Far North (Will Hobbs)
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40 free Far North (Will Hobbs) trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Will Hobbs's Far North drops two teenagers and an old hunter into a subarctic winter with almost nothing, then asks how much of the old knowledge the young are willing to learn. Readers tend to remember it scene by scene. This quiz follows the story from the flight that goes wrong to the long walk home: who the characters are, what they build, hunt and lose, and how the wilderness nearly beats them. A few questions step outside the book to the real river country it is set in and to the author's own trip there. It suits students checking their reading before a test, classes that want a quick review, and anyone who read the novel years ago and wants to see what stuck.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The waterfall that swallows the plane in Will Hobbs's Far North stands about twice as tall as which famous landmark?
Niagara Falls
Niagara Falls drops only about half as far as the real cascade on the South Nahanni. The rock that splits its crest is named for the canoeist Bill Mason.
Q 02Will Hobbs made Gabe, the narrator of Far North, a complete outsider to the north from which U.S. state?
Texas
Texas struck Hobbs as about as different from the subarctic as anywhere could be. He also knew it well, having lived there as a teenager.
Q 03In Will Hobbs's Far North, how is the old hunter Johnny Raven, stranded with the boys, related to Raymond Providence?
His great-uncle
His great-uncle Johnny Raven is the third passenger left behind when the plane is lost. The old man's survival lessons are what keep the two boys alive.
Q 04In Will Hobbs's Far North, which animal wrecks the boys' winter meat supply and forces them to walk out?
A grizzly
A grizzly prowling in midwinter, icicles hanging from its back, destroys their cache. With nothing left to eat, the boys must trek down the river to the nearest village.
Q 05In Will Hobbs's Far North, what do Gabe and Raymond build to escape down the river, ignoring Johnny Raven's advice?
A log raft
A log raft looks quicker than wintering in the bush, but the ice-choked river defeats it. The failed run costs the boys most of their food.
Q 06Reviewers of Will Hobbs's Far North compared it to Hatchet and Brian's Winter, survival novels by which author?
Gary Paulsen
Gary Paulsen published Brian's Winter in 1996, the year Far North appeared. Two winter survival tales for young readers reached the shelves almost side by side.
Q 07The grim legends of the real valley in Will Hobbs's Far North began when two gold prospectors were found in what state?
Headless
Headless is how the bodies of the brothers Willie and Frank McLeod were found around 1908. Tales of a lost mine and haunted country have clung to the Nahanni ever since.
Q 08Will Hobbs joked that he hoped readers of Far North would suffer a good case of virtual what?
Frostbite
Frostbite was the goal, and Hobbs knew the feeling. He had twice winter-camped in Colorado's high country at twenty degrees below zero.
Q 09Will Hobbs's Far North strands Gabe and Raymond in the wilderness of which vast region of northern Canada?
Northwest Territories
Northwest Territories wilderness around the Nahanni is so roadless that Hobbs himself needed a bush pilot to reach the upper river.
Q 10In Will Hobbs's Far North, what goes wrong after the bush pilot lands on the river above the waterfall?
The engine quits
The engine quits and the powerless plane drifts toward the drop. Hobbs took the scare from a real incident he heard about on that same stretch of river.
Q 11In Will Hobbs's Far North, Gabe enrolls at a boarding school in which Canadian city to be nearer his father?
Yellowknife
Yellowknife puts Gabe closer to his father, who works on exploration rigs out in the bush. It is the only city in its entire territory.
Q 12In Will Hobbs's Far North, the pilot makes a sightseeing stop at which thundering waterfall on the Nahanni River?
Virginia Falls
Virginia Falls was named in 1928 by the explorer Fenley Hunter, who called it after his daughter. Hobbs carried his own boat around it on the trip that inspired the book.
Q 13In Will Hobbs's Far North, on which real stretch of the Nahanni do Gabe and Raymond end up stranded for the winter?
Deadmen Valley
Q 21In Will Hobbs's Far North, what is the first name of the bush pilot who is lost with his plane?
Clint
Clint is swept away with the aircraft, and nearly all the ammunition goes with him. He had been flying two passengers home to their village when he took Gabe along.
