50 Fun Facts About Children's Books

How many words did Dr. Seuss limit himself to in Green Eggs and Ham, to win a bet?

The whole book really does use just 50 distinct words, and 49 of them have only one syllable; the odd one out is 'anywhere'.

Which Random House publisher lost a bet to Dr. Seuss over Green Eggs and Ham?

Bennett Cerf, co-founder of Random House, made the wager in 1960 and, by Seuss's account, never paid up; the book went on to become the best-selling Dr. Seuss title.

The finished text of The Cat in the Hat contains how many different words?

The finished book uses 236 different words, drawn mostly from a 348-word school list that Houghton Mifflin's William Spaulding gave Geisel; he built the story around the first rhyming pair he found, cat and hat.

In Where the Wild Things Are, what is the name of the boy in the wolf suit?

Max, sent to bed without supper, sails to the island of the Wild Things and is crowned their king, then returns home to find his hot supper waiting for him.

Sendak's Wild Things replaced which animals from his original idea, which he couldn't draw?

The book began as Where the Wild Horses Are until Sendak admitted he could not draw horses; the 'things' he drew instead were caricatures of his own aunts and uncles from their noisy weekly visits in Brooklyn.

In Dr. Seuss's The Lorax, what does the Once-ler knit from the tufts of Truffula Trees?

The Thneed, 'a Fine-Something-That-All-People-Need', sells for $3.98 to the first passer-by, and the Once-ler's factory soon strips away every Truffula Tree.

In Charlotte's Web, what is the name of the pig whose life Charlotte saves?

Wilbur is the runt of a litter of eleven, spared from the axe when eight-year-old Fern Arable begs her father for his life and raises him herself.

What are the first two words Charlotte weaves into her web to save the pig?

'Some Pig' comes first; Charlotte follows it with 'Terrific', 'Radiant' and finally 'Humble', a word the rat Templeton finds on a scrap of newspaper at the county fair.

Who illustrated both Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little for E. B. White?

Garth Williams drew both; Stuart Little (1945) was his first children's book, and he went on to illustrate the Little House series and George Selden's The Cricket in Times Square.

In E. B. White's Stuart Little, the title character is a human child who looks exactly like which animal?

Stuart is described as looking very much like a mouse in every way and stands about two inches high; he later leaves home to search for his friend, the bird Margalo.

Why do bunnies, not humans, populate the great green room in Goodnight Moon?

Hurd drew rabbits better than people: by his son Thacher's account he was never comfortable drawing humans, so the little bunny and the quiet old lady became rabbits, as in The Runaway Bunny.

Which institution refused to stock Goodnight Moon for 25 years because its children's librarian hated it?

The New York Public Library, where the hugely influential Anne Carroll Moore had shaped children's services, kept it off its shelves until 1972; the book sold only about 6,000 copies in its first year.

After his Saturday feast gives him a stomach ache, what does the Very Hungry Caterpillar eat on Sunday?

On Sunday he eats one nice green leaf and feels much better; Saturday's ten-item binge had included a pickle, a slice of salami and a piece of cherry pie.

Eric Carle's first picture book was a 1967 collaboration with author Bill Martin Jr. on which title?

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? was Carle's debut as an illustrator: Martin had spotted a red lobster Carle collaged from tissue paper for an allergy-medicine advert and asked him to illustrate the book.

Beatrix Potter first wrote The Tale of Peter Rabbit in an 1893 letter to whom?

The picture letter went to young Noel Moore, son of her former governess Annie Carter; publishers turned the book down, so Potter printed it privately in 1901 before Frederick Warne & Co took it on in 1902.

What does Peter Rabbit lose while escaping from Mr. McGregor's garden?

His blue jacket and shoes are the second set Peter has lost in a fortnight; Mr. McGregor hangs them on a scarecrow, and Peter is put to bed with chamomile tea.

What are the names of Peter Rabbit's three well-behaved sisters?

