40 Fun Facts About The Revealers

In The Revealers, what does Elliot Gekewicz lose himself in to escape his daily tormentors?

Dinosaurs are Elliot's obsession: he lugs big dinosaur encyclopedias around and ties any school project to them if he can. Even his network address comes from one, the small, sharp-eyed troodon.

What drink does a menacing eighth grader pour over Russell Trainor's head early in The Revealers?

Root beer was Russell's after-school treat until an older boy emptied an ice-cold bottle of it over his head. He stops buying it because he no longer dares go near the store.

What nickname do the students of troubled Parkland Middle School give it in The Revealers?

Darkland is what the students call the school, because nobody there does much to stop kids harassing other kids. The trio borrow the name for the e-mail bulletin they publish.

New girl Catalina Aarons in The Revealers recently moved to the United States from which country?

The Philippines is where Catalina was born and raised. Her dignified account of how she came to Parkland is the first story the trio send round the school.

In The Revealers, three Jock Rots dangle Elliot over the side of what?

A bridge over the river is where his tormentors hang him over the railing, above big rocks and a short waterfall. He later writes up the ordeal for his classmates to read.

In The Revealers, what do students call the self-contained network that carries their stories?

KidNet is the local network on which every Parkland student has an account, used mostly for swapping notes with friends. It cannot be reached from outside the school without a teacher's say-so.

In The Revealers, where do the trio take their campaign after the principal shuts down the network?

The science fair gives Russell, Elliot and Catalina one more way to go public: they enter a computer program built from their classmates' stories. The visiting judges read story after story.

Which eighth grader punches Russell and then follows and threatens him in The Revealers?

Richie Tucker comes to treat Russell as his property after a single wisecrack. The author based him on a scary older boy who once punched him for being wise.

In The Revealers, which ruler of the popular girls plants a false story to get the forum shut down?

Bethany DeMere sends in an anonymous tale accusing herself, then lets her furious father loose on the editors. Catalina later proves who wrote it, yet chooses not to tell on her.

What does Elliot do to one of the Jock Rots holding him that gets him dropped in The Revealers?

Elliot spits at him, full in the face, and in the shock that follows the boys lose their grip. For once he had decided to fight back rather than take it.

Which school year are Russell, Elliot and Catalina in when they start the forum in The Revealers?

In 7th grade Russell finds himself friendless, though he had friends all through elementary school. He narrates the story a year later, looking back.

In The Revealers, which adult runs Parkland Middle School and would rather not hear about bullying?

Mrs. Capelli is frightened of technology and of public opinion, and looks for an excuse to close the forum down. A bullying expert told the author that schools have all too many principals like her.

Why does Russell first approach Elliot, the most picked-on boy at school, in The Revealers?

To ask for advice: Elliot has been everyone's target for years, so Russell hopes he knows some survival techniques. Until then Russell had only watched him get picked on.

Which subject does Ms. Hogeboom, a teacher who sympathises with the trio, teach in The Revealers?

Social studies is her subject, and her pupils often talk on a level she doesn't know exists. The author counts her among the adults who see the cruelty and care, yet don't know how to help.

In The Revealers, what is the job of the popular girl's furious father who confronts the trio?

A lawyer by trade, he arrives at the principal's office accusing the editors of smearing his daughter. Only later do they work out that she set the whole thing up herself.

In The Revealers, what name do the three friends give their project and, later, their software?

The Bully Lab begins as the three friends' plan to investigate their tormentors the way scientists would. The name returns in the title of the software they unveil near the end of the book.

In The Revealers, which way of communicating does Elliot suggest that he and Russell use?

Instant messaging on the school's local network lets the two boys talk by typing. The novel was written when e-mail was new to schools and messaging almost unheard-of.

What does Russell's tormentor smash when Russell tries to interview him in The Revealers?

A tape recorder, borrowed from home, is destroyed when the interview turns to the older boy's father and he explodes. Russell had wanted to learn why he bullies.

Which ailment strikes Russell every afternoon in The Revealers, as it once did the bullied author?

Headaches come on at two o'clock each afternoon, as the end of the school day and another meeting with his tormentor draw near. The author remembered the same dread from his own middle-school years.

Russell Trainor, an only child, shares a home with which relative in The Revealers?

