40 Fun Facts About Nightjohn

In Nightjohn, what does the newly arrived John ask for in exchange for teaching Sarny the alphabet?

Tobacco is his price for the first lesson. Sarny has some only because she uses shredded leaf to keep bugs off the flower beds.

Why is John, the man who escaped and came back, given the name Nightjohn in Gary Paulsen's novel?

He teaches at night, tracing shapes in the dirt while the rest of the quarters sleep. Daylight belongs to the fields, and being caught with a lesson brings brutal punishment.

In Gary Paulsen's novel Nightjohn, what does Waller do to John for teaching Sarny to write?

Cuts off two toes, one from each foot, with a hammer and chisel in front of the other workers. Three days later John runs anyway, in shoes he has made himself.

Which cable network premiered the film version of Nightjohn in June 1996 as one of its Premiere Films?

Disney Channel aired it on June 1, 1996, and the film does not look away: a whipping and a maiming both happen in the story.

In Nightjohn, which word does Sarny proudly scratch in the dirt, leading Waller to catch her writing?

BAG is the first word she ever makes, built from the seven letters John has taught her so far. One careless moment with it brings punishment down on the two adults she trusts.

Which wilderness survival novel about Brian Robeson was written by Nightjohn author Gary Paulsen?

Hatchet, published in 1987, strands a thirteen-year-old alone in the Canadian wilderness after a plane crash. It became the best known of Paulsen's 200-plus books.

Classroom guides pair Nightjohn with the 1845 Narrative of which man who escaped slavery?

Frederick Douglass also treated reading as the road out of bondage. His mistress began teaching him to read until her husband put a stop to it.

What does Gary Paulsen say about the events of Nightjohn in the note that opens the novel?

They really happened, he writes, with only times, names and places changed. Paulsen drew on the recorded accounts of people who had been enslaved.

In the novel Nightjohn, how is John brought onto the Waller plantation when Sarny first sees him?

With a rope around his neck that runs up to Waller's saddle, and wearing no clothes. Sarny sees old whip scars across his back and wonders why Waller would buy a man who had plainly caused trouble.

In the film Nightjohn, which book does Sarny steal and secretly learn to read?

A Bible that the master's son was meant to look after goes missing, and reading it convinces Sarny she has been lied to about whose side God is on.

In Nightjohn, how does Mammy first react when she catches John teaching Sarny a letter?

She knocks him down, afraid of what the lessons could cost the girl. Hearing that he reached the free North and came back to teach is what changes her mind.

In Nightjohn, how does Waller punish Mammy when Sarny will not say who taught her letters?

Makes her pull his buggy in a horse harness, whipping her to go faster, while the field hands are made to watch. The sight is what drives John to confess.

In Gary Paulsen's Nightjohn, where does Mammy speak her forbidden prayers so that no one can hear?

Into an iron kettle, a large cast-iron one that swallows her voice. Prayer is banned on the plantation, and what she asks for is freedom, a word Sarny does not yet understand.

In Nightjohn, how does Mammy keep track of the age of each child she raises?

Notches cut in a stick, one for every year that passes. Sarny's has twelve, though she cannot count them herself because numbers are forbidden to her as well.

In Nightjohn, what does Sarny find that Mammy tells her to hide because the enslaved may not own one?

A penny is all Sarny knows of money. When she overhears that the new field hand cost a thousand dollars, she can tell only that it is more than her coin.

According to plantation rumor in Nightjohn, by what means did Sarny bring John to the Waller place?

Witchcraft was the whisper, fed by the fact that Sarny was born backward and keeps to herself. She insists she has no such power and simply watches and listens.

Gary Paulsen's Nightjohn takes place on a Southern plantation in the decade before which war?

The American Civil War was still a few years off: the story unfolds in the 1850s, and Paulsen never says which Southern state the plantation is in.

In Gary Paulsen's novel Nightjohn, what printed item does John hold up for the learners at his secret school?

A catalog full of fine goods makes Sarny cry, and then she spots a printed word she already knows how to write.

In Nightjohn, where does John hold the hidden school that he leads Sarny to at the novel's end?

A brush-covered pit in the woods hides the glow of three torches. Seven learners from other plantations are already there when Sarny arrives.

In which season does John return for Sarny in Nightjohn, months after escaping from the Waller plantation?

Winter has set in before he reappears in the quarters. He had promised to return, and Sarny had taken the promise for a comforting lie.

In Nightjohn, what mixture does John use to throw Waller's dogs off his trail when he runs?

