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ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSTwelve-year-old Fiona is tired of her aunt Tanis, who took her in after her parents died and who now seems to care more about her new job at Municipal Hall and her boyfriend Dex than about keeping promises to Fiona. After her aunt misses their planned night out, Fiona sets off on her own toward the harbor and pushes her way into a huge, boarded-up mansion marked for demolition. Inside she finds a whole community of stray cats living there in secret, led by a self-important tomcat named Cot and including a sharp-tongued calico named Piper and an enormous former movie star cat named Tarantino, plus a pair of escaped pet parakeets who talk to each other in rhyme. As Fiona starts fixing up the mansion and feeding its animal residents, a demolition crew shows up next door with a huge yellow excavator the cats call The Beast, sent by Fiona's aunt's boyfriend to clear the property for luxury condos. Told partly through the eyes of the cats themselves, this is the story of Fiona and a houseful of animals trying to protect the only home any of them has left.
Free Battle of the Books questions for The City of Lost Cats
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 The City of Lost Cats. 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 tomcat turn a kitchen faucet on and off with his paw?
✓ Answer
The City of Lost Cats by Tanya Lloyd Kyi
Once the water is flowing, Cot races to the sink and demonstrates the faucet to the assembled cats, meowing what sounds to Fiona like a speech. It is his way of claiming credit for a discovery that was really Piper's.
- First half
In what book does a girl steal a fuzzy white sweater and a bucket hat as a disguise?
✓ Answer
The City of Lost Cats by Tanya Lloyd Kyi
Fiona grabs them from hooks inside the back door of The Butcher Shop so a classmate will not recognize her at the library. She fully intends to return them, and then she panics when she finds a gold locket in the pocket.
- First half
In what book does a demolition worker gaze at a condemned mansion and say, "Elegance"?
✓ Answer
The City of Lost Cats by Tanya Lloyd Kyi
Mickey is standing inside the excavator cab when the word comes to him, and he cannot remember ever using it before. He mumbles that it was nothing when his brother asks, because he does not want to admit he admires a house he is about to wreck.
- Second half
In what book does a chipped plaque record that a lumber baron built a home in 1898?
✓ Answer
The City of Lost Cats by Tanya Lloyd Kyi
Fiona finds the heritage marker knocked into the rubble and reads about the Gordon House and the architects McNickerson and Partners. That surname turns out to match one of the demolition brothers working next door.
- Second half
In what book do meeting minutes record a musician asking that a noise campaign leave music alone?
✓ Answer
The City of Lost Cats by Tanya Lloyd Kyi
The group started as an anti fireworks coalition after two pet birds flew off during a community fireworks display, then widened its aim to motorcycles, leaf blowers and construction noise. The same minutes note that the fishmonger brought smoked salmon on crackers.
- Near the end
In what book does a hawk dive at a parakeet exploring away from a condemned house?
✓ Answer
The City of Lost Cats by Tanya Lloyd Kyi
One of the birds sets out to find a better home and barely flaps back to the window in time. After that scare the parakeets agree to stay together on their beam, cats or no cats.
