Charlie Bone (Children of the Red King)
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50 free Charlie Bone (Children of the Red King) trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Jenny Nimmo's Children of the Red King books follow Charlie Bone, an ordinary boy who finds he has an extraordinary gift and is sent to Bloor's Academy, a school where the descendants of an ancient magician-king study, scheme and quarrel. The main series runs to eight novels, and readers still ask which comes first, which comes last and where the prequels and follow-ups fit. This quiz covers the reading order of the series and its British and American titles, the endowed children and what each of them can do, the Bloor family and their allies, and the creatures, objects and places that drive the plots. A few questions look at the author herself and her other work. It is written for readers who grew up with the books, parents and teachers sharing them with a new generation, and anyone settling an argument about which book comes next. Every answer comes with a short explanation.
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Q 01Which Jenny Nimmo novel opens the Children of the Red King series, sending a ten-year-old to a sinister boarding school?
Midnight for Charlie Bone
Midnight for Charlie Bone reached Britain in 2002 and America a year later. Charlie's hostile grandmother and her three sisters pack him off to Bloor's Academy.
Q 02Critics kept comparing Jenny Nimmo's Charlie Bone books, set at a school for magical children, to which series?
Harry Potter
Harry Potter loomed over the first book: Kirkus called it a placeholder for the next instalment, and Publishers Weekly likened Bloor's Academy to Hogwarts.
Q 03Ten-year-old Charlie Bone learns he is endowed when he starts hearing voices coming from which everyday objects?
Photographs
Photographs talk to Charlie: the first shows a couple with a baby and a cat. His gift later extends to paintings, and he even travels through one.
Q 04Which household objects explode whenever Charlie Bone's Uncle Paton comes too close, keeping him indoors until dark?
Light bulbs
Light bulbs burst around Paton because his endowment boosts electricity. He walks only at night, for fear of blowing out shop lights and traffic signals.
Q 05Which sinister endowment makes head boy Manfred Bloor so feared in the Charlie Bone series?
Hypnotism
Hypnotism is Manfred's weapon: he held Emma Tolly in a trance for eight years, and he wiped the memory of Charlie's father the same way.
Q 06Billy Raven, the albino orphan at Bloor's Academy in the Charlie Bone books, is endowed with which ability?
Talking to animals
Talking to animals makes Billy useful to old Ezekiel Bloor, who has him spy in return for the promise of a family. Charlie's parents adopt him in the end.
Q 07In the second Charlie Bone book, which shining marble drags Henry Yewbeam forward from 1916 to the present day?
The Time Twister
The Time Twister is a marble full of shining colours. Henry's jealous cousin Ezekiel tricks him into gazing at it, and he arrives decades later without ageing.
Q 08Which feathered snake at Bloor's Academy turns a boy named Ollie Sparks invisible in the third Charlie Bone book?
A blue boa
A blue boa, ancient and feathered, left Ollie unseen. Britain knows the book as The Blue Boa, while American editions are called Charlie Bone and the Invisible Boy.
Q 09Emma Tolly, freed by Charlie Bone from a long trance at Bloor's Academy, can transform herself into which creature?
A bird
A bird of any kind is Emma's other form, and she uses it to fly. She is also known for her skill at drawing them.
Q 10What can Tancred Torsson, a friend of Charlie Bone with Scandinavian roots, summon at will?
Storms
Storms obey Tancred, who can raise wind, thunder, rain and lightning. His forefather was named after Thor, the Norse god of thunder.
Q 11In the final Children of the Red King novel, which long-missing organist turns out to be guarding his son in disguise?
Lyell Bone
Lyell Bone, Charlie's father, had lost his memory years earlier and was presumed dead. The will that settles who owns the school lay in the church where he played.
Q 12Which eighth novel brings Jenny Nimmo's Children of the Red King series to a close, with the Bloors finally driven out?
Charlie Bone and the Red Knight
Charlie Bone and the Red Knight ended the saga in 2009. Its closing chapters see Manfred's family lose the school and Uncle Paton finally marry.
Q 13At the end of the Children of the Red King series, the Bloors' academy is renamed after which family?
Q 21Which unendowed friend of Charlie Bone comes from a family of musicians and owns a deaf cat?
Fidelio Gunn
Fidelio Gunn has no magical power but is an excellent musician, and he stays one of Charlie's most loyal allies from his first days at Bloor's.
