40 Fun Facts About The Last Book in the Universe

In The Last Book in the Universe, which condition gets the narrator Spaz cast out by his foster family?

Epilepsy also sets Spaz apart in a useful way: it keeps him off the brain-rotting entertainment that everyone around him is hooked on.

In The Last Book in the Universe, what devices let Urb dwellers escape reality through images in the head?

Mind probes work like hard drugs in the Urb, giving users a brief way out of their ruined lives while doing them lasting damage.

In The Last Book in the Universe, what kind of disaster devastated the world decades before the story begins?

An earthquake that survivors call the Big Shake left the Urb plagued by poverty, thieves and gang warfare.

In The Last Book in the Universe, which once-treatable illness does Ryter diagnose in Bean?

Leukemia had a known treatment before the collapse, but the Urb has lost that knowledge, so Bean's only hope lies in Eden.

In The Last Book in the Universe, what news makes Spaz defy his gang boss and cross the Urb?

His sister is dying and has asked to see him, so Spaz sets out with Ryter and a five-year-old orphan for company.

In The Last Book in the Universe, Ryter is one of the few people left who can still do what?

Ryter can still read and write when almost nobody else can, and he has dedicated his life to recording stories before they are lost.

Which American author, a Newbery Honor winner raised in New England, wrote The Last Book in the Universe?

Rodman Philbrick began writing short stories in sixth grade and finished his first novel, which was rejected, in eleventh grade.

In The Last Book in the Universe, what are the genetically improved people who live in Eden called?

Proovs get their name from the word improved, and only they enjoy grass, trees and blue skies.

Eden, the paradise city in The Last Book in the Universe, shares its name with a garden in which biblical book?

Genesis describes the Garden of Eden as a paradise, and one reviewer called the novel's use of the name a biblical allusion.

In The Last Book in the Universe, what do the genetically improved elite call ordinary people like Spaz?

Normals are barred from Eden, so Spaz and his companions break the law simply by setting foot there.

In The Last Book in the Universe, which gang boss finally reveals that he is Spaz's biological father?

Billy Bizmo's confession explains why Spaz's life has been spared, and the boss hopes the boy will follow in his footsteps.

In The Last Book in the Universe, Lotti Getts, nicknamed Nails and the White Widow, is boss of which gang?

The Vandals control the part of the Urb where Spaz's foster family lives, so reaching Bean means entering Lotti Getts's territory.

In The Last Book in the Universe, which word is the only one Little Face speaks for most of the story?

Chox is his word for the chocolate-flavoured bars Spaz gives him, and only much later in the journey does he manage to say Lanaya's name.

In The Last Book in the Universe, what happens to Little Face when Spaz, Ryter and Bean are expelled from Eden?

Jin and Bree adopt him in secret, after Eden's rulers declare every one of the visitors unacceptable.

In The Last Book in the Universe, who does Lanaya mean when she speaks of her contributors in Eden?

Her parents are called contributors in Eden's vocabulary, and a child such as Lanaya is known as their contribute.

In The Last Book in the Universe, which treatment at Eden's hospital finally cures Bean?

Gene therapy heals Bean completely, yet Eden's rulers still expel her and disregard her high intelligence.

In The Last Book in the Universe, what deadly barrier fills the Forbidden Zone between the Urb and Eden?

A minefield separates the ruined Urb from Eden, whose residents keep a beautiful society entirely to themselves.

In The Last Book in the Universe, why does Spaz first go to the stackbox where Ryter lives?

To rob him is the errand, but Ryter offers no resistance and wins Spaz over by doing his best to help him instead.

In the slang of The Last Book in the Universe, what is a gummy, the label given to Ryter?

An old man is a gummy in Urb slang, and Ryter is also accused of backtimer talk for his formal way of speaking.

In The Last Book in the Universe, what role do the Furies play for the underground trade boss Vida Bleek?

Assassins by trade, the Furies are the mortal enemies of Lotti Getts, and their boss is said to be as powerful as she is.

In The Last Book in the Universe, Lanaya's father is one of Eden's top-ranked players of which game?

Chess is the game he excels at, and he comes to see how much Eden could learn from the family's visitors from the Urb.

In The Last Book in the Universe, Lanaya has been bred to one day help rule Eden under which title?

Master is the title she is being raised for, and it brings privileges other residents lack, known as learning opportunities.

In The Last Book in the Universe, what kind of vehicle does Lanaya use to carry Spaz's group into Eden?

A takvee carries them all to Lanaya's family home, a trip she offers in return for having her life saved.

In The Last Book in the Universe, from whom do Spaz and Ryter rescue Lanaya in a burning part of the Urb?

A hungry mob had turned on her while everything around was burning, and after the rescue she joins the journey to find Bean.

In The Last Book in the Universe, what does Spaz finally learn became of his birth mother?

She died in childbirth, a truth Spaz hears only after Ryter's death, from the man who turns out to be his father.

In The Last Book in the Universe, which rare gift makes Ryter feel a kinship with Spaz?

A strong memory is rare in the Urb because the popular brain entertainment rots the mind, and Spaz's condition keeps him away from it.

In The Last Book in the Universe, what breaks out across the Urb once its brain entertainment is switched off?

Rioting and anarchy spread through the Urb, and the shutdown itself follows Lanaya's warning to Eden's rulers about the harm being done.

Which novel, later filmed with Sharon Stone, is by the author of The Last Book in the Universe?

Freak the Mighty went on to become a standard reading selection in thousands of classrooms worldwide.

The author of The Last Book in the Universe won a Newbery Honor for a novel set during which war?

The Civil War is the backdrop of The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg, which was later staged at the Kennedy Center in Washington.

Before writing full-time, the author of The Last Book in the Universe worked as a longshoreman and in which trade?

Boat builder is the trade he drew on years later when writing his novel The Young Man and the Sea.

The author of The Last Book in the Universe grew up in a small coastal town in which state?

New Hampshire is where his grandmother rented out cottages to summer visitors, though he was actually born in Boston.

The author of The Last Book in the Universe won a Shamus Award, a prize for which kind of writing?

Detective novels came first for him: Brothers & Sinners took the Shamus, the prize of the Private Eye Writers of America.

Publishers Weekly's review of The Last Book in the Universe noted allegorical references to which ancient epic?

The Odyssey follows a perilous ten-year voyage home, and the reviewer felt the novel's nods to it were not fully developed.

The Last Book in the Universe grew from a short story its author first published in which collection?

Tomorrowland held the short version of Spaz's story before it grew into a novel that reviewers recommended for ages 10 to 14.

In The Last Book in the Universe, what are the gang-controlled sections of the Urb called?

Latches are each run by a single gang, and crossing from one to another without permission is against the rules.

In The Last Book in the Universe, by what route do Spaz, Ryter and Little Face first leave their home territory?

A rusted water pipe, known simply as the Pipe, is a large old main that leads on to other gang territories.

In The Last Book in the Universe, what path does Spaz choose for himself after Ryter's death?

He becomes a writer and even takes the name Ryter, setting down the story that gives the novel its title.

The Last Book in the Universe earned a Lupine Award honor from the library association of which state?

Maine's library association gave the honor in 2000, the same year the novel first appeared.

The American Library Association placed The Last Book in the Universe on its list of best books for which readers?

Young adults were the audience for that list, and a Book Sense summer pick for teen readers followed a year later.

Under which pen name has the author of The Last Book in the Universe published thrillers such as Taken and Trapped?

Chris Jordan is the name on his thrillers about Randall Shane, a former FBI agent who investigates the disappearance of missing children.