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ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSTwelve-year-old Evan Pao has just moved across the country to Haddington, Virginia, after his father disappeared with money he had talked the neighbors into investing. Evan has an unusual gift: he can sense when someone's words do not match what they are really feeling, even if he cannot always tell why. At his new school he learns that the whole town builds its year around Battlefield Day, a Civil War reenactment where most of his classmates can point to an old family heirloom or ancestor tied to the war. Evan has neither, and one classmate, Brady Griggs, makes sure he knows it. When Evan starts digging for a place in that history anyway, he turns up something even his Civil War obsessed teacher has never heard of, and it starts to change how he sees himself, his new town, and the people in it.
Free Battle of the Books questions for The Secret Battle of Evan Pao
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 Secret Battle of Evan Pao. 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 father talk his neighbors into investing in socks that change color?
✓ Answer
The Secret Battle of Evan Pao by Wendy Wan-Long Shang
Michael Pao brought home the idea as a can't miss investment group for the neighborhood, and for a while everyone thought he was a hero. Then he vanished with the money, which is why the family is broke and starting over across the country.
- First half
In what book does an uncle offer to lend a boy his grandfather's potato masher grenade for a school project?
✓ Answer
The Secret Battle of Evan Pao by Wendy Wan-Long Shang
Uncle Joe is outraged to hear that his nephew has no relatives who fought in a civil war, since both of his own grandfathers fought for the Nationalists in China, and he starts describing the handle you used for throwing it. Celeste shuts him down by pointing out that you can get expelled for bringing a weapon to school.
- First half
In what book does a boy toss a swing's stick around a bully and catch it midair?
✓ Answer
The Secret Battle of Evan Pao by Wendy Wan-Long Shang
Brady plants himself in the takeoff spot and claims only people with kin at the church may use the rope, so Evan throws the stick past him and grabs it on the other side. It is a great moment, and it also guarantees that Brady will come after him again.
- Second half
In what book does a boy come home to glittering glass and a limping, crying dog?
✓ Answer
The Secret Battle of Evan Pao by Wendy Wan-Long Shang
Evan walks in from the best day he has had in his new town and finds Mochi bleeding from a shard stuck in her paw. Someone had fired a gun through the living room window while the family was out.
- Second half
In what book does a girl present on a woman who fought disguised as a Union soldier?
✓ Answer
The Secret Battle of Evan Pao by Wendy Wan-Long Shang
Julia surprises everyone, even her best friend Taylor, with Sarah Rosetta Wakeman, who enlisted under the name Lyons Wakeman. Julia only started digging because the class had just learned that Chinese soldiers fought in the war too.
- Near the end
In what book does a kid worry that hard crackers will break his braces?
✓ Answer
The Secret Battle of Evan Pao by Wendy Wan-Long Shang
Casey gnaws on hardtack that Mrs. Hoover hands out at the reenactment, and it tastes about like cardboard. She explains that real soldiers softened it in stew, but the kids never want the stew.
