40 Fun Facts About Monument 14

In the novel Monument 14, which chain superstore becomes home to fourteen students stranded by a run of disasters?

Greenway is a fictional big-box chain, and its local branch shelters the kids for twelve days. They raid the aisles for food, sleeping bags and medicine.

In Monument 14, what freak weather wrecks Dean's school bus and kills its driver on the way to class?

A hailstorm dents the roof, cracks the windshield and tips the high-school bus onto its side in a store car park. The storm is a knock-on effect of a far bigger disaster on the Atlantic coast.

Which Monument 14 bus driver rams through a store's glass doors, then goes back to rescue the older students?

Mrs. Wooly then sets out on foot for the hospital to fetch help, leaving the teenagers in charge, and never comes back.

In Monument 14, people with which blood group fly into a murderous rage when they breathe the leaked chemicals?

Type O is narrator Dean's own blood group, so a few breaths of the tainted air make him attack his friends. The fury fades once he is back indoors and cleaned up.

In Monument 14, what does a volcanic eruption in the Canary Islands unleash on the East Coast of America?

A megatsunami half a mile tall swamps the Atlantic seaboard before dawn, and the freak weather over the Rockies follows from it. Geologists have modelled just such a wave from the same islands.

Which Boy Scout do the stranded kids of Monument 14 elect as their leader on the fourth day?

Niko beats popular senior Jake in the vote and soon has a map of the store drawn up, with a cleaning job for nearly every child.

Which champion diver in Monument 14, the girl of Dean's dreams, hides in the store's ceiling for days?

Astrid vanishes after tainted tap water sends her into a rage in which she nearly strangles a small boy.

At the end of Monument 14, which city's airport do most of the kids set out for in a repaired school bus?

Denver International Airport is where the government is said to be evacuating survivors. Dean stays behind, afraid of what the poisoned air outside would make him do.

Which former comedy actress wrote Monument 14, her first novel, after pitching the idea to an agent friend?

Emmy Laybourne spent years in improv and sketch comedy before turning to fiction. She has said she quit acting because she could not bear the auditions.

What does the word Monument in the title of the novel Monument 14 actually refer to?

The kids' hometown is Monument, a real Colorado town just north of Colorado Springs, and the 14 counts the students trapped together.

In Monument 14, where does Brayden brag that his father works, the source of the later chemical weapons leak?

NORAD really is based near Colorado Springs, a short drive from where the story is set. In the novel its secret stockpile is breached and a dark cloud rolls out over the region.

In Monument 14, what second-day disaster wakes the kids and ruptures a nearby chemical weapons store?

An earthquake measuring 8.2 sends the kids diving under restaurant tables and leaves every aisle strewn with fallen stock. The chapter is named for the magnitude.

In Monument 14, what do the leaked compounds do to exposed people whose blood is type A?

Severe blistering is the first sign in type A victims, followed by internal bleeding and organ failure. One of the teenagers breaks out in blisters within moments on the store roof.

In Monument 14, which sport do Jake Simonsen and his sidekick Brayden play for their high school?

Football made Jake a big shot at his old school in Texas, and he kept that status after transferring a year before the story begins.

In Monument 14, what does Josie sound from a countertop to stop four of the boys brawling?

An air horn marks Josie's return after days of silent shock; in the hush that follows she calls for a memorial ceremony and a leadership vote.

In Monument 14, what daily job does narrator Dean take on for the group, helped by a different child each day?

Cooking the meals has Dean turning out stuffed pancakes, curried tuna toast and cheese enchiladas from the store's shelves.

In Monument 14, what does Dean write and read aloud at the ceremony for those killed in the disasters?

A poem is Dean's contribution, written at Josie's request; he is the bookish one who keeps a notebook going through the whole ordeal.

In Monument 14, what does devout grade-schooler Batiste recite, riddled with mistakes, to close the memorial ceremony?

The Lord's Prayer comes out garbled, but Batiste means every word: he spends much of the book scolding the others for sinning.

In Monument 14, first-grader Ulysses knows little English; which language does he speak with the other kids instead?

Spanish-speaking Ulysses still makes a best friend of fellow first-grader Max, and turns up in Batman pajamas to help make huevos rancheros.

