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ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSThirteen-year-old Aven Green was born without arms, and she does almost everything with her feet, from eating lunch to playing guitar. She also loves making up wild stories about how she lost her arms. When her parents get jobs running Stagecoach Pass, a run-down western theme park in Arizona, the family leaves Kansas and moves into a tiny apartment above the park's steakhouse. At her huge new middle school, kids stare at Aven but nobody talks to her, and because she doesn't want anyone watching her eat with her feet, she hides in a bathroom stall at lunch. Things start to change when she meets Connor, a boy with Tourette syndrome who barks, and Zion, a shy boy who eats alone on the sidewalk. Meanwhile, Stagecoach Pass is full of puzzles: an owner named Joe Cavanaugh whom nobody ever meets, a photo missing from the museum wall, a padlocked shed covered in Do Not Enter signs, and an old soda-shop man named Henry who keeps insisting Aven loves tarantulas. With her new friends, Aven sets out to solve the mystery, while also dreaming up a plan to save the struggling park.
Free Battle of the Books questions for Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus
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 Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus. 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 have her dad arrested at a pretend jail for chronic farting?
✓ Answer
Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus by Dusti Bowling
At the Stagecoach Pass jail, visitors can pay ten dollars to have someone arrested for silly reasons like bad breath or eating boogers. Aven got to have Dad arrested for free because her parents run the park, and she's planning to have Mom arrested next.
- First half
In what book does a girl just stand there like a mannequin during the Hokey Pokey?
✓ Answer
Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus by Dusti Bowling
When Zion asks if she can do everything with her feet, Aven admits some things are harder, like the song that tells you to put your right hand in. She also has nightmares about flag football and says soccer is the one sport she can really play well.
- First half
In what book does a girl guess that spaghetti westerns are movies about cowboys eating spaghetti?
✓ Answer
Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus by Dusti Bowling
Connor asks why the old petting zoo llama is named Spaghetti, and Aven says Denise told her he was named after spaghetti westerns. Neither of them knows what those are, so Aven makes a funny guess.
- Second half
In what book does a confused old man say the vanished tarantulas "left with her"?
✓ Answer
Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus by Dusti Bowling
Denise tells Aven that, according to Henry, nobody has seen a live tarantula around the park since 2004, so Aven goes to ask Henry herself. For one moment his eyes look clear and knowing as he answers, but when she asks who he means, he slips back into confusion and offers her an ice cream.
- Second half
In what book does a mom arrange for three kids to have a whole movie theater to themselves?
✓ Answer
Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus by Dusti Bowling
Connor stays away from movie theaters because of his tics, so Mom calls theater after theater until a manager whose son has Tourette's lets them have a quiet morning show all to themselves. Connor is angry when they pull up, then lights up at the empty theater and tells Mrs. Green she is the coolest.
- Near the end
In what book does a bartender deliver "One sarsaparilla for the forlorn redhead"?
✓ Answer
Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus by Dusti Bowling
Miserable after her fight with Connor, Aven sits at the old saloon bar, and when Charlie, a college student in cowboy gear, reminds her she can't sit there, she thumps her forehead on the bar. He brings the drink to her table with extra maraschino cherries and points out the big red spot on her forehead.
