Dave Pelzer
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40 free Dave Pelzer trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Dave Pelzer became one of the best-selling memoirists of his generation with A Child Called "It", an account of a brutal childhood in California that stayed on bestseller lists for years. The story did not end there. He wrote sequels, served in the military, collected national honors and turned himself into a touring speaker whose talks are as likely to feature jokes as hard memories. This quiz covers the facts people look for about him: the books and what each one covers, the people who appear in them, his career before writing, the honors and the odd personal details that surface in interviews. It also touches on the questions critics and relatives have raised about his account, without retelling the abuse itself. It is written for readers who have finished the memoirs, for students studying them in class, and for anyone curious about the man behind a book that is still widely read and often challenged.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Dave Pelzer, whose lectures are full of jokes, likens himself to which comedian, only with glasses?
Robin Williams
Robin Williams is the comparison he reaches for, and his talks mix his life story with rapid impressions. He has also longed for a career in stand-up comedy.
Q 02Which branch of the US military did Dave Pelzer join at 18, straight after leaving foster care?
The Air Force
The Air Force gave him 13 years of structure after a childhood spent in foster homes. He left as a technical sergeant and built a second career as a writer and speaker.
Q 03Which honor did Dave Pelzer receive in connection with the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta?
Carrying the Olympic torch
Carrying the Olympic torch put him in the relay for the centennial Games, held a century after the first modern Olympics in Athens.
Q 04The US publisher of Dave Pelzer's bestseller A Child Called "It" also produced which inspirational books?
Chicken Soup for the Soul
Chicken Soup for the Soul came from the same Florida self-help press, Health Communications. It kept his memoir in stock through slow early sales until a talk show appearance created instant demand.
Q 05Which music star, honored in 1970, shares the Jaycees title Ten Outstanding Young Americans with Dave Pelzer?
Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley was honored for entertainment, and Pelzer followed in 1993 for personal accomplishment. John F. Kennedy and Orson Welles appear on the same list.
Q 06Which highly secretive spy plane was Dave Pelzer hand-picked to refuel in midair during his military career?
SR-71 Blackbird
SR-71 Blackbird missions depended on fuel delivered in flight, and Pelzer was among the crew trusted to do it. He was also chosen to refuel the F-117 stealth fighter.
Q 07Who alerted the authorities in March 1973, leading to Dave Pelzer's removal from his mother's home?
His teachers
His teachers stepped in when he was 12, and he went into foster care. His talks still pay tribute to the school staff, police and social workers who helped him.
Q 08Critics trace which bestselling publishing genre of the 2000s back to Dave Pelzer's A Child Called "It"?
Misery lit
Misery lit sold so well that the Waterstones chain gave such memoirs their own section, named Painful Lives.
Q 09Dave Pelzer's father Stephen, who gave him a work badge as a parting gift, had which job?
Firefighter
Firefighter Stephen Pelzer handed over the badge as a goodbye present. Decades later his son followed him into the work as a volunteer and was twice named Volunteer Firefighter of the Year.
Q 10Which Dave Pelzer memoir, the sequel to A Child Called "It", follows his teenage years in foster homes?
The Lost Boy
The Lost Boy follows him through five different foster homes, and its subtitle calls the story a search for the love of a family.
Q 11The subtitle of Dave Pelzer's memoir of adulthood, A Man Named Dave, promises a story of triumph and what else?
Forgiveness
Forgiveness runs through the book, in which the adult Pelzer pardons his father for standing by and finally confronts his mother.
Q 12Which single word does Dave Pelzer say his message has always been about, in books and school talks alike?
Resilience
Resilience is the thread he names, and he pairs it with personal responsibility when he speaks to high school students and adults.
Q 13Which action film star does Dave Pelzer most enjoy mimicking, a Guardian interviewer found in 2004?
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Q 21In 2005 Dave Pelzer won which national public service honor, co-founded by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis?
