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ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSThe Collectors: Stories is an anthology A.S. King put together by asking nine young adult writers for one story each about a collection and its collector, with instructions to throw out convention because there is no rule and no normal to follow. The nine stories that follow take that instruction seriously. In Anna-Marie McLemore's "Play House," a girl named Miranda hides her family's most treasured belongings, including a set of glass bluebirds and her mother's good dresses, in a backyard shed after a string of uninvited men start treating her mother's house like their own. Randy Ribay's "The White Savior Does Not Save the Day" is written as a screenplay and follows a teenage superhero fan named Perdita, whose years long obsession with a canceled TV show turns out to be far more real than she ever guessed. Jason Reynolds tells his story as a spoken recording from a grandchild to a grandmother, working through the names, habits, and small rituals that make up a life before memory starts to slip away. The forms shift as much as the objects on the page, from verse to screenplay to a list of names broken into syllables, and every story is built around what a person decides to keep, and why.
Free Battle of the Books questions for The Collectors: Stories
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 Collectors: Stories. 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 superhero pause to take a selfie with the people she just rescued?
✓ Answer
The Collectors: Stories by A.S. King
White Savior sets the school down in an open field, tells everyone they are safe now, and uploads the photo to her feed before flying off. The joke lands a moment later when the rescued kids and teachers are left standing around with no idea how to get home.
- First half
In what book does a boy sop up spilled juice by rolling a paper towel roll over it?
✓ Answer
The Collectors: Stories by A.S. King
Dylan knocks over his glass doing a victory jump after crushing the narrator at a board game. His strange rolling pin method wastes the entire roll, and the trip downstairs to get it is the opening the narrator has waited months for.
- First half
In what book do a girl's childhood imaginary friends step out of her closet with a huge sprinkled cake?
✓ Answer
The Collectors: Stories by A.S. King
Leo and Cleo turn up on Lucia's tenth birthday, still six years old, because nobody else marks the day so soon after her mother's death. They seem uneasy around the older Lucia, and after the cake they slip back into the closet for good.
- Second half
In what book does a girl find a queen conch caked in pale dust beside the highway?
✓ Answer
The Collectors: Stories by A.S. King
Mía spots the cracked shell on her way to school and holds it to her ear, hearing the roar of the Gulf and the echo of laughter. It becomes the one treasure too big to fit in a jar, so she carries it everywhere in her messenger bag.
- Second half
In what book does a boy wade into rancid water hunting for a swimming pool's plug?
✓ Answer
The Collectors: Stories by A.S. King
Skeezer draws the short dandelion stem, so he has to duck his head under the gunk and feel around the drain. He comes up furious with the news that pools do not have plugs like bathtubs, and he refuses to speak to his laughing friends for an hour.
- Near the end
In what book do a grandmother and her grandchild dunk Oreos in apple juice?
✓ Answer
The Collectors: Stories by A.S. King
It is the ritual Carroll and Grandma Carole share while they watch soap operas and she passes on everything she remembers. She invented the combination herself and defends it by calling it chocolate covered apples.
