50 Fun Facts About Children's Books

How many words did Dr. Seuss limit himself to in Green Eggs and Ham, to win a bet?

The whole book really does use just 50 distinct words, and 49 of them have only one syllable; the odd one out is 'anywhere'.

Which Random House publisher bet Dr. Seuss $50 he could not write Green Eggs and Ham with so few words?

Seuss later insisted the book had no deeper meaning at all: 'the only meaning was that Bennett Cerf, my publisher, bet me fifty bucks.'

The finished text of The Cat in the Hat contains how many different words?

Geisel wrote it as a more entertaining reading primer, choosing from a school word list, and claimed he built the story around the first two rhyming words he found: cat and hat.

In Where the Wild Things Are, what is the name of the boy in the wolf suit?

He is sent to bed without supper, sails to the island of the Wild Things, and comes home to find his dinner waiting, still hot.

Sendak's Wild Things replaced which animals from his original idea, which he couldn't draw?

The monsters that replaced them were caricatures of Sendak's own aunts and uncles, drawn from memories of their noisy weekly visits to his Brooklyn home.

In Dr. Seuss's The Lorax, what does the Once-ler knit from the tufts of Truffula Trees?

The Once-ler sells his first one for $3.98 and insists it is a 'Fine-Something-That-All-People-Need', which is where the trouble starts.

In Charlotte's Web, what is the name of the pig whose life Charlotte saves?

He is the runt of a litter of eleven, spared from the axe when eight-year-old Fern Arable begs her father for his life.

What are the first two words Charlotte weaves into her web to save the pig?

She follows it with 'Terrific', 'Radiant' and finally 'Humble', a word the rat Templeton finds on a scrap of newspaper at the fair.

Who illustrated both Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little for E. B. White?

Stuart Little was his very first work for children; he went on to draw the Little House books and Beverly Cleary's Henry Huggins stories too.

In E. B. White's Stuart Little, the title character is a human child who looks exactly like which animal?

Stuart stands just over two inches tall, and the plot turns on his friendship with a canary named Margalo whom he protects from the family cat, Snowbell.

Why do bunnies, not humans, populate the great green room in Goodnight Moon?

Margaret Wise Brown gave Clement Hurd almost no direction, and the pair once planned to publish under the pen names 'Memory Ambrose' and 'Hurricane Jones'.

Which institution refused to stock Goodnight Moon for 25 years because its children's librarian hated it?

The book sold only 6,000 copies in its first season in 1947; the librarian in question was the hugely influential Anne Carroll Moore.

After his Saturday feast gives him a stomach ache, what does the Very Hungry Caterpillar eat on Sunday?

Saturday's ten-item binge included a pickle, a slice of salami and a piece of cherry pie; Eric Carle punched real holes through the pages to show where he had eaten.

Eric Carle's first picture book was a 1967 collaboration with author Bill Martin Jr. on which title?

Martin spotted a lobster Carle had collaged from tissue paper for an allergy-medicine advert and asked him to illustrate the book.

Beatrix Potter first wrote The Tale of Peter Rabbit in an 1893 letter to whom?

Publishers turned it down, so Potter printed it privately in 1901; Frederick Warne & Co picked it up the following year.

What does Peter Rabbit lose while escaping from Mr. McGregor's garden?

It is the second set he has lost in a fortnight, and Mr. McGregor uses them to dress a scarecrow; Peter is put to bed with chamomile tea.

What are the names of Peter Rabbit's three well-behaved sisters?

While Peter raids the garden, his sisters go down the lane to pick blackberries and get bread, milk and blackberries for supper.

Beatrix Potter used her book earnings to buy Hill Top Farm in which part of England?

She became a prize-winning breeder of Herdwick sheep and left nearly all her land to the National Trust, helping create the national park.

The real bear that gave Winnie-the-Pooh his name was itself named after which city?

Canadian soldier Harry Colebourn bought the black bear cub in 1914 and left her at London Zoo, where young Christopher Robin Milne visited her.

Illustrator E. H. Shepard based his drawings of Winnie-the-Pooh on which bear?

So the world's most famous drawings of Christopher Robin's bear are actually a portrait of a different teddy belonging to Shepard's son Graham.

Roald Dahl was born in 1916 in which country?

His parents were Norwegian immigrants, his first language was Norwegian, and he was named after the polar explorer who reached the South Pole.

Dahl was named after which famous Norwegian?

Amundsen had beaten Scott to the South Pole in 1911, five years before Dahl was born to Norwegian parents in Cardiff.

Roald Dahl illustrator Quentin Blake was the first holder of which British post in 1999?

He also drew the first Dr. Seuss book that Seuss did not illustrate himself, Great Day for Up! in 1974.

How many Golden Tickets does Willy Wonka hide in Wonka Bars in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory?

Charlie's first attempt, a birthday-present bar, turns up nothing; he finds his ticket with a coin discovered in the snow.