Flopsy, Mopsy and Cotton-tail go down the lane to gather blackberries while Peter raids the garden, and they get bread, milk and blackberries for supper.

Beatrix Potter used her book earnings to buy Hill Top Farm in which part of England?

Hill Top, in the Lake District village of Near Sawrey, was bought in 1905; Potter became a prize-winning Herdwick sheep breeder and left some 4,000 acres to the National Trust.

The real bear that gave Winnie-the-Pooh his name was itself named after which city?

Winnie was short for Winnipeg, Colebourn's home city; the Canadian veterinary officer bought the black bear cub in 1914 and left her at London Zoo, where Christopher Robin Milne visited her.

Illustrator E. H. Shepard based his drawings of Winnie-the-Pooh on which bear?

Shepard modelled Pooh on Growler, the teddy of his son Graham, rather than on Christopher Robin's own bear; Growler later passed to Shepard's granddaughter and was savaged by a dog in Canada.

Roald Dahl was born in 1916 in which country?

Dahl was born in Llandaff, Cardiff, in Wales, to Norwegian parents; his first language was Norwegian, and he spent his childhood summers in Norway.

Dahl was named after which famous Norwegian?

Roald Amundsen had beaten Scott to the South Pole in December 1911 and was a national hero to Dahl's Norwegian parents, who chose his name for their son born in 1916.

Roald Dahl illustrator Quentin Blake was the first holder of which British post in 1999?

Quentin Blake was the first Children's Laureate, serving from 1999 to 2001; the post was created by Michael Morpurgo and Ted Hughes, and Anne Fine succeeded him.

How many Golden Tickets does Willy Wonka hide in Wonka Bars in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory?

Five Golden Tickets are hidden; Charlie's birthday bar and one bought with Grandpa Joe's savings turn up nothing, and he finds the last ticket with a coin discovered in the snow.

Which child finds the very first Golden Ticket in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory?

Augustus Gloop, the greedy boy, finds the first ticket and is also the first to leave the tour, sucked up a pipe after tumbling into the chocolate river.

In Roald Dahl's The BFG, what is the name of the orphan girl the giant carries off?

Sophie, snatched from her orphanage dormitory during the witching hour, was named after Dahl's granddaughter Sophie Dahl; the giant's name stands for Big Friendly Giant.

Who is the terrifying headmistress in Roald Dahl's Matilda?

Miss Trunchbull, a former Olympic hammer-thrower, hurls Amanda Thripp over the playground fence by her pigtails and locks pupils in a spiked cupboard called the Chokey.

In James and the Giant Peach, which animal escaped from London Zoo eats James's parents?

A rhinoceros that had escaped from London Zoo ate them in broad daylight on a crowded street, leaving James with Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker until a bag of magic crystals produces the peach.

What are the names of the three farmers who hunt Fantastic Mr Fox?

One fat, one short, one lean: Boggis keeps chickens, Bunce ducks and geese, and Bean turkeys and apples for cider.

In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, what treat does the White Witch use to tempt Edmund?

The White Witch conjures enchanted Turkish Delight, which makes whoever eats it crave more; Edmund eats several pounds and agrees to bring his siblings to her house.

Lewis Carroll's day job at Christ Church, Oxford, was lecturing in which subject?

His real name was Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, and scholars have found echoes of his work on logic in Wonderland's nonsense arguments.

Which is not something Pippi Longstocking can famously do?

She really does lift her horse one-handed; her father, Captain Ephraim Longstocking, was inspired by a real Swedish sailor who became king of a Pacific island.

Which publisher released Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in the UK in June 1997?

Bloomsbury published it on 26 June 1997 with a first print run of just 500 copies, about 300 of which went to libraries; editor Barry Cunningham had taken it on.

Under what title was the first Harry Potter book published in the United States?

Scholastic retitled it Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone for the September 1998 US edition, editor Arthur Levine fearing that 'philosopher' would not suggest magic to American children.

