crashes out of the brush after chasing the group across the desert, dizzy, giggling, and not sweating at all. Aaron recognizes the danger signs from a first aid manual he once read at his swim club, so they pour most of their water down him even though they can barely spare it.