Which child finds the very first Golden Ticket in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory?

He is also the first to leave the tour, sucked up a pipe after falling into the chocolate river.

In Roald Dahl's The BFG, what is the name of the orphan girl the giant carries off?

She and the BFG appeared together on Royal Mail stamps in 2012, and the giant's name stands for Big Friendly Giant.

Who is the terrifying headmistress in Roald Dahl's Matilda?

A former hammer-thrower, she hurls a girl over the playground fence by her pigtails and locks pupils in a cupboard called the Chokey.

In James and the Giant Peach, which animal escaped from London Zoo eats James's parents?

That leaves James with the dreadful Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker, until a bag of magic crystals produces the peach.

What are the names of the three farmers who hunt Fantastic Mr Fox?

One fat, one short, one lean: Boggis keeps chickens, Bunce ducks and geese, and Bean turkeys and apples for cider.

In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, what treat does the White Witch use to tempt Edmund?

Sales of the sweet reportedly rose after the 2005 film, and the enchanted version makes anyone who eats it crave more and more.

Lewis Carroll's day job at Christ Church, Oxford, was lecturing in which subject?

His real name was Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, and scholars have found echoes of his work on logic in Wonderland's nonsense arguments.

Which is not something Pippi Longstocking can famously do?

She really does lift her horse one-handed; her father, Captain Ephraim Longstocking, was inspired by a real Swedish sailor who became king of a Pacific island.

Which publisher released Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in the UK in June 1997?

The first print run was tiny, and the American edition followed a year later under a different title.

Under what title was the first Harry Potter book published in the United States?

Scholastic worried American children would not pick up a book with 'philosopher' in the title.

What kind of bird is Hedwig, the pet Hagrid buys Harry Potter for his eleventh birthday?

Hagrid buys her in Diagon Alley alongside Harry's wand and school supplies, on the same trip he reveals that Harry is famous.

In Rick Riordan's The Lightning Thief, which Greek god turns out to be Percy Jackson's father?

That makes Percy a forbidden child: the three eldest gods had sworn an oath not to have any more children with mortals.

In Diary of a Wimpy Kid, who is Greg Heffley's best friend?

Greg calls him immature and stupid, yet Rowley later got his own spin-off series starting with Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid in 2019.

Before it was a book, Diary of a Wimpy Kid appeared online in 2004 on which educational website?

The web version ran for years before Amulet Books published the first hardcover in 2007; Jeff Kinney went on to create Poptropica himself.

Which book won the very first Newbery Medal in 1922?

Hendrik van Loon's history of the world took 163 of 212 librarian votes; the Newbery was the first children's book award anywhere.

Unlike the Newbery Medal, the Caldecott Medal is awarded to which contributor to a picture book?

It is named for Randolph Caldecott, a Victorian English artist, and Marcia Brown holds the record with three medals and six honors.

Dorothy P. Lathrop won the inaugural Caldecott Medal in 1938 for illustrating which book?

Mei Li won the following year, and Robert McCloskey's Boston ducklings took the 1942 medal.

The Snowy Day won the 1963 Caldecott Medal as the first winning picture book to feature what?

Keats was inspired by a strip of Life magazine photos of a small boy that had hung in his studio for more than twenty years.

In Beverly Cleary's books, Ramona Quimby and her family live on which road in Portland, Oregon?

It is a real street in Portland's Grant Park neighborhood, where Cleary grew up and where bronze statues of Ramona and Henry Huggins now stand.

In Judy Blume's Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, what is little brother Fudge's real first name?

His full name is Farley Drexel Hatcher; big brother Peter's misery includes Fudge swallowing his pet turtle, Dribble.

In the first Curious George book, who takes George from Africa to live in the big city?

Authors Margret and H. A. Rey fled Paris in June 1940 on home-made bicycles with the George manuscript packed in their luggage.

Paddington Bear arrived at a London railway station from 'darkest' where?

Michael Bond based him on a lone teddy he bought for his wife on Christmas Eve 1956, and on wartime evacuee children with labels round their necks.

Which mean principal do George and Harold hypnotize into becoming Captain Underpants?

The two fourth-grade pranksters live in Piqua, Ohio, and the series ended in 2015 before Pilkey launched the Dog Man spin-off.

Who illustrated Julia Donaldson's The Gruffalo, with its terrible tusks and purple prickles?

The pair had already worked together on A Squash and a Squeeze in 1993, and Scheffler drew the 2004 sequel The Gruffalo's Child too.

The Gruffalo was inspired by a Chinese folk tale in which a fox borrows the terror of which animal?

Donaldson turned the fox into a small trickster who bluffs a fox, an owl and a snake, and then bluffs the monster he made up.

Which brother and sister travel through time in Mary Pope Osborne's Magic Tree House series?

The tree house sits in the woods of Frog Creek, Pennsylvania, and their first missions come from the enchantress Morgan le Fay.