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ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSDarius Kellner is a half-Persian, half-white sixteen-year-old from Portland, Oregon, who works at a tea shop, watches Star Trek every night with his architect father, and manages clinical depression with medication he takes in a crinkly paper cup at the school nurse's office. He has one real friend at Chapel Hill High School, endures a bully named Trent Bolger, and has always felt caught between two worlds: too Persian for the kids at school, too American to feel connected to his mother's Iranian family he has only ever seen through a pixelated computer screen. When his grandfather Babou is diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor, Darius's family flies to Yazd, Iran, for what might be the only chance he will ever have to meet his grandparents in person. What he finds there, including an unexpected friendship with the boy next door, forces him to reckon with what it means to belong somewhere and to be truly known by another person.
Free Battle of the Books questions for Darius the Great Is Not Okay
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 Darius the Great Is Not Okay. 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 do a father and son watch one episode of Star Trek together every single night?
✓ Answer
Darius the Great Is Not Okay by Adib Khorram
The narrator and his dad sink into the tan suede couch shoulder to shoulder for exactly forty-seven minutes of Star Trek. It's the only sacred ritual between them and the one time they act like a real father and son.
- First half
In what book does a grandfather climb onto his roof with a hose to water fig trees?
✓ Answer
Darius the Great Is Not Okay by Adib Khorram
Babou waters his fig trees from the roof every week despite his brain tumor. The narrator first meets him from below the ladder, terrified he'll fall off.
- First half
In what book does a family visit the Gate of All Nations and the ruins of Persepolis?
✓ Answer
Darius the Great Is Not Okay by Adib Khorram
Sohrab leads his new friend through Persepolis, also called Takhte Jamsheed, pointing out the giant lamassu statues. The narrator's vocabulary fails him and he can only manage wow.
- Second half
In what book is there a dress code called "Persian Casual"?
✓ Answer
Darius the Great Is Not Okay by Adib Khorram
Persian Casual is a running joke between Stephen and his son. It covers anything from slightly more-formal-than-business-casual to just-shy-of-black-tie, with the goal of looking more impressive than everyone else by pretending the occasion is more casual than it is.
- Second half
In what book does a boy tell his new friend that his father is in jail for being Bahá'í?
✓ Answer
Darius the Great Is Not Okay by Adib Khorram
Sitting in the jasmine garden, Sohrab tells Darius that his father was arrested with protesters years ago and has been imprisoned since because he is Bahá'í. The Iranian government treats Bahá'ís worse than Zoroastrians, and Sohrab has essentially been fatherless for years.
- Near the end
In what book does a grieving boy tell his best friend, "No one wants you here"?
✓ Answer
Darius the Great Is Not Okay by Adib Khorram
Devastated by his father's death, Sohrab kicks the box of cleats across the kitchen and tells the narrator that nothing bad has ever happened to him. Then he says "No one wants you here," and the narrator flees in his socks, leaving his Vans behind.
