Gordon Korman
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50 free Gordon Korman trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Gordon Korman became a published author while he was still a kid, and he has not stopped since. His stories of pranksters, schemers and unlikely heroes have been passed from reader to reader for decades, and the tale of how he got started is one of the best fun facts in children's publishing. This quiz covers the facts fans ask about most: his childhood and how his career began, the Macdonald Hall comedies, the adventure trilogies, his books in The 39 Clues, the Swindle capers and newer favorites such as Restart, Ungifted and The Unteachables. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you learn the story behind each fact. It is written for young readers, book clubs, teachers and librarians planning an author study, and anyone who grew up laughing at his books.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Gordon Korman wrote his first published novel as an English class assignment in which school year?
Seventh grade
Seventh grade is when the assignment turned into This Can't Be Happening at Macdonald Hall. Scholastic published it when he was 14.
Q 02Gordon Korman's first novel began in an English class taught by which unlikely staff member?
The track coach
The track coach had to cover English and let the class write whatever it wanted for more than four months, long enough for Korman to finish a whole book.
Q 03Who typed up the manuscript of Gordon Korman's first novel before it was mailed off to Scholastic?
His mother
His mother had to type the book for him. Scholastic published it when he was a high school freshman.
Q 04Gordon Korman says his first novel, a school assignment, earned which mark because of its messiness?
B-plus
B-plus was all the future bestseller earned. Korman calls himself a so-so student who was lazy, not short of ability.
Q 05As a toddler, Gordon Korman reportedly ate dinner under the table because he wanted to become what?
A dog
A dog was his career plan at age two, as his parents later told him. He never had one as a pet while growing up.
Q 06Which future Canadian prime minister said Gordon Korman's first novel awoke his interest in reading?
Justin Trudeau
Justin Trudeau praised the book on the television series Great Canadian Books in 2010, when he was still a member of parliament.
Q 07Which future pop star played gymnast Amanda Benson in the TV movie of Gordon Korman's novel Swindle?
Ariana Grande
Ariana Grande played Amanda "Mandy" Benson in the 2013 movie, which drew more than 4.2 million viewers at its premiere.
Q 08In Gordon Korman's novel Swindle, Griffin Bing is cheated out of a rare card showing which sports legend?
Babe Ruth
Babe Ruth is on the 1920 card, which a dealer buys from Griffin for $120 even though it is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Q 09In Gordon Korman's Restart, former bully Chase Ambrose loses his memory after falling from where?
A roof
A roof fall leaves Chase with amnesia, so he has to learn his whole life over again, starting with his own name.
Q 10Gordon Korman's first try at historical fiction was a trilogy set aboard which doomed passenger ship?
The Titanic
The Titanic carries four young characters, Paddy, Sophie, Alfie and Juliana, through the books Unsinkable, Collision Course and S.O.S.
Q 11Gordon Korman picked the publisher for his first manuscript because he held which classroom job?
Book order monitor
Book order monitor for his class's Scholastic purchases, he figured he was practically an employee already.
Q 12Gordon Korman moved to the United States to study dramatic writing at which school?
New York University
New York University is where he earned his 1985 degree, with a minor in motion picture and television.
Q 13Gordon Korman, who grew up mostly in Ontario, was born in which Canadian city?
Montreal
Montreal was home until 1970, when his family moved to Thornhill, Ontario.
Q 21In Gordon Korman's I Want to Go Home!, Rudy Miller keeps trying to escape from which kind of place?
A sleepaway camp
A sleepaway camp on an island is Rudy's idea of prison. His school's guidance department sent him there against his wishes.
Q 22Bugs Potter, the title character of two early Gordon Korman novels, is a prodigy on which instrument?
Drums
Drums are his whole life. During a summer of roughing it at a lake, he turns a pair of jeans and a cooking pot into a kit.
Q 23In Gordon Korman's Don't Care High, apathetic students rally behind mysterious Mike Otis in which role?
Student council president
Q 14Which Gordon Korman novel was published in 2022 as his 100th book?
The Fort
The Fort reached shelves 44 and a half years after his first book and debuted on the New York Times bestseller list.
Q 15In Gordon Korman's Macdonald Hall books, students give their stern, bespectacled headmaster which nickname?
The Fish
The Fish is William R. Sturgeon, nicknamed for his surname and for the fish-like glare he turns on students who displease him.
Q 16In Gordon Korman's Macdonald Hall books, which headmistress runs the girls' finishing school across the road?
Miss Scrimmage
Miss Scrimmage keeps a shotgun to scare off intruders, though her control of it is so poor that it goes off in random directions.
Q 17The first Bruno & Boots TV movie, based on Gordon Korman's Macdonald Hall books, premiered on which fitting date?
April Fool's Day
April Fool's Day 2016 brought Go Jump in the Pool to Canadian screens, and two more movies about the pranksters followed exactly a year later.
Q 18At the end of Gordon Korman's first novel, Bruno and Boots rescue an ambassador's son from which stranded craft?
A hot air balloon
A hot air balloon tangled in a tree holds the boy. School genius Elmer Drimsdale sees it through his telescope and decides it is a UFO.
Q 19In Gordon Korman's Go Jump in the Pool, Macdonald Hall boys raise money to keep up with which rival school?
York Academy
York Academy has a pool, and some Macdonald Hall parents are ready to transfer their sons there for its richer sports opportunities.
Q 20In Gordon Korman's The Zucchini Warriors, Elmer Drimsdale tries to breed which endangered animals at Macdonald Hall?
Manchurian bush hamsters
Manchurian bush hamsters start as a group of four and multiply past 400 after feasting on spicy zucchini sticks dropped under the stadium bleachers.
Student council president is a post nobody had filled since 1956. Mike runs unopposed after new kid Paul Abrams nominates him.
Q 24In Gordon Korman's Radio Fifth Grade, Benjy Driver's school radio show gets stuck with which uncooperative animal?
A parrot
A parrot that will not talk is one of Benjy's headaches, along with a bully who hogs the airwaves, yet the ratings for Kidsview soar.
Q 25In Gordon Korman's The Chicken Doesn't Skate, a science-project chick named Henrietta becomes a mascot in which sport?
Hockey
Hockey players adopt Henrietta as a good luck charm, until the class learns she is due to be cooked and eaten at the science fair.
Q 26In Gordon Korman's No More Dead Dogs, Wallace Wallace's honest book report lands him in detention with which group?
The drama club
The drama club is rehearsing a stage version of Old Shep, My Pal, the very book Wallace refused to praise.
Q 27In Gordon Korman's Island trilogy, six kids on a character-building sailing trip are shipwrecked in which body of water?
The Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean claims their schooner, the Phoenix, after a storm and an engine fire, and the survivors drift for days on a piece of the cabin top.
Q 28Gordon Korman's trilogy of The Contest, The Climb and The Summit follows young climbers on which mountain?
Mount Everest
Mount Everest is the prize: four kids compete to become the youngest climber in history to reach the top.
Q 29Gordon Korman's trilogy of The Discovery, The Deep and The Danger sends four teens on a summer of what?
Scuba diving
Scuba diving puts Kaz, Dante, Adriana and Star on the trail of a sunken treasure, with killer sharks for company.
Q 30Gordon Korman's first 39 Clues book sends Amy and Dan Cahill to Vienna on the trail of which composer?
Mozart
Mozart had a sister, Nannerl, whose stolen diary the Cahill siblings chase from Vienna to Salzburg and Venice.