50 Fun Facts About Charlie Bone (Children of the Red King)

Which 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 reached Britain in 2002 and America a year later. Charlie's hostile grandmother and her three sisters pack him off to Bloor's Academy.

Critics kept comparing Jenny Nimmo's Charlie Bone books, set at a school for magical children, to which series?

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.

Ten-year-old Charlie Bone learns he is endowed when he starts hearing voices coming from which everyday objects?

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.

Which household objects explode whenever Charlie Bone's Uncle Paton comes too close, keeping him indoors until dark?

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.

Which sinister endowment makes head boy Manfred Bloor so feared in the Charlie Bone series?

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.

Billy Raven, the albino orphan at Bloor's Academy in the Charlie Bone books, is endowed with which ability?

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.

In the second Charlie Bone book, which shining marble drags Henry Yewbeam forward from 1916 to the present day?

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.

Which feathered snake at Bloor's Academy turns a boy named Ollie Sparks invisible in the third Charlie Bone book?

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.

Emma Tolly, freed by Charlie Bone from a long trance at Bloor's Academy, can transform herself into which creature?

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.

What can Tancred Torsson, a friend of Charlie Bone with Scandinavian roots, summon at will?

Storms obey Tancred, who can raise wind, thunder, rain and lightning. His forefather was named after Thor, the Norse god of thunder.

In the final Children of the Red King novel, which long-missing organist turns out to be guarding his son in disguise?

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.

Which 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 ended the saga in 2009. Its closing chapters see Manfred's family lose the school and Uncle Paton finally marry.

At the end of the Children of the Red King series, the Bloors' academy is renamed after which family?

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.

Olivia Vertigo, the would-be actress who befriends Charlie Bone, discovers in the fourth book that she has which power?

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.

Dagbert Endless, Lord Grimwald's son who joins Bloor's Academy in the sixth Charlie Bone book, controls which element?

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.

Lysander Sage, a friend of Charlie Bone at Bloor's Academy, has the power to call up what?

His spirit ancestors answer Lysander's call, a gift inherited from his mother, Jessamine. His father is a powerful judge in the city.

Which Bloor's Academy pupil, once Manfred's sidekick, is the howling creature in Charlie Bone and the Wilderness Wolf?

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.

What is the name of the loyal dog owned by Benjamin Brown, Charlie Bone's best friend and neighbour?

Runner Bean helps Charlie rescue Emma Tolly in the first book. In the seventh he ends up stuck inside a painting of Badlock.

Which favourite meeting place of Charlie Bone and his friends do Orvil and Onoria Onimous run?

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.

Julia Ingledew, the aunt of Emma Tolly who later marries Charlie Bone's Uncle Paton, runs which kind of shop?

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.

Which unendowed friend of Charlie Bone comes from a family of musicians and owns a deaf cat?

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.

Joshua Tilpin, a Bloor's Academy pupil descended from the Red King's eldest daughter, has which unusual endowment?

Magnetism is Joshua's gift. His mother, Titania, is a witch who taught at the school under the name Miss Chrystal.

Which Bloor's Academy staff member keeps the balance among the Red King's descendants from her underground rooms?

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.

In The Castle of Mirrors, the Red King's wife Berenice is accidentally brought back to life in which form?

A white horse appears when Ezekiel Bloor's experiment misfires: he had meant to resurrect a wicked prince, not the queen.

Which enchanter, the shadow in the Red King's portrait, reaches out from the dark land of Badlock for revenge?

Count Harken married the Red King's eldest daughter, Lilith. In the seventh book he imprisons Charlie's forebears in his own grim realm.

Which character escapes from his painting with a mouse after Charlie Bone visits him in the third book?

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.

Mr Boldova, secretly searching Bloor's Academy for the vanished Ollie Sparks, poses as a teacher of which subject?

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.

Charlie Bone's wand changes into which small creature, which later helps save him from a flooded bridge?

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.

Where does Charlie Bone live with his mother, two grandmothers and Uncle Paton, opposite Benjamin Brown?

Filbert Street is home to both boys, with Benjamin at number 12 across the road. Charlie's house belongs to the forbidding Grandma Bone.

Which maternal grandmother, the mother of Amy, shares a house with Charlie and the forbidding Grandma Bone?

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.

In Charlie Bone and the Wilderness Wolf, a shopkeeper gives Charlie which object that grows warm when danger is near?

A kettle from a specialist shop becomes Charlie's early-warning system. He had only called in to collect Billy Raven's rat.