Lard and pepper spoil his scent, and the trick works: Waller comes back two days later with nothing to show for the chase.

In Nightjohn, to the wall of which plantation building does Waller chain the people he means to whip?

The spring house wall is where he leaves them shackled until the field hands come in, because he wants every punishment to have an audience.

In Nightjohn, what is the given name of the old woman Sarny calls Mammy?

Delie raises every child in the quarters, because birth mothers are sent straight back to the fields. In the sequel Sarny gives the same name to her own daughter.

In Gary Paulsen's Nightjohn, which field worker is whipped for wandering near the big house and later tries to run?

Alice runs a few nights after John arrives, and Waller's dogs bring her down. Mammy stitches her wounds and she lives, though she never recovers her spirit.

In Nightjohn, what reason does John give Mammy for why the enslaved must read and write?

To record what was done to them, so that it is set down in writing. Mammy goes quiet at that, and the lessons carry on with her blessing.

Gary Paulsen dedicated Nightjohn to which woman, enslaved at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello?

Sally Hemings was the subject Paulsen was researching when he came across accounts of people violently punished for learning to read, and those accounts became this novel.

In Gary Paulsen's sequel to Nightjohn, to which city does the freed Sarny travel in search of her two children?

New Orleans is where she finds them, because she can read the auction papers that lead her to them. She goes on to start a school and tells the story at the age of 94.

Nightjohn author Gary Paulsen grew up and finished high school at Thief River Falls in which state?

Minnesota shaped his survival stories: as a boy there he largely fended for himself, working odd jobs and hunting deer with a bow and arrows he had made.

Which Alaskan sled dog race did Nightjohn author Gary Paulsen enter in 1983, finishing in about seventeen days?

The Iditarod covers roughly 1,150 miles, and he placed 41st of 54 finishers. Heart disease made him give up his dog team in 1990, which he called the hardest decision of his life.

Three novels by Nightjohn author Gary Paulsen were runners-up for which children's book prize, though none won?

The Newbery Medal never came, though Dogsong and two later novels were named Honor Books. In 1997 the American Library Association gave him its lifetime award for teen writing.

Which director of Killer of Sheep made the 1996 film Nightjohn from Gary Paulsen's novel?

Charles Burnett earned a special citation from the National Society of Film Critics for it. In 2017 the Academy gave him an honorary Oscar for chronicling the lives of Black Americans.

Which actor, later Marvel's Isaiah Bradley, plays the title role of John in the 1996 film Nightjohn?

Carl Lumbly started out as a newspaper journalist and was cast while reporting a story on a workshop theatre. He later voiced Martian Manhunter in DC's animated series.

Which star of The Fabulous Baker Boys plays the slaveholder Clel Waller in the 1996 film Nightjohn?

Beau Bridges got his nickname from his parents, after Ashley Wilkes's son in Gone with the Wind, another story set on a Southern plantation.

Which actress, later Vee in Orange Is the New Black, plays Sarny's guardian in the film Nightjohn?

Lorraine Toussaint, born in Trinidad, plays the woman who first forbids the lessons and later agrees to learn herself. She went on to play Amelia Boynton Robinson in Selma.

In the film Nightjohn, what does Sarny take from the master's young son so she can study her letters?

Toy blocks printed with the alphabet belong to little Homer, the boy Sarny minds in the big house. Taking them enrages Old Man, who was maimed long ago for learning to read.

In the film Nightjohn, which woman on a neighboring plantation does the field hand Outlaw want to marry?

Egypt belongs to Clel's brother, and Clel refuses the match because any child would enrich the other plantation, not his. The couple marry anyway during the harvest feast.

In the film Nightjohn, Sarny reads the others a newspaper story about whose 1831 slave uprising in Virginia?

Nat Turner's revolt is the first thing she reads that makes the others stop and listen. Until then they had rejected her reading and told her to give it up.

In the film Nightjohn, Sarny carries secret love letters between Callie Waller and which other character?

The doctor's letters become her practice sheets: she hunts through them for the letter A. At the climax he lies to protect her, claiming he taught a runaway to read simple things.

How does the 1996 film Nightjohn end for Sarny after she faces down Clel Waller in church?

She is sold, but only after telling Clel he will not shoot his workers because they are all the wealth he has. Before leaving she shows the others the letter A.

In the film Nightjohn, what does John forge so that Outlaw and his pregnant wife can flee?

The owner's signature on a note lets the couple travel. Sarny writes a second one herself, and the two different hands are what tell Clel that someone else has learned to write.