His mother sees what is happening to him and is appalled, asking why what would be a crime between adults gets shrugged off among kids. His father died when Russell was a baby.

In The Revealers, what does Catalina post on the school network to answer lies told about her?

An open letter sets out, with dignity, who she is and how she came to Parkland. Some classmates are kinder to her once they have read it.

To what kind of publication does one teacher liken the trio's story bulletin in The Revealers?

An underground newspaper is the comparison, meant as praise for the bulletin's daring. Publishers Weekly's review picked up the idea, calling the three editors underground publishers.

A class in The Revealers debates whether the Internet could have helped which persecuted group?

Jews in wartime Europe come up because the class is reading Anne Frank's diary, and the teacher wonders aloud what might have changed had she been online. Publishers Weekly called the discussion fascinating.

In The Revealers, Elliot's fall leaves him with a minor concussion and which other injury?

A sprained ankle, a bad one, puts Elliot on crutches, and he scrapes an arm as well. He then writes the whole episode up for his classmates to read.

What must Russell, Elliot and Catalina do for the girl named in the false story in The Revealers?

They must apologise in writing, which Russell hates doing, even though the story was a trap she laid herself. Catalina later proves who really wrote it.

In The Revealers, what does the principal agree to do after admiring visitors heap praise on her?

She agrees to lift her ban on the students' online forum, after the visitors congratulate her so warmly on a project she had tried to stop. The three editors get their bulletin back.

By the end of The Revealers, what have Russell and the eighth grader who tormented him reached?

A friendly understanding grows between the two, and each comes to accept the other. The author says many readers name the former tormentor as their favourite character.

Which member of the Jock Rots turns against the group and follows his conscience in The Revealers?

Big Chris started as a background figure, until the author's editor found him interesting and asked for more. He became a follower who discovers his conscience and stands up for what is right.

The author of The Revealers gathered real-life stories from pupils in which state, his home?

Vermont is where he lives, and pupils in three of its schools each wrote him one real experience of bullying. He promised to study their stories, not steal them.

Which 2012 sequel to The Revealers follows Russell, Elliot and Catalina into their next school year?

True Shoes takes its title from an old proverb about a lie racing round the world before the truth has laced up. The author brought it out through his own imprint, Long Stride Books.

The 2012 sequel to The Revealers centres on which form of harassment at Parkland?

Cyberbullying drives the sequel, in which a ruthless group of rumour-spreaders goes to war with the school's misfits. The author says it shows both the creative and the cruel choices young people make with networked technology.

Before The Revealers, its author wrote several books for which long-running children's series?

Choose Your Own Adventure gave him his start: his first published book was a sci-fi title for the series, written at speed after years of rejections. He says it taught him to keep readers turning pages.

Whose second-grade tale about investigating bullies gave the author the idea for The Revealers?

His son, then in second grade, claimed that he and two friends lured bullies away to examine their brains and learn why they picked on others. The boys really were trying to work them out.

The opening of The Revealers draws on the day an older boy kicked which of the author's possessions?

His bicycle took the kick, and he answered with a wisecrack thanking the boy for straightening the spokes. The next time they met, the boy punched him in the stomach.

According to the author of The Revealers, what do pupils notice first about him on school visits?

His height causes a stir wherever he goes, because he stands six foot ten. He played basketball in college before turning to journalism.

Which college's campus-wide computer system inspired the students' network in The Revealers?

Dartmouth College, where the author worked as a writer, was among the first to link every student and professor by e-mail. He then watched pupils use a similar system at a middle school in his own state.

Which New York publishing house first brought out Doug Wilhelm's The Revealers in hardcover?

Farrar, Straus and Giroux published it in 2003, and well over 1,000 middle schools have since read and discussed it. An expanded paperback with a new cover and an author Q&A followed in 2011.

Which civil rights group picked The Revealers as the middle-school title in its bullying curriculum?

The Anti-Defamation League built a discussion guide around the novel for grades six to eight in its resource Words that Heal. The guide pairs passages from the book with questions about cliques and bystanders.

In The Revealers, which family upheaval lies behind Catalina's move to the United States?

Her parents' divorce sent Catalina to America with her father, who thought an American schooling would be best for her. She had wanted to stay behind.

In The Revealers, what does Catalina's American father do for a living?

A businessman from Ohio, he was sent abroad by his company, and Catalina was born and grew up there.