BookBright
ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSA teenager named Emmett Atwater is recruited off the streets of Detroit by Babel Communications, a powerful corporation that has secretly made contact with a habitable planet called Eden and its native species, the Adamites. Babel offers Emmett and nine other teenagers from poor families around the world a fortune in exchange for a year mining a valuable substance called nyxia, but only eight of the ten recruits will actually be sent down to the planet. Aboard the spaceship Genesis 11, the recruits train to manipulate nyxia with their minds, compete in brutal physical and mental trials, and watch a public scoreboard track exactly where each of them stands against the others. Emmett forms an alliance with his sharp, strategic roommate Kaya, even as friendships keep colliding with the fact that every point one recruit earns is a point taken from someone else. As the voyage stretches on and the competition grows more dangerous, Emmett has to decide how far he is willing to go, and who he is willing to become, to win a spot on Eden and change his family's life for good.
Free Battle of the Books questions for Nyxia
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 Nyxia. 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 man in a charcoal suit stretch a small black marble into a dagger?
✓ Answer
Nyxia by Scott Reintgen
Defoe demonstrates the shape-shifting mineral for the recruits, throws the blade into a target, then calls it back into his palm like a magic trick. It is the first time the kids see the substance that the whole mission exists to mine.
- First half
In what book does a boy refuse to execute the man who tried to have him killed?
✓ Answer
Nyxia by Scott Reintgen
Defoe drags in a hooded Dr. Karpinski, invokes what he calls Primal Law, and hands Emmett a sword. Emmett lets the blade drop because his father would want more from him, so Defoe takes the doctor's ear instead.
- First half
In what book do competitors compete for one last piece of candy by telling their saddest stories?
✓ Answer
Nyxia by Scott Reintgen
Katsu turns Jazzy's confession about her mother's cancer into a contest for his final piece of sweet from home. What starts as a joke becomes the night the rivals finally learn each other's histories, until Isadora simply takes the box and eats it.
- Second half
In what book is a girl lifted off her feet and strangled by her own necklace?
✓ Answer
Nyxia by Scott Reintgen
The blindfolded Adamite prisoner, named Erone, seizes the charms on Kaya's necklace and kills her because he assumes she works for Babel. Kaya's death is the turning point of the whole story, and Emmett blames himself for stealing the access card that got them in there.
- Second half
In what book does a girl slam a shield into her own teammate's legs to make her side lose?
✓ Answer
Nyxia by Scott Reintgen
Isadora already has a guaranteed spot on the mission, so in the Rabbit Room she takes out Jaime to help Roathy's side score. Emmett is stunned because it breaks the one rule the recruits had left, which was that your team is your team no matter who you hate.
- Near the end
In what book do two rivals share a pair of earbuds while looking at a distant new world?
✓ Answer
Nyxia by Scott Reintgen
Morning finds Emmett awake early in front of the observation window and asks to hear the old song he is playing. It is their first real conversation, and Emmett notices that she just listens instead of asking who sings it.