In Monument 14, which song does Dean lead the little kids in singing to drown out a raging stranger outside?

"Yankee Doodle" works: the frightened children join in and follow Dean away from the entrance while the stranger keeps bellowing threats.

In Monument 14, what is the name of the dog that stays behind in the store with Dean and the twins?

Luna is still with them in the sequel, hidden above the ceiling tiles alongside the youngest children when armed intruders break in.

In Monument 14, which adult outsider shoots Brayden after the kids let two men into the store?

Robbie's bullet forces the ending: Brayden needs a hospital, so most of the group risks the drive out in search of medical help.

In Monument 14, what name is given to the plan to clean and reorganise the wrecked store, section by section?

Operation Restock runs like a school day: three hours of tidying, a lunch break, then three more hours, with ruined goods hauled to an aisle renamed the Dump.

In Monument 14, what nickname do the kids give the bedrooms Josie builds out of the store's dressing rooms?

The Train got its name when little Ulysses remarked that the row of rooms looked like one. A living room with rugs, beanbags and a library sits just outside.

In Monument 14, what keeps the store's lights and freezers running while the world outside falls apart?

Rooftop solar panels keep working, Alex reasons, because enough light still filters through the discoloured sky to reach them.

In Monument 14, set in 2024, which real politician did Dean campaign door to door for back in sixth grade?

Cory Booker was still Mayor of Newark when the novel came out in 2012; he won his Senate seat a year later.

In Monument 14, what are the handheld gadgets called that go dead when the nationwide network collapses?

Minitabs stop working because three of the country's five satellite centres stood on the devastated Atlantic coast.

In Monument 14, what does the elementary bus driver use to break open the emergency exit of the smoking bus?

An ax gets the rear door open just in time: the wrecked bus explodes soon after the last survivors are driven clear.

In Monument 14, with the nationwide network down, what single old device brings the kids news from outside?

A television in the media department, an outdated flat-screen, still picks up the news; when its screen is damaged, Alex gets the sound working again.

Which sequel to Monument 14 follows the school bus journey and those left behind in the store at the same time?

Sky on Fire splits the telling between Dean, holed up in the store, and Alex, out on the road with the others.

In Savage Drift, the last Monument 14 novel, which country hosts the refugee camp where the survivors regroup?

Canada takes in the evacuees, but the calm does not last: word arrives that a friend given up for dead is alive in a prison camp back in the States.

In Savage Drift, the Monument 14 finale, which state holds the prison camp where Josie is locked up?

Missouri is a long way from the refugee camp, but her boyfriend sets out to reach her anyway, joined by Dean and two others.

In the Monument 14 series, runaway cadets from which service's nearby academy turn into armed bandits?

The Air Force has its real academy close to where the story is set, which is how deserting cadets come to be roaming the area with shotguns.

Which Monument 14 prequel story follows a scientist at a chemical weapons demonstration gone wrong?

"Dress Your Marines in White" follows Dr. James Cutlass, who shares a surname with Brayden, the bully forever boasting about where his dad works.

Which Saturday Night Live spin-off film features Monument 14's author as Mary Katherine Gallagher's best friend?

Superstar (1999) cast her as Helen, the braces-wearing sidekick, after producer Lorne Michaels came to see her one-woman stage show.

What working title did Monument 14's author first pitch to her agent, who loved the concept but hated the name?

We Are Val-U-Mart was one of five story ideas she pitched over lunch; the book it became was nominated for YALSA's Teens' Top Ten.

Monument 14's author traces the series to two great loves of hers: wandering superstores and what else?

Survivalist planning, she says, is the worrier in her: she is always working out how she would save her own kids in a crisis.

In Monument 14, how is eighth-grade tech genius Alex related to the narrator, Dean Grieder?

His younger brother Alex rides the other school bus that morning, the one that makes it safely inside the store.

In Monument 14, what slides down over the store's entrance on the first day, sealing the kids inside?

Security gates of metal drop across the front doors and windows while the kids are eating, and nobody inside knows how to raise them again.

In Monument 14, what infestation among the younger kids sends everyone to makeshift baths on the eighth day?

Head lice have Josie lining everyone up in swimsuits beside plastic tubs and gallon jugs of distilled water.