Q 22Joshua Tilpin, a Bloor's Academy pupil descended from the Red King's eldest daughter, has which unusual endowment?
Magnetism
Magnetism is Joshua's gift. His mother, Titania, is a witch who taught at the school under the name Miss Chrystal.
Q 23Which Bloor's Academy staff member keeps the balance among the Red King's descendants from her underground rooms?
The cook
The cook, whose real name is Treasure, is known as the school's lodestone. She is hiding from Lord Grimwald, who once wanted to marry her.
The Bones
The Bones prove to be the rightful owners once a long-lost will is found. Bloor's becomes Bone Academy and is soon hailed as the happiest school in the city.
Q 14Olivia Vertigo, the would-be actress who befriends Charlie Bone, discovers in the fourth book that she has which power?
Creating illusions
Creating illusions comes as a late surprise to Olivia, who spends three books with no known endowment. She is forever changing her look, especially her hair colour.
Q 15Dagbert Endless, Lord Grimwald's son who joins Bloor's Academy in the sixth Charlie Bone book, controls which element?
Water
Water obeys Dagbert, who can drown people with it and almost kills Tancred Torsson that way. On his birthday he becomes more powerful than his father.
Q 16Lysander Sage, a friend of Charlie Bone at Bloor's Academy, has the power to call up what?
His spirit ancestors
His spirit ancestors answer Lysander's call, a gift inherited from his mother, Jessamine. His father is a powerful judge in the city.
Q 17Which Bloor's Academy pupil, once Manfred's sidekick, is the howling creature in Charlie Bone and the Wilderness Wolf?
Asa Pike
Asa Pike turns into a beast in prolonged darkness. He was locked away as punishment for helping Charlie find his father, so Charlie comes to his rescue.
Q 18What is the name of the loyal dog owned by Benjamin Brown, Charlie Bone's best friend and neighbour?
Runner Bean
Runner Bean helps Charlie rescue Emma Tolly in the first book. In the seventh he ends up stuck inside a painting of Badlock.
Q 19Which favourite meeting place of Charlie Bone and his friends do Orvil and Onoria Onimous run?
The Pets' Café
The Pets' Café is run by a couple who help Charlie and his friends however they can. Mr Onimous is also an expert on the Red King's history.
Q 20Julia Ingledew, the aunt of Emma Tolly who later marries Charlie Bone's Uncle Paton, runs which kind of shop?
A bookshop
A bookshop named Ingledew's is Julia's business. Uncle Paton, a historian forever at work on a volume of his own, moves in after their wedding.
Q 24In The Castle of Mirrors, the Red King's wife Berenice is accidentally brought back to life in which form?
A white horse
A white horse appears when Ezekiel Bloor's experiment misfires: he had meant to resurrect a wicked prince, not the queen.
Q 25Which enchanter, the shadow in the Red King's portrait, reaches out from the dark land of Badlock for revenge?
Count Harken
Count Harken married the Red King's eldest daughter, Lilith. In the seventh book he imprisons Charlie's forebears in his own grim realm.
Q 26Which character escapes from his painting with a mouse after Charlie Bone visits him in the third book?
Skarpo
Skarpo is terrified by the modern world. Charlie agrees to take him home to his picture if he will help heal the gravely ill Uncle Paton.
Q 27Mr Boldova, secretly searching Bloor's Academy for the vanished Ollie Sparks, poses as a teacher of which subject?
Art
Art is the cover for Samuel Sparks, Ollie's brother, whose own gift is heating rocks until they sparkle. The pair go home to their sparkling castle.
Q 28Charlie Bone's wand changes into which small creature, which later helps save him from a flooded bridge?
A moth
A moth is what the wand became. In the sixth book it keeps Charlie and Olivia from drowning as they cross a dangerous metal bridge.
Q 29Where does Charlie Bone live with his mother, two grandmothers and Uncle Paton, opposite Benjamin Brown?
Filbert Street
Filbert Street is home to both boys, with Benjamin at number 12 across the road. Charlie's house belongs to the forbidding Grandma Bone.
Q 30Which maternal grandmother, the mother of Amy, shares a house with Charlie and the forbidding Grandma Bone?
Maisie Jones
Maisie Jones lives under the same roof as her daughter's wealthy and unfriendly in-laws. Uncle Paton, who boards there too, is the exception.