69 Fun Facts About Middle School Book

In The Giver, 12-year-old Jonas is selected to become the community's what?

Receiver of Memory: the Chief Elder skips Jonas's turn at the Ceremony of Twelve, then apologises for his anguish and announces that he has been selected, not assigned.

Who wrote The Giver, the 1994 Newbery Medal winner?

Lois Lowry won the 1994 Newbery Medal for The Giver, her second after Number the Stars in 1990; the book became one of the most frequently challenged titles in American schools.

In Hatchet, what happens to the pilot that strands Brian Robeson in the Canadian wilderness?

He has a heart attack mid-flight and falls unconscious, leaving Brian to bring the plane down in a lake and swim to shore, where a hatchet is almost all he has.

Who gave Brian the hatchet he survives with in Hatchet?

His mother gave him the hatchet as a present just before the flight; he learns to make fire only after it strikes sparks off the rock wall of his shelter in the dark.

In Holes, where is Stanley Yelnats sent to dig after being wrongly convicted of theft?

Stanley is sent to Camp Green Lake, a Texas juvenile detention camp where there has been no lake for over a hundred years; the boys dig a hole a day in the dried lakebed.

Who wrote Holes, which won both the National Book Award and the Newbery Medal?

Louis Sachar has said the story began with its setting, dreamed up in the heat of a Texas summer just after a cool holiday in Maine; the characters came later.

In Wonder, what is the name of the boy with a facial difference who starts mainstream school?

August Pullman, known as Auggie, has Treacher Collins syndrome; R.J. Palacio got the idea after her son reacted with distress to a girl with a facial difference.

In Wonder, the new boy starts fifth grade at which private school?

Beecher Prep is where the head, Mr Tushman, lines up three pupils to show the new boy round before term starts; one of them turns out to be his chief tormentor.

In The Lightning Thief, Percy Jackson turns out to be the son of which Greek god?

Percy is claimed by Poseidon, breaking an oath the Big Three swore after World War II to father no more demigods; that is why Zeus suspects Percy of stealing his master bolt.

Percy's school friend Grover in The Lightning Thief turns out to be what kind of creature?

A satyr, half goat and half human: Grover was at the school to protect Percy, and reveals himself the night he warns Percy's mother to get her son to Camp Half-Blood.

In The Hunger Games, Katniss volunteers as tribute to take the place of whom?

Her sister Primrose is only 12 and in her first year in the lottery when her name is drawn; Katniss, 16, steps forward for coal-mining District 12.

Who is Katniss's fellow tribute from District 12, the baker's son who once gave her bread?

Peeta Mellark took a blow from his mother over two burnt loaves, then threw them to the starving Katniss instead of to the pigs, a kindness she never forgot.

In Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Greg Heffley insists he is writing not a diary but a what?

A journal, he insists on the first page, not a diary; Jeff Kinney serialised Greg's story online on Funbrain from 2004, and the printed book of 2007 is an edited version of it.

Who is Greg Heffley's loyal best friend, who later got his own spin-off series?

Rowley Jefferson got his turn in 2019 with Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid, where he sets out to be Greg's biographer and Greg comes off rather worse than in his own telling.

In Bridge to Terabithia, how do Jess and Leslie reach their secret kingdom?

Jess and Leslie reach Terabithia by swinging over a creek on a rope; Katherine Paterson based the story on her son's friend Lisa Hill, who was killed by lightning in 1974.

In Number the Stars, Annemarie helps Ellen Rosen escape occupied Copenhagen to which neutral country?

The Rosens are smuggled by fishing boat to Sweden from Uncle Henrik's home in the fishing village of Gilleleje, using a fake funeral for an invented Great-aunt Birte as cover.

In The Outsiders, what are the greasers' rich West-side rivals called?

The Socs, short for Socials, are the rich West-side kids who jump greasers; S. E. Hinton wrote the novel while still at high school in Tulsa.

Who narrates The Outsiders?

Ponyboy Curtis, 14, lives with his two older brothers since their parents' death, and the whole book turns out to be the English theme his teacher sets him at the end.

In Where the Red Fern Grows, what does Billy name his two coonhounds?

