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ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSEleven-year-old Nell Warne has lost her entire family one by one and arrives in 1859 Chicago on the doorstep of her only surviving relative, her sharp-tongued Aunt Kate, who is none too pleased to have a scruffy orphan handed over to her care. When Nell spots a pickpocket in the crowd and stops him cold with one stomp of her oversized boot, the two begin an uneasy truce in a cramped boardinghouse room, and Nell quickly discovers that Aunt Kate is no ordinary widow doing laundry and mending, but the first woman ever hired as a detective by the Pinkerton National Detective Agency.
Free Battle of the Books questions for The Detective's Assistant
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 Detective's Assistant. 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 an orphaned girl arrive at her aunt's boardinghouse wearing her dead brother's coat and trousers?
✓ Answer
The Detective's Assistant by Kate Hannigan
Nell shows up in Chicago in her brother's old traveling clothes because dresses were impractical for farm chores. Aunt Kitty is horrified and quickly insists she look like a girl.
- First half
In what book does a tavern keep a sweet braying mule named Lucky Pete?
✓ Answer
The Detective's Assistant by Kate Hannigan
Lucky Pete is the long suffering mule at the Jenkintown tavern. Flora keeps lassoing him and trying to drag him around the yard, much to Nell's fury.
- First half
In what book does a thief's wife hide stolen money inside a cage crinoline beneath her wide skirt?
✓ Answer
The Detective's Assistant by Kate Hannigan
Nell figures out that Mrs. Maroney's heavy skirt holds the loot from Alabama. She finds a three-dollar Central Bank of Alabama note dropped on the sidewalk as proof.
- Second half
In what book does a character say her father gave her two things, his name and his boots?
✓ Answer
The Detective's Assistant by Kate Hannigan
When Aunt Kitty calls her brown boots godforsaken clodhoppers, Nell defends them fiercely. The boots, inherited from her father Cornelius, become a symbol of her loyalty to him throughout the book.
- Second half
In what book does a girl play a bloodied ghost to terrify a man in a bank?
✓ Answer
The Detective's Assistant by Kate Hannigan
When Mr. Green has to leave, Nell puts on the bloody bank teller costume and approaches the murderer in the bank lobby. Her low moan and spilled coins make Mr. Drysdale crack and confess his guilt.
- Near the end
In what book does a girl pin a blue silk cockade to her dress as an emblem of secession?
✓ Answer
The Detective's Assistant by Kate Hannigan
Aunt Kitty makes Nell wear a blue cockade to fit in with Baltimore's secessionist ladies. The pin sickens Nell, who imagines what Jemma would think of her mingling with haters of freedom.
