100 Fun Facts About Children's Books

Dr. Seuss won a bet by writing which book with just 50 different words?

Green Eggs and Ham uses exactly 50 different words, and 'anywhere' is the only one with more than one syllable.

Which Random House co-founder lost a book-writing bet to Dr. Seuss?

Bennett Cerf bet Seuss $50 that he couldn't write an engaging children's book using only 50 different words.

Which Seuss book grew from a school word list?

The Cat in the Hat: Houghton Mifflin's William Spaulding challenged Geisel to write a primer children couldn't put down, and it uses just 236 different words.

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

Max, sent to bed without supper, sails to the island of the Wild Things and is crowned their king, then returns home to find his hot supper waiting for him.

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

The book began as Where the Wild Horses Are until Sendak admitted he could not draw horses; the 'things' he drew instead were caricatures of his own aunts and uncles from their noisy weekly visits in Brooklyn.

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

The Thneed, 'a Fine-Something-That-All-People-Need', sells for $3.98 to the first passer-by, and the Once-ler's factory soon strips away every Truffula Tree.

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

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

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

'Some Pig' comes first; Charlotte follows it with 'Terrific', 'Radiant' and finally 'Humble', a word the rat Templeton finds on a scrap of newspaper at the county fair.

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

Garth Williams drew both; Stuart Little (1945) was his first children's book, and he went on to illustrate the Little House series and George Selden's The Cricket in Times Square.

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

Stuart is described as looking very much like a mouse in every way and stands about two inches high; he later leaves home to search for his friend, the bird Margalo.

Why are the characters in Goodnight Moon rabbits rather than humans?

Hurd drew rabbits better than people, so the child and the old lady became bunnies, and a picture on the wall shows a scene from The Runaway Bunny.

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

The New York Public Library, where the hugely influential Anne Carroll Moore had shaped children's services, kept it off its shelves until 1972; the book sold only about 6,000 copies in its first year.

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

On Sunday he eats one nice green leaf and feels much better; Saturday's ten-item binge had included a pickle, a slice of salami and a piece of cherry pie.

Eric Carle illustrated which 1967 picture book written by Bill Martin Jr.?

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?: Martin asked Carle to illustrate it after spotting a red lobster Carle had made for a magazine advert.

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

The picture letter went to Noel Moore, her former governess's son, and after publishers turned the book down Potter printed it privately in 1901.

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

His jacket and shoes, the second set Peter has lost in a fortnight, end up on Mr. McGregor's scarecrow, and Peter is put to bed with camomile tea.

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

Flopsy, Mopsy and Cotton-tail go down the lane to gather blackberries while Peter raids the garden, and they get bread, milk and blackberries for supper.

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

Hill Top, in the Lake District village of Near Sawrey, was bought in 1905; Potter became a prize-winning Herdwick sheep breeder and left some 4,000 acres to the National Trust.

A. A. Milne's Pooh took part of his name from a London Zoo bear named after which city?

Winnie was short for Winnipeg, Colebourn's home city; the Canadian veterinary officer bought the black bear cub in 1914 and left her at London Zoo, where Christopher Robin Milne visited her.

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

His son Graham's teddy, Growler, was Shepard's model, rather than the real Christopher Robin's bear that gave Pooh his name.

Roald Dahl had Norwegian parents, but in which country was he born?

Wales: Dahl was born there, and his family later gave him what his granddaughter called a 'sort of Viking funeral'.

Roald Dahl's first children's book, written for Walt Disney, was about which creatures?

Gremlins: Dahl, himself an RAF pilot, based the story on air force folklore, but Disney's planned animated film was never made.

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

Quentin Blake was the first Children's Laureate, serving from 1999 to 2001; the post was created by Michael Morpurgo and Ted Hughes, and Anne Fine succeeded him.

Which of Charlie Bucket's four grandparents goes with him on Willy Wonka's factory tour?

Grandpa Joe, bedridden for years, leaps out of bed when Charlie finds the last Golden Ticket.

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

Augustus Gloop, the greedy boy, finds the first ticket and is also the first to leave the tour, sucked up a pipe after tumbling into the chocolate river.

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

Sophie, snatched from her orphanage dormitory during the witching hour, was named after Dahl's granddaughter Sophie Dahl; the giant's name stands for Big Friendly Giant.

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

Miss Trunchbull, a former Olympic hammer-thrower, hurls Amanda Thripp over the playground fence by her pigtails and locks pupils in a spiked cupboard called the Chokey.

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

A rhinoceros that had escaped from London Zoo ate them in broad daylight on a crowded street, leaving James with 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?

The White Witch conjures enchanted Turkish Delight, which makes whoever eats it crave more; Edmund eats several pounds and agrees to bring his siblings to her house.

