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ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSFern has spent six years living at the Ranch, an isolated community in upstate New York where a man named Dr. Ben decides everything, from bedtimes to who gets to go through the rite of passage that marks becoming an adult. When Dr. Ben picks twelve-year-old Fern to complete her rite two years early, she is thrilled, until her mother wakes her before dawn and drives her clear across the country to a small California beach town called Driftaway Beach, refusing to explain why they left or when they might go home. Determined to get back to the Ranch and the best friend she left behind, Fern secretly saves money, hires a private investigator, and chases every clue she can find, all while starting at a new school, working for a tea shop owner named Babs who seems to know her mother from long ago, and getting pulled into a local mystery about a ghost called the Spirit of the Sea. The closer Fern gets to finding her way home, the more the world she left behind starts to look different than she remembers it.
Free Battle of the Books questions for The Wrong Way Home
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 Wrong Way Home. 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 tell her friend, "You look like a possessed turtle"?
✓ Answer
The Wrong Way Home by Kate O'Shaughnessy
Fern and Meadowlark are supposed to be knitting quietly in the great room at the Ranch, but they keep making hideous faces at each other instead. It is one of the last easy, silly moments the two best friends get before Fern is taken across the country.
- First half
In what book does a baker bring scones to a school principal as a friendly bribe?
✓ Answer
The Wrong Way Home by Kate O'Shaughnessy
Babs comes along when Jamie enrolls Fern in middle school and hands Ms. Diaz a bag of cranberry and white chocolate chip scones. Babs goes very red as she hands the bag over, which Fern notices without understanding why.
- First half
In what book does a teenager say a leader hit her father over the head with a rake?
✓ Answer
The Wrong Way Home by Kate O'Shaughnessy
Alyssa, who was called Kestrel when she lived at the Ranch, tells Fern this from the motel doorway, adding that one of these days Dr. Ben is going to kill somebody. Fern does not want to believe her, but it leaves her feeling like the moment right after you slip and have not hit the ground yet.
- Second half
In what book does a mother cut her hair short and dye it so black it looks almost purple?
✓ Answer
The Wrong Way Home by Kate O'Shaughnessy
Jamie gets bangs and dyes her long brown hair while Fern is at the tea shop, and Fern tells her it makes her look fake. Dr. Ben taught that dye and anything unnatural are forbidden, so every change in her mother feels like a betrayal, even though Fern privately thinks it looks beautiful.
- Second half
In what book do two girls hang a glass orb in a filthy window so it sprays colored light?
✓ Answer
The Wrong Way Home by Kate O'Shaughnessy
Eddie shows up with nontoxic cleaning supplies and one of her family's fairy orbs, which her mother insists will bring the girls protection while they work. Once the window is scrubbed, the orb throws blue green droplets of light across the floor and the storage room feels alive.
- Near the end
In what book does a girl decide that spotting a whale will mean she should stay longer?
✓ Answer
The Wrong Way Home by Kate O'Shaughnessy
Fern sits on the beach with the letter to Dr. Ben in her pocket, torn about mailing it, and makes a bargain with herself. She watches for two hours and sees nothing but water, sand, and sky, and the next morning she slips the letter into a mailbox.