Which of Charlie Bone's unpleasant great-aunts works as the matron at Bloor's Academy?

Lucretia is the eldest of the great-aunts and has no endowment, unlike her clairvoyant sister Eustacia. All of them side with the Bloors against Charlie.

Which friend of Charlie Bone, born into a family of psychics, stars in a later follow-up about a missing magical cloak?

Gabriel Silk, who feels others' emotions through their clothes, leads Gabriel and the Phantom Sleepers. It followed Henry and the Guardians of the Lost from 2016.

Which novel opens Chronicles of the Red King, Jenny Nimmo's prequel trilogy set centuries before Charlie Bone?

The Secret Kingdom appeared in 2011 and follows Timoken, the boy who will become the Red King. The Stones of Ravenglass and Leopards' Gold complete the trilogy.

Which Jenny Nimmo fantasy, written long before Charlie Bone, won the Smarties Prize and became a CBBC serial in 2020?

The Snow Spider (1986) follows Gwyn Griffiths, a boy who learns on his ninth birthday that he may be a magician. It also won the Tir na n-Og Award.

Charlie Bone author Jenny Nimmo, born in England, has lived for decades in a converted watermill in which country?

Wales has been Nimmo's home for most of her adult life, and its legends colour her fantasy. Her husband is a painter and printmaker.

Which studio ordered a television pilot based on Jenny Nimmo's Charlie Bone books, casting Joseph Fiennes as Dr Bloor?

Amazon MGM Studios cast Joseph Fiennes as the headmaster and Cory McClane as Charlie, with filming of the pilot taking place in the UK.

Where does Amy Bone, Charlie's unendowed mother, work while the family lives in Grandma Bone's house?

Amy earns her living at a greengrocer's. She too has a magician among her forebears, though no power of her own.

Under which false name was Emma Tolly raised while held in a trance by the Bloors in the Charlie Bone series?

Emilia Moon was the identity given to Emma after her guardian handed her to the Bloors as a small child. Charlie and his friends free her in the first book.

Jenny Nimmo, the Charlie Bone author sent to boarding school at six, was born in which Thames-side English town?

Windsor was Nimmo's birthplace in 1944. An only child who lost her father at five, she began writing her own stories to share with friends.

What are Charlie Bone's reunited parents doing on their second honeymoon during the sixth book?

Whale watching keeps them away while a salty mist settles on the city and something howls in the night.

Eric Shellhorn, the young stepson of Charlie Bone's great-aunt Venetia, can bring which objects to life?

Stone statues stir at Eric's command. He lives with his stepmother Venetia after his father and sister escape her and leave the city.

Through his mother Amy, Charlie Bone descends from which legendary magician, a friend of the Red King?

Mathonwy gives Charlie magical blood on both sides of his family. The name is borrowed from the Mabinogion, where Math, son of Mathonwy, rules Gwynedd.

Which cruel son of the Red King, a fire-wielding forefather of Manfred Bloor, does Ezekiel Bloor try to revive?

Borlath was meant to rise again in the fourth book, but the spell went wrong and brought back someone else entirely. Manfred later gains his power over fire.

In Jenny Nimmo's Chronicles of the Red King, young Timoken flies off to find a new home riding which beast, Gabar?

A camel named Gabar carries the 200-year-old boy who will be king, and they pick up a wizard, a dragon and a band of runaway children on the way.

Idith and Inez Branko, twins at Bloor's Academy in the Charlie Bone books, share which power with Zelda Dobinski?

Telekinesis, moving objects by thought alone, runs in Zelda's long line of Polish magicians. The twins are her distant relatives.

Which publisher first brought out Jenny Nimmo's Charlie Bone novels in Britain, beginning with two paperbacks?

Egmont launched the series in paperback and switched to hardback from the third book. In America the novels appeared under Scholastic's Orchard imprint.

Naren, the girl who befriends Charlie Bone in the fifth book, sends shadow words over great distances using what?

Moonbeams carry Naren's messages, written in shadow. Together she and Charlie bring back the creatures that have vanished from the city.

Which first book by Jenny Nimmo, published long before Charlie Bone, began life as a television script?

The Bronze Trumpeter came out in 1975 from the publisher Angus & Robertson. Nimmo had spent several years working at the BBC.

Which sinister endowed couple adopt Billy Raven in The Castle of Mirrors and trap him behind a force field?

The de Greys use the force field to stop Billy escaping at weekends. A distant relative who wants to adopt him instead dies saving Uncle Paton.