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

Mathematics: Charles Dodgson lectured in it at Christ Church from 1855, and he wrote down the Alice stories at the request of Alice Liddell, the dean's daughter.

Which children's book heroine lives at Villa Villekulla?

Pippi Longstocking: Astrid Lindgren's daughter Karin made up the name while sick in bed and asked her mother for a story about her.

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

Bloomsbury published it on 26 June 1997 with a first print run of just 500 copies, about 300 of which went to libraries; editor Barry Cunningham had taken it on.

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

Scholastic retitled it Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone for the September 1998 US edition, editor Arthur Levine fearing that 'philosopher' would not suggest magic to American children.

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

Hedwig is a snowy owl, bought at Eeylops Owl Emporium in Diagon Alley as a birthday present; Harry names her after a saint he finds in A History of Magic.

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

Poseidon claims Percy at Camp Half-Blood, which makes him a forbidden child: the Big Three, Zeus, Poseidon and Hades, had sworn after the Second World War to father no more demigods.

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

Rowley Jefferson 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?

Funbrain ran the online version in daily instalments from 2004, and it drew some 20 million reads before Amulet Books published the first hardcover in April 2007.

Which Lois Lowry novel about a boy chosen as the Receiver of Memory won the 1994 Newbery Medal?

The Giver: it ranked 11th on the American Library Association's list of the most challenged books of the 1990s.

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

The artist: the medal honours the illustrator, and its face shows Randolph Caldecott's own illustration of John Gilpin's runaway ride.

Which Chris Van Allsburg book about a boy's Christmas Eve train ride won the 1986 Caldecott Medal?

The Polar Express was Van Allsburg's second Caldecott Medal after Jumanji, and it was made into a 2004 film.

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

Peter, the boy in the red snowsuit, was the first African American protagonist in a Caldecott-winning book; Keats based him on a Life magazine photo strip that had hung in his studio for 22 years.

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

Klickitat Street is a real street in Portland's Grant Park neighborhood, where Cleary grew up; bronze statues of Ramona, Henry Huggins and his dog Ribsy stand in Grant Park.

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.

Who brings Curious George from Africa to the big city?

The Man with the Yellow Hat catches George with his hat and sails him to the city; authors Margret and H. A. Rey fled Paris in June 1940 on home-made bicycles with the manuscript.

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

He came from darkest Peru, sent by his Aunt Lucy; Michael Bond based him on a lone teddy bought for his wife on Christmas Eve 1956 and on wartime evacuees with labels round their necks.

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

Mr. Krupp, principal of Jerome Horwitz Elementary in Piqua, Ohio, is hypnotized with a 3-D Hypno-Ring; 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?

Axel Scheffler, a German-born illustrator, had already drawn Donaldson's A Squash and a Squeeze in 1993 and went on to illustrate the 2004 sequel The Gruffalo's Child.

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

In the tale a fox has a tiger walk behind him, so the fleeing animals seem to fear the fox; Donaldson's trickster became a small woodland hero who bluffs a fox, an owl and a snake.

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

Jack and Annie find the tree house in the woods of Frog Creek, Pennsylvania; their early missions come from the enchantress Morgan le Fay, librarian of Camelot.

In L. Frank Baum's original book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, what color are Dorothy's magic shoes?

Silver shoes carry Dorothy home in the 1900 novel; the 1939 film turned them red to take advantage of its three-strip Technicolor process.

Marc Brown's bespectacled Arthur Read, star of the Arthur books and a long-running PBS cartoon, is which animal?

An aardvark is what Arthur is, and in 1976's Arthur's Nose he had the long snout to prove it, before his look changed over later books.

In Kate DiCamillo's Because of Winn-Dixie, ten-year-old Opal names her stray dog after what?

A supermarket gave the scruffy stray his name: Opal found him wrecking a Winn-Dixie store in Naomi, Florida, and decided to take him home.

Wally, the striped-shirted figure hidden in Martin Handford's puzzle books, goes by which name in the United States?

Waldo replaced Wally because an executive at the American publisher disliked the original name. Elsewhere he is Charlie in France and Walter in Germany.

In Judith Viorst's Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, where does Alexander want to move?

Australia is Alexander's escape plan all day long, until his mother tells him that everybody has bad days, wherever they live.

In Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, which live birds serve as mallets in the Queen of Hearts' croquet game?

Flamingos are the mallets and the Queen's soldiers act as the hoops, so Alice can barely play before the shouting about beheadings starts.

In J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan, what did the crocodile swallow that warns Captain Hook of its approach?

A ticking clock inside the crocodile gives Hook his warning. The beast has stalked him ever since Peter Pan fed it the pirate's severed hand.

In Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, gum-chewing Violet Beauregarde swells up into which giant fruit?

