40 Fun Facts About Stand Tall

In Joan Bauer's Stand Tall, Tree's grandfather is haunted by friends he lost fighting in which war?

The Vietnam War changed Grandpa's life for good, and he talks about it often, using what combat taught him to coach Tree through hard times.

Joan Bauer handed her editor the first draft of Stand Tall just three days before which event?

The September 11 attacks came three days after Bauer delivered the draft. She later said finishing the novel helped her work through the fear and grief that followed.

Which natural disaster strikes Tree's hometown in Stand Tall, giving him the chance to be a hero?

A flood swamps the town, and afterwards Grandpa's veteran friends put up a sign welcoming neighbours home and promising that everyone will pull through.

In Joan Bauer's Stand Tall, what is the real name of the towering twelve-year-old nicknamed Tree?

Sam Benton has always been the tallest in his class, and the nickname stuck so firmly that it is now what everyone calls him.

Because of his height in Stand Tall, which sport does everyone wrongly expect Tree to be good at?

Basketball is the sport his school's coach expects him to lead, yet Tree is not very athletic and has never really fitted in on the team.

In Stand Tall, which upheaval leaves Tree feeling uncomfortable even in his own home?

His parents' divorce comes with joint custody, so home shifts every week, and Tree ends up as the glue holding his scattered family together.

In Stand Tall, Tree is the tallest boy ever in his year at a middle school named for which First Lady?

Eleanor Roosevelt lends her name to the school, and her famous saying about nobody making a person feel inferior without consent also turns up in the story.

After Grandpa's operation in Stand Tall, which everyday skill does Tree help him learn again?

Walking has to be relearned after part of Grandpa's leg is amputated, and helping him do it is how Tree starts to heal himself.

In Joan Bauer's Stand Tall, what does Tree's mother create to stay in touch with her sons between visits?

A website called heymom.com is her answer to living apart, though her sons find that it makes them uncomfortable.

What is the name of Tree's beloved, ageing dog, whose failing health worries him throughout Stand Tall?

Bradley is one more worry for a boy who already frets about his grandfather, his two older brothers and his parents.

Which outspoken newcomer to Tree's school becomes his friend after the in-crowd taunts her in Stand Tall?

Sophie Santack always speaks the truth, which not everyone appreciates, and her advice to Tree is simply to be himself.

Which school year is Tree in during Stand Tall, when he already stands well over six feet tall?

Seventh grade is the hardest year yet for Tree, who is only twelve and has been the tallest in his class for as long as he can remember.

In Stand Tall, which kind of creature is credited with saving Tree's old dog on the vet's table?

A cat gets the credit when the old dog rises from the table, and Tree takes it as proof that everything has a purpose if you look for it.

What is the first name of Tree's grandfather, the good-humoured veteran who guides him through Stand Tall?

Leo steers his grandson through a minefield of hurts, and when their town later needs heroes, the two of them are ready.

Which storytelling relative does Stand Tall author Joan Bauer call her biggest creative influence?

Her grandmother, whom she called Nana, lived with the family and told tales in a range of voices, teaching Bauer the importance of stories and laughter.

Joan Bauer's Stand Tall is set in which town, where Tree goes to middle school?

Ripley is the town that needs a hero when disaster arrives, and by then Tree is ready to do everything that is asked of him.

In Stand Tall, what gets left beside the locker of the new girl being picked on at Tree's school?

Garbage piled by her locker is one of the ways she is picked on, and Tree reaches out to her because he knows what it is like to be teased.

In Stand Tall, Mona Arnold shows Tree how best to help Grandpa recover; what is her job?

Physical therapist Mona Arnold asks Tree to picture his own daily routine with a disability, so he understands what Grandpa is up against.

In Stand Tall, which classmate first called the tallest boy in class Tree, back in fourth grade?

Jeremy Liggins coined the nickname and it stuck for good, along with years of teasing from classmates about the height that inspired it.

Which coach at Tree's school expects the unathletic twelve-year-old to lead the team in Stand Tall?

