50 Fun Facts About Gordon Korman

Gordon Korman wrote his first published novel as an English class assignment in which school year?

Seventh grade is when the assignment turned into This Can't Be Happening at Macdonald Hall. Scholastic published it when he was 14.

Gordon Korman's first novel began in an English class taught by which unlikely staff member?

The track coach had to cover English and let the class write whatever it wanted for more than four months, long enough for Korman to finish a whole book.

Who typed up the manuscript of Gordon Korman's first novel before it was mailed off to Scholastic?

His mother had to type the book for him. Scholastic published it when he was a high school freshman.

Gordon Korman says his first novel, a school assignment, earned which mark because of its messiness?

B-plus was all the future bestseller earned. Korman calls himself a so-so student who was lazy, not short of ability.

As a toddler, Gordon Korman reportedly ate dinner under the table because he wanted to become what?

A dog was his career plan at age two, as his parents later told him. He never had one as a pet while growing up.

Which future Canadian prime minister said Gordon Korman's first novel awoke his interest in reading?

Justin Trudeau praised the book on the television series Great Canadian Books in 2010, when he was still a member of parliament.

Which future pop star played gymnast Amanda Benson in the TV movie of Gordon Korman's novel Swindle?

Ariana Grande played Amanda "Mandy" Benson in the 2013 movie, which drew more than 4.2 million viewers at its premiere.

In Gordon Korman's novel Swindle, Griffin Bing is cheated out of a rare card showing which sports legend?

Babe Ruth is on the 1920 card, which a dealer buys from Griffin for $120 even though it is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

In Gordon Korman's Restart, former bully Chase Ambrose loses his memory after falling from where?

A roof fall leaves Chase with amnesia, so he has to learn his whole life over again, starting with his own name.

Gordon Korman's first try at historical fiction was a trilogy set aboard which doomed passenger ship?

The Titanic carries four young characters, Paddy, Sophie, Alfie and Juliana, through the books Unsinkable, Collision Course and S.O.S.

Gordon Korman picked the publisher for his first manuscript because he held which classroom job?

Book order monitor for his class's Scholastic purchases, he figured he was practically an employee already.

Gordon Korman moved to the United States to study dramatic writing at which school?

New York University is where he earned his 1985 degree, with a minor in motion picture and television.

Gordon Korman, who grew up mostly in Ontario, was born in which Canadian city?

Montreal was home until 1970, when his family moved to Thornhill, Ontario.

Which Gordon Korman novel was published in 2022 as his 100th book?

The Fort reached shelves 44 and a half years after his first book and debuted on the New York Times bestseller list.

In Gordon Korman's Macdonald Hall books, students give their stern, bespectacled headmaster which nickname?

The Fish is William R. Sturgeon, nicknamed for his surname and for the fish-like glare he turns on students who displease him.

In Gordon Korman's Macdonald Hall books, which headmistress runs the girls' finishing school across the road?

Miss Scrimmage keeps a shotgun to scare off intruders, though her control of it is so poor that it goes off in random directions.

The first Bruno & Boots TV movie, based on Gordon Korman's Macdonald Hall books, premiered on which fitting date?

April Fool's Day 2016 brought Go Jump in the Pool to Canadian screens, and two more movies about the pranksters followed exactly a year later.

At the end of Gordon Korman's first novel, Bruno and Boots rescue an ambassador's son from which stranded craft?

A hot air balloon tangled in a tree holds the boy. School genius Elmer Drimsdale sees it through his telescope and decides it is a UFO.

In Gordon Korman's Go Jump in the Pool, Macdonald Hall boys raise money to keep up with which rival school?

York Academy has a pool, and some Macdonald Hall parents are ready to transfer their sons there for its richer sports opportunities.

In Gordon Korman's The Zucchini Warriors, Elmer Drimsdale tries to breed which endangered animals at Macdonald Hall?

Manchurian bush hamsters start as a group of four and multiply past 400 after feasting on spicy zucchini sticks dropped under the stadium bleachers.

In Gordon Korman's I Want to Go Home!, Rudy Miller keeps trying to escape from which kind of place?

A sleepaway camp on an island is Rudy's idea of prison. His school's guidance department sent him there against his wishes.

Bugs Potter, the title character of two early Gordon Korman novels, is a prodigy on which instrument?

Drums are his whole life. During a summer of roughing it at a lake, he turns a pair of jeans and a cooking pot into a kit.

In Gordon Korman's Don't Care High, apathetic students rally behind mysterious Mike Otis in which role?

Student council president is a post nobody had filled since 1956. Mike runs unopposed after new kid Paul Abrams nominates him.

In Gordon Korman's Radio Fifth Grade, Benjy Driver's school radio show gets stuck with which uncooperative animal?

A parrot that will not talk is one of Benjy's headaches, along with a bully who hogs the airwaves, yet the ratings for Kidsview soar.

In Gordon Korman's The Chicken Doesn't Skate, a science-project chick named Henrietta becomes a mascot in which sport?

Hockey players adopt Henrietta as a good luck charm, until the class learns she is due to be cooked and eaten at the science fair.

In Gordon Korman's No More Dead Dogs, Wallace Wallace's honest book report lands him in detention with which group?

The drama club is rehearsing a stage version of Old Shep, My Pal, the very book Wallace refused to praise.

