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ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSEve McNeil and Andrew Ozdemir have been best friends since they were babies, close enough that their moms have joked for years about them getting married someday, and close enough that they live right across the street from each other. When Andrew comes home from two months in Florida looking and sounding like a different kid, taller, more muscular, and old enough now to have armpit hair, everyone around them suddenly starts treating their friendship differently. Peer pressure from her Cross Country team pushes Eve into publicly asking Andrew to the fall dance, and within days their families and friends are treating them like an official couple, complete with a stolen hoodie, a golden hour photo shoot, and constant teasing from Andrew's drumline buddies. The trouble is, neither Eve nor Andrew actually wants to be somebody's boyfriend or girlfriend right now, and each is too worried about hurting the other, or looking like the bad guy, to just say so out loud. Instead they start scheming, separately, to get the other person to end things first, turning years of easy friendship into an all-out prank war that puts the relationship that matters most to both of them at risk.
Free Battle of the Books questions for Not If You Break Up with Me First
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 Not If You Break Up with Me First. 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 boy bring a brownie in a box that looks like a corsage?
✓ Answer
Not If You Break Up with Me First by G.F. Miller
Andrew's mom hands him a small box for the golden hour photo shoot, and Eve guesses corsage before she opens it and finds one of Mrs. Ozdemir's famous fudgy brownies. Eve inhales it in about two bites and declares it far better than flowers.
- First half
In what book does a teacher use a Tic Tac as a collapsing star and then eat it?
✓ Answer
Not If You Break Up with Me First by G.F. Miller
Ms. Medgar swaps her mug for a Tic Tac to show the bigger star shrinking into a white dwarf, then pops the candy in her mouth when the bell rings. Eve lingers afterward to ask whether two stars have any way to avoid destroying each other.
- First half
In what book does a boy shove a spoonful of chocolate pudding into a girl's mouth?
✓ Answer
Not If You Break Up with Me First by G.F. Miller
Pushed past his limit at lunch, Andrew announces that Eve must have low blood sugar and feeds her pudding with a malicious smile. He knows perfectly well that having someone put food in her mouth is the thing she hates most in the world.
- Second half
In what book do two drummers end up in a sword fight with their mallets?
✓ Answer
Not If You Break Up with Me First by G.F. Miller
Madison chucks a maraca at Andrew in the nearly empty band room before school, he throws it back, and the two of them go at each other with their mallets. Half the fun is that they have been lectured a hundred times about using sticks only for drumming.
- Second half
In what book does a girl draft six desperate texts to a friend and send none of them?
✓ Answer
Not If You Break Up with Me First by G.F. Miller
After her mom drives away, Eve types out messages like my mom left and SOS to Andrew but cannot make herself hit send. She decides that if he is still her friend he will just show up, and he does not.
- Near the end
In what book does a girl storm onstage shouting that a boy forked her yard?
✓ Answer
Not If You Break Up with Me First by G.F. Miller
Eve pelts the drumline with glowing paint and then climbs the stairs to air their entire feud in front of the school. The fight sets off a full riot and gets both of them suspended.