Old Dan and Little Ann cost Billy two years of odd jobs to save the $50, and he walked some 20 miles to Tahlequah to collect them rather than wait for a ride.

Where the Red Fern Grows is set in which mountain region?

The Ozarks of Oklahoma are where Wilson Rawls grew up; he burned his manuscripts before his wedding, then rewrote this story from memory when his wife urged him to.

In A Wrinkle in Time, Meg and Charles Wallace travel through space and time to rescue which family member?

They tesser to Camazotz to rescue their dad, the physicist Mr Murry, who vanished while working on a secret government project; Calvin O'Keefe goes with them.

Who wrote A Wrinkle in Time?

Madeleine L'Engle saw the manuscript turned down by more than two dozen publishers, unsure whether it was for children or adults, before it won the 1963 Newbery Medal.

In Tuck Everlasting, what has made the Tuck family immortal?

Drinking from a spring in the wood near Treegap stopped the Tucks ageing; when Winnie Foster catches Jesse Tuck at it, he refuses to let her drink too.

In Island of the Blue Dolphins, what kind of animal is Rontu, whom Karana wounds and then tames?

A wild dog: Rontu leads the pack that killed her brother Ramo, and Karana shoots him to avenge it, then cannot finish him off, carries him home and nurses him.

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry follows the Logan family in which state in the 1930s?

The Logans farm their own 400 acres in rural Mississippi in 1933; unlike most Black families around them they own the land, and keeping it is what the story turns on.

Which novel's runaway orphan hero unties the famous Cobble's Knot?

Maniac Magee: Jeffrey Magee runs from his feuding aunt and uncle and lands in Two Mills, a town split between a Black East End and a white West End, a line he crosses as if it were not there.

In Walk Two Moons, Salamanca's grandparents drive her across the country to find whom?

Sal and her grandparents drive from Ohio to Lewiston, Idaho, to reach her mother, retelling her friend Phoebe's story on the way; the book won the 1995 Newbery Medal.

In Esperanza Rising, Esperanza's family flees Mexico for farm work in which US state?

California is where the family lands, in a farm-labour camp at Arvin, after bandits murder her father on the eve of her birthday and his stepbrother Tío Luis, refused by her mother, burns down the ranch.

In Bud, Not Buddy, orphan Bud Caldwell searches for his supposed father in which state?

Michigan: Bud walks out of Flint in 1936 to find the bandleader Herman E. Calloway in Grand Rapids, sure he is his father; Calloway turns out to be his grandfather.

In The Westing Game, sixteen strangers are invited to rent apartments in which building?

The heirs are gathered as tenants of Sunset Towers, a new lakeshore apartment block within sight of the Westing house; Samuel Westing made his fortune in paper, and his will turns them into players.

In Because of Winn-Dixie, Opal names her scruffy dog after what?

Opal names him after the Winn-Dixie supermarket where she finds him knocking over produce; her father is known as the Preacher, and the book won a 2001 Newbery Honor.

In Freak the Mighty, where does tiny Kevin ride when he and big Max go adventuring?

On Max's shoulders: Kevin steers from up there as the brain while Max supplies the legs, and the pair call themselves Freak the Mighty.

In The Hobbit, what job does Gandalf volunteer Bilbo for on Thorin's quest to the Lonely Mountain?

Burglar: Gandalf puts the dumbfounded hobbit forward for the job, the thirteen dwarves scoff at the idea, and Bilbo is stung into setting off with them.

In The Watsons Go to Birmingham – 1963, the family drives south from Flint to leave whom with Grandma Sands?

The Watsons drive Byron, the delinquent eldest, to Grandma Sands in Birmingham; Kenny, the middle child, narrates, and the family is there when the church is bombed.

Out of My Mind is narrated by Melody Brooks, a brilliant girl who has which condition?

Melody has cerebral palsy, cannot speak or walk, and has a photographic memory; a Medi-Talker speech device finally lets the people around her see how much is going on in her head.

In The City of Ember, Lina and Doon follow clues left by the Builders to escape a city that is where?

Underground: the Builders stocked Ember long ago to keep humanity alive, and by Lina and Doon's time the supplies and the lights are failing, which is why the pair hunt for a way out.

