Getting your questions ready
Getting your questions ready
All 10 questions with answers and explanations. Play this daily
Q 01Who wrote the Jazz Age novel about the American Dream that sold poorly in its author's lifetime?
F. Scott Fitzgerald
F. Scott Fitzgerald died believing his work forgotten, but special wartime editions of The Great Gatsby handed to US troops helped revive it.
Q 02Which frequently challenged Pulitzer-winning novel views racial injustice through a young girl's eyes?
To Kill a Mockingbird
Harper Lee's 'To Kill a Mockingbird' is celebrated for its message against prejudice, yet it is a consistent target for banning over its racial slurs and frank treatment of difficult topics. It remains widely assigned in schools.
Q 03Which once-challenged novel about totalitarianism features Winston Smith?
1984
George Orwell's dystopian novel '1984' has faced numerous challenges over the decades for its political themes, but its warnings about government control and surveillance have made it a vital text in education.
Q 04Who wrote the once-controversial allegorical novel about boys stranded on a deserted island?
William Golding
William Golding's 'Lord of the Flies' has been challenged for its violence, disturbing themes, and language. Despite this, its exploration of civilization versus savagery makes it a powerful and frequently studied work in schools.
Q 05Which African American author's often-challenged memoir of childhood trauma remains a high-school staple?
Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is often challenged for its account of her rape at eight, after which she was almost mute for five years.
Q 06Which Steinbeck novel did California growers denounce as 'communist propaganda' before it won the Pulitzer Prize?
The Grapes of Wrath
The Grapes of Wrath was banned from Kern County's schools and libraries in 1939 and publicly burned, then won the Pulitzer Prize in 1940.
Q 07Who wrote the Pulitzer-winning novel of slavery and generational trauma that faced opposition for its graphic content?
Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison based Beloved on Margaret Garner, who in 1856 killed her two-year-old daughter rather than see her returned to slavery.
Q 08Which graphic novel Holocaust memoir was pulled from a school curriculum over nudity and language?
Maus
Art Spiegelman's 'Maus' was pulled from the curriculum by a Tennessee school board in 2022 over profanity, violence, and nudity, and the publicity sent it straight back onto the bestseller lists.
Q 09Which controversial 1930s Chicago South Side novel about race and poverty is now a landmark of American realism?
Native Son
Richard Wright's Native Son was the Book-of-the-Month Club's first pick by an African American author, though sexual scenes were cut first.
Q 10Which novel follows a teenage boy and his storefront-preacher stepfather in Harlem?
Go Tell It on the Mountain
James Baldwin drew Go Tell It on the Mountain from his own Harlem boyhood under a preacher stepfather, and he began preaching himself at 14.