In Gordon Korman's Island trilogy, six kids on a character-building sailing trip are shipwrecked in which body of water?

The Pacific Ocean claims their schooner, the Phoenix, after a storm and an engine fire, and the survivors drift for days on a piece of the cabin top.

Gordon Korman's trilogy of The Contest, The Climb and The Summit follows young climbers on which mountain?

Mount Everest is the prize: four kids compete to become the youngest climber in history to reach the top.

Gordon Korman's trilogy of The Discovery, The Deep and The Danger sends four teens on a summer of what?

Scuba diving puts Kaz, Dante, Adriana and Star on the trail of a sunken treasure, with killer sharks for company.

Gordon Korman's first 39 Clues book sends Amy and Dan Cahill to Vienna on the trail of which composer?

Mozart had a sister, Nannerl, whose stolen diary the Cahill siblings chase from Vienna to Salzburg and Venice.

Gordon Korman wrote the second 39 Clues book, but which author launched the series with The Maze of Bones?

Rick Riordan opened the series in 2008 and later shared the writing of Vespers Rising with Korman, Peter Lerangis and Jude Watson.

Which 39 Clues book by Gordon Korman entered the New York Times children's best-seller list at number one?

One False Note debuted at number one in December 2008 and stayed on the children's chapter-book list for 12 weeks.

Which network turned Gordon Korman's heist novel Swindle into a TV movie filmed in Vancouver?

Nickelodeon premiered the movie in August 2013, with Noah Crawford as ringleader Griffin Bing.

Luthor, the fearsome four-legged mascot of Gordon Korman's Swindle series, belongs to which breed?

Doberman Luthor starts out as the villain's trained attack animal and ends up as the team's beloved 150-pound companion.

Griffin Bing, the ringleader of the heists in Gordon Korman's Swindle series, goes by which nickname?

The Man with the Plan is a sixth grader in the first book, where he recruits classmates for their climbing, acting, computer and animal skills.

In Gordon Korman's Ungifted, Donovan Curtis gets in trouble for whacking a statue of which mythological figure?

Atlas, struck during a basketball game, sets off the wreck of the gym. A paperwork slip then sends Donovan to a school for the gifted instead of to punishment.

In Gordon Korman's Ungifted, troublemaker Donovan Curtis finds his place at the gifted school in which class?

Robotics is where Donovan shines, steering the team's machine with a joystick and helping to name it Tin Man Metallica SquarePants.

In Gordon Korman's The Unteachables, which burned-out teacher is assigned to the misfit class in room 117?

Mr. Kermit was a rising star until a cheating scandal shattered his career, and he is one year from early retirement when the story begins.

In Gordon Korman's Schooled, Capricorn Anderson enters a public middle school after growing up where?

A hippie commune called Garland Farm is all Cap knows. He has never watched television or tasted pizza before his grandmother lands in the hospital.

In Gordon Korman's trilogy about 12-year-old Jackson Opus, Jax discovers an extraordinary natural gift for what?

Hypnotism lets Jax make anybody do whatever he wants, a power that pulls him into a conspiracy run by Dr. Elias Mako and his Sentia Institute.

In Gordon Korman's Slacker, Cameron Boxer's fake school club ends up on a mission to save Elvis, which kind of animal?

A beaver named Elvis becomes the cause of a club Cam invented purely as damage control, after his gaming nearly let the house burn down around him.

Gordon Korman says Cameron Boxer, the game-obsessed hero of Slacker, was inspired by which member of his family?

His older son was, by Korman's account, a video-game-addicted couch potato as a teenager, and the boy's gamer friends fed into the character too.

In one Gordon Korman novel, students answer swastika vandalism by building what, six million pieces long?

A paper chain six million links long is the students' project in Linked, meant to bring people together after the vandalism divides their quiet town.

In Gordon Korman's Born to Rock, a Harvard-bound teen becomes a roadie for a band playing which style of music?

Punk outfit Purge is on a comeback tour, and Leo signs on hoping that lead singer King Maggot will pay his college tuition.

Gordon Korman's teen novel Jake, Reinvented is a high school retelling of which classic American novel?

The Great Gatsby gets a nod in the setting: Jake Garrett attends F. Scott Fitzgerald High and hosts the party to go to every Friday night.

In Gordon Korman's Son of the Mob, crime boss's son Vince Luca falls for a girl whose father has which job?

FBI agent is the worst job her dad could have: he is the very investigator who wants to put Vince's father away for good.

Which series does Gordon Korman call his hardest to write, since its narrators don't grasp what is happening to them?

Masterminds follows kids who slowly learn that their whole lives are a twisted experiment, and Korman likens writing it to conquering a very complicated jigsaw puzzle.

Gordon Korman's Ungifted was chosen for ConnectED, the literacy initiative of which U.S. president?

Barack Obama's initiative picked the novel, and Korman joked that he was feeling very presidential and that no veto was expected.

Gordon Korman calls which event the most intense research topic he ever tackled for a novel?

World War II drives War Stories, in which Trevor follows his great-grandfather Jacob's path from training to D-Day and on to a French village.

In Gordon Korman's Whatshisface, a boy trapped in Cooper Vega's phone says he knew which famous playwright?

William Shakespeare is the link to Roddy, the 16th-century boy in the phone, and Cooper's new home town is fittingly named Stratford.