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ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSSonia Patil, a sixteen-year-old junior, works at Cafe Paris next to the bookstore where her crush James Cooper works. On the day of a costume event at the bookstore, her boss bans costumes at the cafe, so the original superhero outfit she sewed herself stays in her bag, but James stops by the counter and asks her to tutor him in calculus. That night, after closing the cafe alone, she puts the costume on for the first time before taking out the trash and spots James by the canal behind the building. She watches him stumble and fall into the water, dives in after him, and pulls him out with help from bystanders, cutting her arm on something sharp in the process. When she hears sirens approaching, she panics and runs rather than wait for the police, because her mother, arrested during an immigration raid at the dry-cleaning shop where she worked, was deported to India months earlier, and her older sister Kareena, who is undocumented and survived childhood leukemia, is the one actually raising her. Within a few days, video of the rescue is everywhere, and the internet has given her masked rescuer persona a name: Shadow. Sonia now has to keep her secret from unraveling while her life keeps colliding with the Cooper family, all while she and Kareena are barely speaking. A girl who has spent years staying invisible has an alter ego the whole internet is talking about, and she has no idea how to handle it.
Free Battle of the Books questions for While You Were Dreaming
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 While You Were Dreaming. 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 dive into a canal and her cape tangles around her arms?
✓ Answer
While You Were Dreaming by Alisha Rai
James staggers on the muddy bank behind the shops and drops into the dark water, and Sonia jumps in after him without thinking. The cape she was so proud of immediately becomes a hazard, which is why she later insists that capes are overrated.
- First half
In what book does a mother switch to her native language whenever the talk turns to immigration?
✓ Answer
While You Were Dreaming by Alisha Rai
Sonia's mother slips into Marathi on their calls from India any time immigration or attorneys come up, a habit of caution she kept even after leaving the country. Sonia can understand the language but cannot really speak it back.
- First half
In what book does a boy accidentally spoil a comic that a girl has not finished reading?
✓ Answer
While You Were Dreaming by Alisha Rai
James works at the bookstore and has read further into Makeshift than Sonia has, so he blurts out a twist from the second volume over lunch. Discovering that they read the same series is one of the first real things they have in common.
- Second half
In what book does an older sister order her younger sibling to spend an entire paycheck on clothes?
✓ Answer
While You Were Dreaming by Alisha Rai
Kareena has been cold and short with Sonia for months, so telling her to blow her restaurant money on clothes she actually likes is startling. Her reason, that things can be tough and they should still get to feel good about themselves, lets the hope in Sonia flutter alive again, and this time she does not crush it.
- Second half
In what book does a boy hand a girl his father's scratched watch to time a simmering syrup?
✓ Answer
While You Were Dreaming by Alisha Rai
There is no clock in the restaurant kitchen, so Niam takes off his old gold and black watch and tells Sonia to wear it so she will not lose it. Returning it later is why she climbs to the roof, where the two of them really talk.
- Near the end
In what book does a girl finally tell her new friend that her mother was deported?
✓ Answer
While You Were Dreaming by Alisha Rai
While they are doing makeup before the festival, Hana says plainly that she knows what it looks like when someone is covering for a parent. Sonia tells the truth, and Hana simply promises to keep it and not treat her any differently.
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