Cornelia Funke's Inkheart was first published in which language?

German: Tintenherz appeared in 2003 and Anthea Bell put it into English; its bookbinder hero can read characters out of stories, and years ago read his own wife into one.

Which fantasy novel did Christopher Paolini write at fifteen, before his parents self-published it?

Eragon: Paolini began it at fifteen after finishing home school, and toured bookshops in medieval costume to sell it until novelist Carl Hiaasen, whose stepson loved it, took it to Knopf.

Eoin Colfer pitched Artemis Fowl as "Die Hard with" what?

Eoin Colfer summed up Artemis Fowl as 'Die Hard with fairies'; the 12-year-old criminal mastermind kidnaps the fairy police officer Holly Short for a ransom in gold.

In Redwall, the young hero Matthias is what kind of animal?

Matthias is a young mouse, a clumsy novice at Redwall Abbey who dreams of being like Martin the Warrior and eventually wields Martin's sword against the rat Cluny the Scourge.

Which villain keeps turning up in a new disguise to get at the Baudelaire orphans' fortune?

Count Olaf, the orphans' first guardian, turns up in The Wide Window as Captain Sham; he dupes their Aunt Josephine, but the Baudelaires see through him.

Lemony Snicket, author of A Series of Unfortunate Events, is the pen name of which writer?

Daniel Handler writes as Lemony Snicket, who is also a character in the books; Handler has published adult novels under his own name, including The Basic Eight.

Tui T. Sutherland's Wings of Fire series is about which creatures?

Dragons: five dragonets are raised in hiding to fulfil a prophecy that they will end the long war between the dragon tribes of Pyrrhia; the first book came out in 2012.

Who wrote and drew Smile, the graphic memoir about years of braces after a fall in sixth grade?

Raina Telgemeier tripped and badly injured her two front teeth; Smile began as a weekly webcomic before Scholastic's Graphix published it in 2010.

Kwame Alexander's Newbery-winning basketball novel The Crossover is written entirely in what form?

Verse carries the whole story: the poems take their rhythm from the basketball court as twins Josh and Jordan Bell start to drift apart; it won the 2015 Newbery Medal.

In Hello, Universe, four middle schoolers' stories collide when one of them becomes trapped where?

In a well: the bully Chet endangers Virgil's pet guinea pig, and boy and pet end up stuck at the bottom while Kaori and Valencia search for them over a single day.

In Stargirl, Leo's family moves from Pennsylvania to which state, where he meets Stargirl?

Arizona: at Mica's high school the new girl, Stargirl Caraway, arrives with a pet rat and a ukulele and sings 'Happy Birthday' to her schoolmates.

In Flipped, Juli Baker's long protest is about saving what?

A sycamore tree: Juli spends hours up in its branches to stop it being cut down, and her stand makes Bryce, who has dodged her for years, start to look at her differently.

In Chasing Vermeer, Calder and Petra try to recover a stolen Vermeer painting in which city?

Calder and Petra are sixth-graders in Hyde Park, Chicago, near the University of Chicago; the stolen painting is A Lady Writing, and the thief taunts the city through newspaper adverts.

In The Mysterious Benedict Society, what is the name of Mr Benedict's villainous twin brother?

Ledroptha Curtain, Mr Benedict's long-lost identical twin, runs the Learning Institute for the Very Enlightened, where Reynie, Sticky, Kate and Constance enrol to spy on him.

In Al Capone Does My Shirts, Moose Flanagan's family moves to which island for his dad's prison job?

Alcatraz: Moose's father takes a job as a prison guard there in 1935, and Moose ends up writing to inmate Al Capone, who works in the laundry, for help getting his sister into a special school.

In Cynthia Lord's Rules, Catherine writes rules to help her younger brother David, who has what?

David has autism, and Catherine's rules such as 'No toys in the fish tank' are her way of coping; she befriends Jason, who communicates with word cards at David's occupational therapy clinic.

The One and Only Ivan is narrated by a silverback gorilla who has spent 27 years living where?

In a shopping mall: the real Ivan spent 27 years caged at a mall in Tacoma, Washington, until a public outcry sent him to Zoo Atlanta in 1994, where he first lived among other gorillas.