What kind of bird is Hedwig, the pet Hagrid buys Harry Potter for his eleventh birthday?

Hedwig is a snowy owl, bought at Eeylops Owl Emporium in Diagon Alley as a birthday present; Harry names her after a saint he finds in A History of Magic.

In Rick Riordan's The Lightning Thief, which Greek god turns out to be Percy Jackson's father?

Poseidon claims Percy at Camp Half-Blood, which makes him a forbidden child: the Big Three, Zeus, Poseidon and Hades, had sworn after the Second World War to father no more demigods.

In Diary of a Wimpy Kid, who is Greg Heffley's best friend?

Rowley Jefferson is the best friend Greg calls immature, yet Rowley got his own spin-off series, starting with Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid in 2019.

Before it was a book, Diary of a Wimpy Kid appeared online in 2004 on which educational website?

Funbrain ran the online version in daily instalments from 2004, and it drew some 20 million reads before Amulet Books published the first hardcover in April 2007.

Which book won the very first Newbery Medal in 1922?

The Story of Mankind, Hendrik Willem van Loon's history of the world, took 163 of the 212 librarians' votes; the Newbery was the world's first children's book award.

Unlike the Newbery Medal, the Caldecott Medal is awarded to which contributor to a picture book?

It is named for Randolph Caldecott, a Victorian English artist, and Marcia Brown holds the record with three medals and six honors.

Dorothy P. Lathrop won the inaugural Caldecott Medal in 1938 for illustrating which book?

Animals of the Bible, with text selected by Helen Dean Fish, won the first Caldecott in 1938; Mei Li took the 1939 medal and Make Way for Ducklings the 1942 one.

The Snowy Day won the 1963 Caldecott Medal as the first winning picture book to feature what?

Peter, the boy in the red snowsuit, was the first African American protagonist in a Caldecott-winning book; Keats based him on a Life magazine photo strip that had hung in his studio for 22 years.

In Beverly Cleary's books, Ramona Quimby and her family live on which road in Portland, Oregon?

Klickitat Street is a real street in Portland's Grant Park neighborhood, where Cleary grew up; bronze statues of Ramona, Henry Huggins and his dog Ribsy stand in Grant Park.

In Judy Blume's Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, what is little brother Fudge's real first name?

His full name is Farley Drexel Hatcher; big brother Peter's misery includes Fudge swallowing his pet turtle, Dribble.

In the first Curious George book, who takes George from Africa to live in the big city?

The Man with the Yellow Hat catches George with his hat and sails him to the city; authors Margret and H. A. Rey fled Paris in June 1940 on home-made bicycles with the manuscript.

Paddington Bear arrived at a London railway station from 'darkest' where?

He came from darkest Peru, sent by his Aunt Lucy; Michael Bond based him on a lone teddy bought for his wife on Christmas Eve 1956 and on wartime evacuees with labels round their necks.

Which mean principal do George and Harold hypnotize into becoming Captain Underpants?

Mr. Krupp, principal of Jerome Horwitz Elementary in Piqua, Ohio, is hypnotized with a 3-D Hypno-Ring; the series ended in 2015 before Pilkey launched the Dog Man spin-off.

Who illustrated Julia Donaldson's The Gruffalo, with its terrible tusks and purple prickles?

Axel Scheffler, a German-born illustrator, had already drawn Donaldson's A Squash and a Squeeze in 1993 and went on to illustrate the 2004 sequel The Gruffalo's Child.

The Gruffalo was inspired by a Chinese folk tale in which a fox borrows the terror of which animal?

In the tale a fox has a tiger walk behind him, so the fleeing animals seem to fear the fox; Donaldson's trickster became a small woodland hero who bluffs a fox, an owl and a snake.

Which brother and sister travel through time in Mary Pope Osborne's Magic Tree House series?

Jack and Annie find the tree house in the woods of Frog Creek, Pennsylvania; their early missions come from the enchantress Morgan le Fay, librarian of Camelot.