A blueberry is what Violet resembles after snatching Wonka's experimental three-course-meal gum; the swelling starts when she reaches the dessert course.

Paddington Bear, found at a London station with a battered suitcase, is famous for loving which sandwiches?

Marmalade sandwiches are Paddington's staple, and in a 2022 Jubilee sketch Queen Elizabeth II told him she keeps one in her handbag for emergencies.

Raymond Briggs's picture book The Snowman, later a Christmas TV film, tells its story in what unusual way?

Without any words, The Snowman shows a boy whose snowman comes to life. The 1982 animated film has no dialogue either, apart from the song Walking in the Air.

In J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, which dragon sleeps on the dwarves' treasure inside the Lonely Mountain?

Smaug pillaged the dwarvish kingdom long ago and sleeps on its hoard, until Bilbo Baggins spots a gap in the dragon's armor while chatting with him.

In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, what kind of creature is Mr. Tumnus, whom Lucy meets in a snowy wood?

A faun carrying an umbrella and parcels through a snowy wood was the single mental picture from which C. S. Lewis said the whole first Narnia story grew.

In J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter books, which Quidditch position does Harry play for the Gryffindor house team?

Seeker is the one role that can end a match: catching the Golden Snitch stops play at once and earns the team 150 points.

Horton, who hears a Who and hatches an egg in two Dr. Seuss books, is what kind of animal?

An elephant, Horton is tricked into sitting on a lazy bird's egg while she decamps to Palm Beach, and what finally hatches is an elephant-bird.

In Ludwig Bemelmans's first Madeline book, what does the Paris schoolgirl go to hospital to have removed?

Her appendix comes out, and after Madeline shows off the scar, the other little girls wake Miss Clavel that night wailing to have theirs out too.

In Louisa May Alcott's Little Women, which of the four March sisters is a hot-tempered tomboy and aspiring writer?

Jo was drawn from life: the novel is loosely based on Alcott and her three sisters, and Alcott described herself as a tomboy who loved foot-races and climbing trees.

Johanna Spyri's Heidi is sent at age five to live with her grandfather in the mountains of which country?

Switzerland's Alps are Heidi's home, and the novel is among the best-known works of Swiss literature and one of the best-selling books ever written.

In Carlo Collodi's The Adventures of Pinocchio, which poor woodcarver shapes the puppet from a talking piece of wood?

Geppetto is so poor that he carves the puppet hoping to make a living as a puppeteer, and names the wooden boy himself.

L. M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables sends orphan Anne Shirley to a farm in which Canadian province?

Prince Edward Island is where the Cuthbert siblings farm at Green Gables, and Anne arrives by mistake: they had asked the orphanage for a boy to help with the work.

In Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island, which innkeeper's son finds the map in an old sailor's sea chest?

Jim Hawkins and his mother take the map from a lodger's sea chest at the Admiral Benbow Inn. Stevenson's working title for the novel was The Sea Cook.

In Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book, what kind of animal is Bagheera, friend and mentor to the man-cub Mowgli?

A black panther, Bagheera takes his name from a Hindi word for panther or leopard, and in Kipling's stories he was born in a king's cages and broke the lock to escape.

In Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows, which character becomes obsessed with motor cars and crashes several?

Toad wrecks car after car until his friends step in, then steals one, lands in prison, and escapes disguised as a washerwoman with help from the gaoler's daughter.

In Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince, what animal does the prince ask the stranded narrator to draw?

A sheep is the request, and after three failed attempts the frustrated narrator draws a crate instead and claims the animal is inside.

In Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, which failing actor schemes to seize the Baudelaire fortune?

Count Olaf trails the three siblings from guardian to guardian with his acting troupe in tow, after their parents die in a house fire.

Which author wrote the Goosebumps horror series, which began with the novel Welcome to Dead House?

R. L. Stine became so tied to the series that its feature films cast Jack Black as a fictionalized, exaggerated version of the author himself.

Dav Pilkey's graphic-novel hero Dog Man has a dog's head on the body of a man with which job?

Police officer Knight and his dog Greg are both hurt in an explosion, and when doctors cannot save both, a nurse suggests sewing Greg's head onto Knight's body.

Which R. J. Palacio novel follows Auggie Pullman, a boy with facial differences starting fifth grade at Beecher Prep?

Wonder grew out of a real moment, when Palacio's son reacted with distress on seeing a girl with facial deformities, and out of a Natalie Merchant song of the same name.

In which Louis Sachar novel is Stanley Yelnats wrongly sent to Camp Green Lake, a boot camp in the Texas desert?

Holes takes its title from the camp's routine: every day each boy must dig one five feet wide and five feet deep, supposedly to build character.

The Reverend W. Awdry set his Railway Series stories about Thomas the Tank Engine on which fictional island?

