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ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSBel Price, whose full name is Annabel, has spent her whole life as the unsolved case at the center of her own family. When she was a baby, her mother Rachel walked into a mall in New Hampshire and never walked back out, and Bel, who was with her, was too young to say what she saw. Sixteen years later a documentary crew arrives in her town of Gorham to film The Disappearance of Rachel Price, putting Bel, her father Charlie, and the rest of the family on camera to pick over the same unanswered questions again. Then, during filming, Rachel appears on the road near Bel's house, dirty and limping, claiming a stranger locked her in a basement for sixteen years and just let her go. Bel wants to believe her mother is finally home, but small details in Rachel's story do not add up, and pulling at them puts Bel and the people she loves in real danger.
Free Battle of the Books questions for The Reappearance of Rachel Price
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 Reappearance of Rachel Price. 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 girl slip a black marble queen off a chessboard and up her sleeve?
✓ Answer
The Reappearance of Rachel Price by Holly Jackson
Bel steals small things whenever the knot of tension in her stomach gets unbearable, and the queen is her prize for surviving an ugly on-camera fight with her grandmother. The relief never lasts, but the object is permanent.
- First half
In what book does a masked shopper pay cash for a red long-sleeved top and black jeans?
✓ Answer
The Reappearance of Rachel Price by Holly Jackson
Alice Moore has no idea why that detail matters, but Bel does, because those are the exact clothes her mother vanished in and came home in. It is the first real evidence that the whole homecoming was planned months in advance.
- First half
In what book does a boy stop a girl from knocking a seventh time on a teacher's door?
✓ Answer
The Reappearance of Rachel Price by Holly Jackson
Ash catches Bel's fist and asks why she cannot do anything nicely, seconds before Mr. Tripp opens the door. She proceeds to accuse her own math teacher of helping her mother stage a disappearance, and he slams the door in their faces.
- Second half
In what book does a woman tell her teenage daughter, "You can call me Mom"?
✓ Answer
The Reappearance of Rachel Price by Holly Jackson
The offer comes softly, two weeks after this woman walked back into the house, with her fingers fiddling against her thumbs. Bel accepts it for the wrong reason, because getting close is the fastest way to catch a liar out.
- Second half
In what book does a girl find her father's gold wedding band hidden in someone else's drawer?
✓ Answer
The Reappearance of Rachel Price by Holly Jackson
The band is engraved with her parents' wedding date, and Charlie could never get it off his finger. Bel went into that nightstand to return a baby sock as a peace offering, and she comes out ready for war.
- Near the end
In what book does a girl find her father's favorite mug unbroken at the back of a cupboard?
✓ Answer
The Reappearance of Rachel Price by Holly Jackson
Charlie told Bel his Santa mug was broken and that he had thrown it away, letting her believe she was the one who smashed it. Finding it whole is the moment she realizes he has been rewriting her memories for years so that she would always need him.