Coach Glummer assumes that height equals talent, a mistake shared by players, classmates and even Tree's own family.

In Stand Tall, what does Sully Devo wear that marks him out as different, as height does Tree?

A hearing aid sets Sully apart, making him one of several characters whose differences echo how out of place Tree feels.

In Stand Tall, Grandpa's fellow veterans bring Christmas to youngsters staying in which kind of place?

A children's hospital gets the visit, one of the story's many examples of people easing their own losses by helping someone else.

What are the names of Tree's two older brothers, both away at college, in Joan Bauer's Stand Tall?

Larry and Curtis take the family's troubles hard and turn irritable, until rebuilding after the town's disaster gives them something to do.

During the emergency that hits Tree's town in Stand Tall, what does he help to save?

Animals are what Tree helps rescue, finding purpose amid the fear and danger, and his dad tells him how proud he is.

In Stand Tall, Tree's brothers lose many of their belongings when whose house is badly damaged in the disaster?

His father is the one whose house is wrecked, and Tree's brothers move from shock and anger to grief before they start to rebuild with Grandpa's help.

In which season does disaster strike Tree's town in Stand Tall, calling for heroes like him and Grandpa?

Spring brings the crisis, a contrast with the opening of the story, when Tree thinks of his family's troubles as a winter in his own life.

What sudden illness strikes Tree's old dog around the time disaster hits the town in Stand Tall?

A stroke fells the old dog just as the town is in crisis, handing Tree one more fight when he is already stretched thin.

In Joan Bauer's Stand Tall, at which point on the right leg was Grandpa's amputation carried out?

Below the knee is where the leg now ends, and Grandpa likes to point out that every other part of him still works.

Which Joan Bauer novel about a teenage waitress was named a Newbery Honor Book shortly before Stand Tall?

Hope Was Here follows a sixteen-year-old who moves to small-town Wisconsin and gets swept up in a diner owner's campaign for mayor.

Before Stand Tall, which 1996 Joan Bauer novel also centred on a boy instead of a teenage girl?

Sticks is set around a family-run pool hall in a blue-collar New Jersey town, the home of its determined young hero.

Joan Bauer moved from Connecticut to which city while she was finishing Stand Tall?

New York City became home once the first draft was done, and Bauer finished the book in a studio overlooking the Manhattan skyline.

Stand Tall author Joan Bauer was born in River Forest, a village in which Midwestern state?

Illinois is where Bauer grew up as the eldest of three sisters, raised by a mother with a lively sense of humour.

After the disaster in Stand Tall, what does Tree salvage from the wrecked basement and restore?

His brothers' awards come out of the sewage and muck, and cleaning them up helps the older boys as much as it helps Tree.

In Joan Bauer's Stand Tall, Tree invents one motto for himself and another for which extinct creatures?

Dinosaurs get a motto of their own from Tree, in a story where his plain-speaking new friend lives by one too.

Which narrative voice, unusual among Joan Bauer's early novels, tells Tree's story in Stand Tall?

Third person sets the book apart: every other early Bauer novel is narrated by its own main character.

Stand Tall author Joan Bauer grew up with a mother who taught which subject at a high school?

English was what her mother taught; she was also a knock-out jazz pianist, while Bauer's father worked as a salesman.

In Joan Bauer's Stand Tall, how do teachers expect Tree to behave simply because he is so tall?

Older than his age is how teachers treat him, while coaches assume he must be an athlete; both mistakes come from his height alone.

The debut novel by Stand Tall author Joan Bauer follows a teenager determined to raise a champion what?

A pumpkin named Max is the heroine's obsession in Squashed, which won the Delacorte Press Prize for a first novel.

Which distinction did the American Library Association give Stand Tall, a novel for readers aged ten and up?

Notable Book status came from the ALA, and Bank Street College also put the novel on its list of the best children's books of the year.

Which long-established American publishing house first released Joan Bauer's Stand Tall in hardcover?

Putnam, founded in 1838, brought out the hardcover, just as it had published Bauer's three previous novels.