BookBright
ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSIda B. Applewood is a fourth grader who lives on her family's apple farm in Wisconsin, where she spends her days home-schooled by her parents, talking to the trees in the orchard by name, floating rafts down the brook, and roaming the mountain she loves. Her world is small and exactly the way she wants it. Then something shifts at the breakfast table one morning: her parents are pale and quiet, and soon Ida B learns that her mother has cancer. The treatments knock her mother flat, money gets tight, and before Ida B can stop any of it, her father announces that part of the orchard will be sold to pay medical bills and that Ida B is going back to public school. A book that begins as a sunny portrait of an unusual girl turns into something harder and truer, about what happens when the life you love starts coming apart.
Free Battle of the Books questions for Ida B: ...and Her Plans to Maximize Fun, Avoid Disaster, and (Possibly) Save the World
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 Ida B: ...and Her Plans to Maximize Fun, Avoid Disaster, and (Possibly) Save the World. 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 give apple trees names like Paulie T., Viola, and Jacques Cousteau?
✓ Answer
Ida B: ...and Her Plans to Maximize Fun, Avoid Disaster, and (Possibly) Save the World by Katherine Hannigan
Ida B names all the apple trees in her family's orchard. She greets them each time she visits and has full conversations with them. Paulie T. is always rude, while Viola is the kindest of the bunch.
- First half
In what book does a house get as quiet as a library with only grown-ups in it?
✓ Answer
Ida B: ...and Her Plans to Maximize Fun, Avoid Disaster, and (Possibly) Save the World by Katherine Hannigan
After Ida B's mama comes home from cancer treatments, the whole household goes silent. Everyone walks lightly, places dishes softly, and avoids looking at each other. Ida B isn't sure if they're trying not to wake Mama or not to wake the cancer.
- First half
In what book does a girl leave her umbrella closed on purpose so the rain will make her angrier?
✓ Answer
Ida B: ...and Her Plans to Maximize Fun, Avoid Disaster, and (Possibly) Save the World by Katherine Hannigan
On her first morning back at school, Ida B leaves the umbrella her mama put out for her closed in her bag. The rain soaks her and pelts her face, but she's glad because it fuels her determination to be ornery by the time she gets to school.
- Second half
In what book does a girl call multiplication practice "an obstacle course for your brain"?
✓ Answer
Ida B: ...and Her Plans to Maximize Fun, Avoid Disaster, and (Possibly) Save the World by Katherine Hannigan
When Ida B starts tutoring Ronnie in multiplication, she convinces him to play along by calling it a brain game. She compares math practice to running practice to help him see that getting better just takes time and repetition.
- Second half
In what book does a classmate look at a girl with doe eyes and say, "You're mean"?
✓ Answer
Ida B: ...and Her Plans to Maximize Fun, Avoid Disaster, and (Possibly) Save the World by Katherine Hannigan
After Ida B screams at Claire and her brother to leave, Claire stands crying but doesn't run away. She looks at Ida B with gentle, sad eyes and says, "You're mean." Those two words hit Ida B harder than any retaliation could.
- Near the end
In what book does a girl say she feels like a backed-up sink full of dirty water and cat hair?
✓ Answer
Ida B: ...and Her Plans to Maximize Fun, Avoid Disaster, and (Possibly) Save the World by Katherine Hannigan
While pouring her heart out to Ms. Washington, Ida B compares herself to a clogged sink full of dirty water, cat hair, and old whiskers. She says that if somebody doesn't get the plunger soon, the nasty water will overflow onto everything.