Jason Reynolds's Ghost is the first book in a series about kids who take up which sport?

Track: Castle 'Ghost' Cranshaw has felt he was running ever since the night he and his mother fled his father; he barges into an elite team's practice and is fast enough for the coach to keep him.

In Brown Girl Dreaming, Jacqueline Woodson's childhood moves between Ohio, New York and which state?

South Carolina is where her mother took the children, to her own parents in Greenville, when the marriage ended in Ohio; they later joined her in Brooklyn, New York.

In When You Reach Me, Miranda helps her mom prepare to appear on which real game show?

The $20,000 Pyramid, Dick Clark's quiz show: as Miranda drills her mom for it, she puzzles over notes from someone who seems to know what will happen next.

Which fairy tale does Gail Carson Levine's novel about a girl cursed to obey retell?

Cinderella gets a reason for her meekness in Ella Enchanted: a foolish fairy's 'gift' of obedience forces Ella to follow any order, which her stepsisters-to-be exploit until she breaks the curse.

Anne Frank's diary was written while her family hid for two years in which country?

The Franks hid for two years in the Secret Annexe behind Otto Frank's office on Amsterdam's Prinsengracht, in the Netherlands; Miep Gies saved the diary and gave it to Otto, the family's only survivor.

The Warriors (Warrior Cats) series is written by a team of authors under what shared pen name?

Erin Hunter is a collective pen name; Victoria Holmes plotted the storylines, while Kate Cary and Cherith Baldry wrote the first arc, starting with Into the Wild in 2003.

In Ranger's Apprentice, the orphan Will is chosen to serve the King of which country?

Will becomes apprentice to the Ranger Halt in the kingdom of Araluen, serving King Duncan; John Flanagan first wrote the stories to get his son Michael reading, then expanded them into The Ruins of Gorlan (2004).

Which Pevensie child is the first to step through the wardrobe into Narnia?

Lucy has tea with the faun Mr Tumnus, who confesses he meant to hand her to the White Witch, then leads her back to the lamp-post instead; The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was the first published of the seven Narnia novels.

In Among the Hidden, why must 12-year-old Luke Garner stay out of sight?

Luke is an illegal third child in a state that limits families to two because of food shortages; he hides in the attic until he spots another hidden child, Jen, in a neighbouring house.

In The Graveyard Book, what is the name of the boy raised by the ghosts of a graveyard?

Nobody Owens, Bod for short, toddles into the graveyard the night his family is murdered, and its ghosts take him in, with Mr and Mrs Owens as his adoptive parents.

In Neil Gaiman's Coraline, what does the Other Mother have in place of eyes?

Buttons: the Other Mother and Other Father are button-eyed copies of Coraline's parents, and the price of staying in their world is letting buttons be sewn over her own eyes.

In The Phantom Tollbooth, what kind of creature rescues Milo from the Doldrums?

A dog with a built-in clock: Tock the watchdog tells Milo that only by thinking can he leave the Doldrums, where the Lethargarians waste their days.

In Fish in a Tree, sixth-grader Ally Nickerson is eventually identified as having which condition?

Ally's new teacher Mr Daniels recognises her dyslexia and begins teaching her to read after school; the title comes from the saying that judging a fish by its ability to climb a tree makes it believe it is stupid.

In The War That Saved My Life, why has Ada's mother never let her leave their London flat?

Her clubfoot shames her mother into keeping her indoors, so Ada secretly teaches herself to walk and slips away with her brother Jamie when London's children are evacuated to Kent.

In Alan Gratz's Refugee, Josef Landau's family flees Nazi Germany aboard which real ship?

Josef's family sails from Hamburg in 1939 on the MS St. Louis, the liner Cuba and the United States really did turn away; the Cuban officer Josef meets turns out to be Isabel's grandfather, Lito.

In Kelly Barnhill's 2017 Newbery winner, what does the witch Xan accidentally feed a rescued baby?

Xan feeds the baby moonlight instead of her usual starlight, filling Luna with magic so dangerous that Xan locks it away inside her until she comes of age; the book won the 2017 Newbery Medal.