Sodor comes from a real church title: Awdry, a cleric, noticed that the Diocese of Sodor and Man had an Isle of Man but no island of Sodor, so he invented one.

In Shel Silverstein's The Giving Tree, what kind of tree gives a boy everything until only a stump is left?

An apple tree gives the boy her fruit to sell, her branches for a house and her trunk for a boat, and finally her stump as a quiet place to sit and rest.

In Don Freeman's Corduroy, the department-store teddy bear goes searching at night for what missing item?

A button is missing from his overalls, and Corduroy mistakes a mattress tuft for it before a girl named Lisa takes him home and sews on a new one.

In Munro Leaf's The Story of Ferdinand, what would the gentle bull rather do than fight in the Madrid bullring?

Smell flowers under his cork tree is all Ferdinand wants; he is taken to Madrid only because he sat on a bumblebee and was mistaken for a mad, aggressive bull.

In A. A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh stories, which gloomy character is forever losing his tail?

Eeyore's name is a donkey's bray written down: Milne did not pronounce the 'r', so it sounds like the 'hee-haw' an American would write.

In Joanna Cole's Magic School Bus books, which teacher takes her class on field trips inside the human body?

Ms. Frizzle's field trips also reach outer space and the Cretaceous Period, and Lily Tomlin gave the character her voice in the TV series.

Which British spy novelist wrote the children's book Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang as a bedtime story for his son?

Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond, wrote it while recovering from a heart attack, and died two months before the book was published in 1964.

Which DreamWorks film hero began life in a children's picture book by cartoonist William Steig?

Shrek! the 1990 book is about a repugnant monster who leaves home to see the world and ends up marrying an ugly princess, eleven years before the film.

In Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Tom cons other children into doing which punishment chore for him?

Whitewashing a fence was Aunt Polly's punishment for fighting, and Tom made it look so enjoyable that neighborhood children traded him trinkets for a turn.

Roger Hargreaves launched the Mr. Men books with which orange character, known for his long, bendy arms?

Mr. Tickle is said to have begun with a question from Hargreaves's young son Adam, who asked his father what a tickle would look like.

Scott O'Dell's Island of the Blue Dolphins is based on a real woman left alone for 18 years off which US state?

California's San Nicolas Island was home to the Lone Woman, a Nicoleño left behind around 1835 who is said to have lived in a shelter held up by whale ribs.

Beatrix Potter's washerwoman Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle, who launders the other animals' clothes, is what kind of animal?

A hedgehog, Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle was inspired by Potter's own pet of that name and by Kitty MacDonald, a Scottish washerwoman the Potters employed for eleven summers.

Which C. S. Lewis novel, sixth of the Narnia books to be published, shows Aslan creating that world?

The Magician's Nephew is a prequel, and it explains the famous lamp-post too: it starts as a section of a London one, brought in by accidental visitors from 1900.

Kenneth Grahame, author of The Wind in the Willows, spent nearly thirty years working at which London institution?

The Bank of England made Grahame its Secretary at thirty-nine, and in 1903 a man walked in and fired three shots at him with a revolver, missing every time.

Laura Ingalls Wilder's first book, Little House in the Big Woods, recalls her early childhood in which US state?

Wisconsin's Big Woods near Pepin were home in the early 1870s, and the book records the homesteading skills Laura observed and began to practice as a small child.

In Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time, Meg Murry crosses the universe by a fold in space-time called what?

A tesseract lets Mrs Whatsit, Mrs Who and Mrs Which whisk the children between planets, a way of traveling that the book calls tessering.

Tove Jansson's Moomins, round white trolls who resemble hippos, were created by an author from which country?

Finland was Jansson's home, though her family belonged to its Swedish-speaking minority and she wrote the Moomin books in Swedish.

Nancy Drew mysteries have been written by many different ghostwriters, all under which shared pen name?

Carolyn Keene never existed: Edward Stratemeyer conceived the character, wrote plot outlines and hired Mildred Wirt Benson to ghostwrite the first volumes under the name.

J. M. Barrie gave the copyright of his Peter Pan works to which London hospital?

Great Ormond Street Hospital kept earning from the gift even after the play's copyright expired: a 1988 Act of Parliament granted it royalties in perpetuity.

In Ann M. Martin's The Baby-Sitters Club, which Stoneybrook girl founds the club and serves as its president?

Kristy got the idea after watching her mother struggle to find a sitter for her younger brother, then signed up three friends as her fellow officers.

At the end of Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid, the heartbroken mermaid's body dissolves into what?

Sea foam is what her body becomes after the prince marries someone else, but instead of ceasing to exist she rises as a spirit, a daughter of the air.

In From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, where do runaways Claudia and Jamie hide?

The Metropolitan Museum of Art gives the pair an antique bed to sleep in and a fountain to bathe in, where they also collect wishing coins for spending money.