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ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSTwelve-year-old Mai (Mia at school) wants to spend the summer at the beach near her home in Laguna Beach, where the boy she likes will be hanging out and where her best friend Montana tends to like whatever boy someone else liked first. Instead, her parents tell her she must escort her grandmother, Bà, to Vietnam for six weeks. Her grandfather, Ông, was listed as missing in the war when Mai's dad was two. Dad says Bà thinks Ông might still be alive, and a wordy old detective has found a man who once guarded him as a prisoner. Bà insists on meeting him, but he refuses to come to her. While her surgeon dad heads off to his mountain clinic, Mai is left waiting in Bà's village, where everyone seems to be a relative. She copes with the heat, swarms of mosquitoes, food piled into her bowl, villagers who squeeze open her mouth to see her braces, and a bossy buzz-cut girl named Út and her giant pet frog, while Anh Minh, a scholarship student with a Texas accent, becomes her translator. And Mai has a secret. She understands far more Vietnamese than she lets anyone know.
Free Battle of the Books questions for Listen, Slowly
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 Listen, Slowly. 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 make a taxi stop so she can see a water buffalo?
✓ Answer
Listen, Slowly by Thanhha Lai
On the taxi ride from the airport, Mai spots a real water buffalo chewing grass right by the road, with horns like mega croissants. She shouts for Dad to make the driver stop, jumps out and yells that it's so cool, while carsick Bà groans and sniffs her Tiger Balm.
- First half
In what book is a wordy old detective said to have always dreamed of being a poet?
✓ Answer
Listen, Slowly by Thanhha Lai
Mai asks Anh Minh why the detective stacks twenty words on top of each other when one would do, and Anh Minh says he has always wanted to be a poet. That explains the flowery speeches Mai can barely follow.
- First half
In what book does an embroidery teacher slap palms over a stitch called the caterpillar crawl?
✓ Answer
Listen, Slowly by Thanhha Lai
Cô Tâm, Út's mother, teaches the monthly embroidery class a stitch called the caterpillar crawl, with spacing as tiny as a third of a rice grain. When a stitch isn't right she slaps the girl's palm, and both Mai and Út get slapped.
- Second half
In what book does a former guard recall sharing a sweet potato in two equal halves with a prisoner?
✓ Answer
Listen, Slowly by Thanhha Lai
In his long account to Bà, the guard says he and the prisoner lived on moldy rice, so when a villager donated a sweet potato they drank its broth and made their equal halves last until sunrise by taking tiny scrapings. Bà smiles just a little, and Mai remembers Bà's own story about Ông and sweet potatoes.
- Second half
In what book does a busy dentist aunt tighten two girls' braces in exactly seven minutes?
✓ Answer
Listen, Slowly by Thanhha Lai
In Hà Nội, Út's aunt Cô Nga runs a dental office on the first floor of her house, and a snaky line of patients is waiting. In exactly seven minutes she tightens both girls' braces, asks if they are in pain, and shoos them off her chairs, then hands them over to her assistant, Chị Quỳnh Huyền.
- Near the end
In what book does a girl hoist her grandmother up to rub the toe of a snarling statue?
✓ Answer
Listen, Slowly by Thanhha Lai
On the cyclo ride to Chùa Vĩnh Nghiêm, Bà remembers rubbing the foot of the statue of Ông Thần Đồng and bringing its blessing to each of her seven children. Now she can't reach the lowest toe, so Mai lifts her by the waist, and Bà rubs the foot and then Mai's face.