Q 22In Will Hobbs's Far North, why is Raymond Providence flying home to his village only months into the term?
He has dropped out
He has dropped out after only a few months of classes. Kirkus saw him as a misfit in both the modern and the traditional worlds, struggling to find out who he is.
Q 23In Will Hobbs's Far North, which animal does Johnny Raven set out to hunt on the day he dies?
A moose
Deadmen Valley is a real place, like the other settings in the book. Hobbs ran the same river himself on a thirteen-day trip.
Q 14In Will Hobbs's Far North, what nickname do northerners give the brutal subarctic winter that traps the boys?
The Hammer
The Hammer is the locals' name for the deep cold. It is closing in when the plane is lost, leaving three survivors with only a small cache of gear.
Q 15Raymond Providence and Johnny Raven in Will Hobbs's Far North belong to which Indigenous people of northern Canada?
Dene
Dene is simply the word for people in the Athabaskan languages. Hobbs's best research find was a book in which the nation's elders voiced their hopes and fears for the young.
Q 16In Will Hobbs's Far North, Johnny Raven's trapping skill brings in which animals for midwinter meat?
Beavers
Beavers turn up just as the group is running short of meat. Trapping them is one of the old hunter's skills that the boys have to learn.
Q 17In Will Hobbs's Far North, Johnny Raven shows the boys how to make mittens and what else from animal hide?
Snowshoes
Snowshoes let the boys hunt and travel once the drifts deepen. Publishers Weekly singled out the craft, along with trapping rabbits, among the skills the old man passes on.
Q 18In Will Hobbs's Far North, how does Johnny Raven die after leaving the boys to go hunting alone?
He freezes to death
He freezes to death in the forest, and the boys find him only after he fails to return by sundown. They had heard a single gunshot in the distance earlier that day.
Q 19In Will Hobbs's Far North, on what does Gabe haul the injured Raymond for days down the iced-over river?
A toboggan
A toboggan carries Raymond and their gear after he tells Gabe to go on alone and Gabe refuses. The two stop only at night to build a fire and a shelter.
Q 20In Will Hobbs's Far North, what ceremony is held in Johnny Raven's memory once the boys reach safety?
A potlatch
A potlatch, a feast for the whole village, honours the old hunter, and both boys speak at it. Among Athabaskan peoples the most elaborate such feasts mark a death.
A moose is what the old man goes after, and the boys hear his shot from far off. When he has not come back by sundown, they set out to look for him.
Q 24In Will Hobbs's Far North, what does Johnny Raven lead the boys to as shelter for the depths of winter?
An old cabin
An old cabin that Johnny remembers from years before becomes their base. He leads the boys to it even though they can barely understand what he tells them.
Q 25Will Hobbs ran which rapid himself before making it the spot where Far North's boys nearly lose Johnny Raven?
Figure-of-Eight
Figure-of-Eight is where the boys' attempted escape down the river nearly ends in disaster for the old man. Hobbs said he could not have described that country nearly as well without seeing it.
Q 26In Will Hobbs's Far North, the small float plane that carries Gabe over the Nahanni is built by which maker?
Cessna
Cessna is the make of the little aircraft, and the flight mirrors the author's own. Hobbs reached the upper river with a bush pilot in a small floatplane.
Q 27The Nahanni park where Will Hobbs set Far North was among the very first places anywhere to earn which status?
World Heritage Site
World Heritage Site status came in 1978, when UNESCO picked the park as one of its first four natural sites. The river running through it was named a Canadian Heritage River in 1987.
Q 28In Nahanni Butte, the real home village of Raymond in Will Hobbs's Far North, many residents speak which language?
Slavey
Slavey is an Athabaskan language with official status in its territory. The village's own name in it means strong rock.
Q 29The boys' long walk out in Will Hobbs's Far North ends where the Nahanni meets which larger river?
The Liard
The Liard takes in the South Nahanni beside Raymond's village, which sits where the two rivers meet. An all-season road got as far as the opposite bank only in 2010.
Q 30Far North won Will Hobbs which prize, given by the Western Writers of America for writing about the West?
The Spur Award
The Spur Award went to Far North three years after Hobbs took the same prize for Beardance. The novel won the Colorado Book Award as well.