Quizzing around the Christmas tree!

This Christmas will be quieter than usual so here’s a quiz to print off and mull over. See how much you can do without Google! Please do post comments and scores, but not answers – they’ll be on the blog after Christmas. You may have to think back to your childhood, maybe even your parents’ and grandparents’ childhoods as I’ve realised many of my choices are old fashioned. If any 21st century children and grandchildren would like to contribute up to date and more diverse examples of well known books for a future quiz that would be great and you can email them to me via the blog.

There are a whopping 75 questions (I worked HARD on this, or you could just call it self-indulgence). Score 1 point for every correct fact you get – eg a point for authors and for picture books illustrators’ names. A point for the title or series, extra for the countries the books come from in Round 8 and any other answer to a specific question. I make the maximum score 150 but it could be more. Let me know what you get – and note, some books and authors may appear in more than one question.

Here’s an example, for two marks: TMG by PP would be Tom’s Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce.

Round 1: Did you, like me, read these as a child?

1. TJSS by RK
2. TCOGK by LMB
3. PP by JMB
4. JW by RC
5. TTTE by RWA
6. IOTBD by SOD
7. TWOWC by JA
8. TLWH by EG
9. BS by NS
10. TB by MN

Round 2: A Picture Tells a Thousand Words

1. LATD by SH
2. TVHC by EC
3. PAL by JM
4. M by LB
5. F by J & AA
6. TS by RB
7. HS by EB
8. TMC by AB and NB
9. TSD by EJK
10. SM by TC

Round 3: Classics Old and Newish

1. AOGG by LMM
2. WKD by SC
3. LW by LMA
4. NAC by MB
5. HPATPS by JKR
6. TLTWATW by CSL
7. AAIW by LC
8. WTP by AAM
9. NL aka TGC by PP
10. MP by PLT

Round 4: These characters are (part of) the family – but what is the book or series?

1. Mary, Laura, Carrie and Grace
2. Bobbie, Peter and Phyllis
3. Pod, Homily and Arriety
4. William, Charles, Percy, Fred, George, Ronald and Ginevra
5. Kurt, Marcie and Minal Cricket
6. Pongo and Missus
7. Sally and I
8. Lily Rose, Kate, Jim, John, Jo, Peggy and baby William
9. Naledi, Tiro and Dineo
10. Ahmet – and why is he on his own?

Round 5: Animals

1. Who liked marmalade?
2. Who WAS marmalade?
3. Who was SOME PIG?
4. Which animal hero of a 1936 children’s book banned by General Franco and burnt by Hitler was, according to Life magazine, accused of being “everything from a fascist to a pacifist to a burlesque sit-down striker”?
5. Who had a cat called Mog? (At least two possible answers.)
6. Describe an owl service…
7. …and another?
8. Two benevolent despots in children’s literature happen to be elephants. Can you name them?
9. In which book did someone’s uncle get planted by another elephant who thought he must be a tree?
10. And whose aunts and uncles spanked him for his insatiable curiosity?
11. Who is made of patchwork?
12. .…and who of velveteen?
13. Where in the world does a spider play tricks and tell tales, and what is his name?
14. Which canine babysitter lost sight of her three charges?
15. Who got fed up with spring cleaning?

Round 6: Identify the author and/or the book(s) they are talking about.

1. “It is the book I’m proudest of because it had something to do with the death of the Dick and Jane primers”
2. “It was a brilliant title but the publishers didn’t like at first. Even reviewers at the time said things like: “in spite of the strange title, it’s a very good book”
3. “It seemed to me almost that my father had got to where he was by climbing upon my infant shoulders.”
4. “He takes possession of every story I try to write, even though they are not about him.”
5. “I knew it would make people feel uncomfortable.”
6. “If you read my novels, you know, they’re not black novels – they’ve just got characters in them; it’s about who they are, you know, the story and it represents the communities that I’ve lived in, which are very mixed communities. I don’t sit down and go “right, I’ve got to write black literature for black people” or anything like that. I just write stories.”

Round 7: Snippets of random information

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1. Which two UK authors used to enjoy a drink together in this pub, in a town whose gas lamps inspired a famous scene in a book by one of them?
2. Which humorous US cartoonist and writer for adults and children was part blind after being shot in the eye by his brother in a childhood game of William Tell?
3. Which Brit signed a seven book children’s “nurturing” book deal in Australia and New Zealand in early 2020? (10,000 bonus points if you can guess my thoughts about this.)
4. Which UK children’s author and illustrator said about children: “I get on with them perfectly well but spend time with them? No, no, no. There’s no need, you see. I just make it all up.”

Round 8: Lastly, in honour of a Europe I’m sorry and angry to be forced to leave:

Photo by Mau00ebl BALLAND on Pexels.com

1. (Picture book) WTWTA by MS
2. (Picture book) M by LB (oh! I already had this in Round 2. 2 free points then.)
3. (Picture book) M by DB
4. (Poems) S by HH
5. (Autobiography) TDOAF by AF
6. (Classic) F by A
7. (20^th century Classic) PL by AL
8. Where might you find Pom, Flora, Alexander and their cousin Arthur?
9. Why might reading fairy tales not be an entirely happy experience?
10. How have cartoonists recently compared Boris Johnson to an Italian classic character?

Questions © Jessica Norrie 2020. Photos of The Unicorn and Snowman with books © Jessica Norrie.