Jefferson Award
Jefferson Award winners at the national level have included Colin Powell and Sandra Day O'Connor. The honor was created in 1972 to reward public and community service.
Q 22Dave Pelzer, who spent his teens in foster care, later worked as a counselor at which kind of facility?
Juvenile hall
Juvenile hall held him for a spell during his foster years, and he has since given thousands of talks in such facilities and in schools.
Q 23In Dave Pelzer's second memoir, a bar worker keeps the runaway child waiting for police with which food?
Pizza
Arnold Schwarzenegger is his favorite star to imitate. Pelzer peppers his conversation with film references and delivers much of his serious message through comedy.
Q 14Which organization ranked Dave Pelzer's A Child Called "It" among the most challenged books of the 2010s?
American Library Association
American Library Association records placed it 36th on the decade's list of most banned and challenged titles, yet the group's youth division twice named it a popular paperback for young adults.
Q 15Which condition do Dave Pelzer's memoirs attribute to both his abusive mother and his passive father?
Alcoholism
Alcoholism shaped the whole household in his telling: his mother drank heavily for years, and his father's drinking cost him his own job.
Q 16Dave Pelzer has called himself a nominee for which literary honor, a label Slate called misleading?
Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize entries can be sent in by almost anyone, so being entered is not the same as being shortlisted. Pelzer was neither a winner nor a named finalist.
Q 17Dave Pelzer told a reporter that appearing with which talk show host gave his books only a little bounce?
Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey had him on in January 2002, but he said the bounce was not enough to reach the bestseller list. An earlier daytime slot had done far more for his first memoir.
Q 18Dave Pelzer's second wife, Marsha Donohoe, first worked with him in which professional role?
His editor
His editor first, Marsha Donohoe went on to marry him and to work alongside him as his executive director.
Q 19Which brother of Dave Pelzer wrote his own memoir of the family's abuse, titled A Brother's Journey?
Richard
Richard Pelzer backed up much of his older brother's account and wrote that he became their mother's next target once Dave was removed from the home.
Q 20Most publishers in which country rejected Dave Pelzer's A Child Called "It" before Orion made it a bestseller?
Britain
Britain proved the doubters wrong: the first print run sold out to shops six weeks before publication, helped by an underground market in the American edition.
Pizza was the bait that kept him there until officers arrived, and his father later came to the station to take him home.
Q 24In Dave Pelzer's second memoir, he does chores in his foster home to pay for repairs to what?
A bicycle
A bicycle mattered so much that once it was fixed he rode it down the street where his old home stood, and his family then contacted his foster parents.
Q 25In Dave Pelzer's second memoir, which incident does a supposed friend blame on him, taking him out of his foster home?
A classroom fire
A classroom fire got out of control although he tried to put it out, and the other boy then let him take the blame.
Q 26Which John Steinbeck story did Dave Pelzer name as his favorite book, kissing his interviewer's copy?
Of Mice and Men
Of Mice and Men was the book the journalist happened to be reading that day, and Pelzer, she noted, believes coincidences are divine in origin.
Q 27Dave Pelzer says he overcame a childhood speech impediment by reciting what at a mirror every day?
The alphabet
The alphabet took him half an hour a day, and he recalls nearly three weeks passing before he noticed any improvement.
Q 28Which US president, in office when A Child Called "It" came out, features in Dave Pelzer's stage impressions?
Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton was one of the voices he fell back on when a newspaper interviewer challenged his story, answering in character instead.
Q 29Which California river, Dave Pelzer's childhood haven, gives his memoir Return to the River its setting?
The Russian
The Russian River was the happy part of his childhood, and he later founded annual humanitarian awards for people serving that area.
Q 30Dave Pelzer's mother once followed a family outing to which city district with a themed dinner at home?
Chinatown
Chinatown inspired her to hang paper lanterns and cook a matching meal in costume, a memory he sets against the cruelty that followed.