The Moon and More
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40 free The Moon and More trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The Moon and More is Sarah Dessen's novel about the summer between high school and college, told by a girl who has spent her whole life in a beach town that everyone else only visits. Emaline hands out keys to holidaymakers, has a steady boyfriend and a place at university, and thinks the next few months are settled. Then her absent father turns up, a film crew from the city arrives, and nothing stays where she left it. This quiz follows the story from the first cracks in Emaline's plans to the choice she makes at the end. It covers her crowded family, her two best friends, the boys she falls for, the local recluse the filmmakers are chasing, and the characters and places that cross over from Dessen's other books. A few questions step outside the novel to look at how it was written and at the author herself. It is made for readers who have just finished the book and want to check what they remember, for students preparing for a reading quiz, and for longtime Dessen fans who like spotting the cameos. Every answer comes with a short explanation.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Colby, Emaline's seaside hometown in The Moon and More, lies on the coast of which American state?
North Carolina
North Carolina is home ground for Sarah Dessen, who lives in Chapel Hill and modeled Colby on a beach town where her family spends summers.
Q 02Which summer job keeps Luke, Emaline's boyfriend in The Moon and More, shirtless around Colby?
Cleaning pools
Cleaning pools came straight from life: Sarah Dessen says the novel began when a chatty, shirtless pool guy turned up at her own beach rental.
Q 03Which Ivy League school admits Emaline in The Moon and More before her father backs out of paying?
Columbia
Columbia was her dream school, but without the money she accepts a full scholarship to a state college closer to home.
Q 04How is young Benji, who arrives with Emaline's father in The Moon and More, related to her?
Half-brother
Half-brother Benji is the son of her father's marriage, and he quickly grows attached to both Emaline and Luke.
Q 05What kind of film has Ivy, Theo's demanding boss in The Moon and More, come to Colby to make?
A documentary
A documentary about Clyde is her goal: he was a celebrated painter who vanished from the art world at the height of his career.
Q 06In which city does The Moon and More end, at a gallery opening for Clyde's collected paintings?
New York
New York hosts the gallery show of Clyde's collected works that November, and Emaline, visiting with Benji, admits the city still confuses her.
Q 07What does Emaline discover about Luke that ends their long romance in The Moon and More?
He cheated on her
He cheated on her with an older woman who left her phone number on his windshield, and by morning the couple have agreed to take a break.
Q 08By the end of The Moon and More, what does Emaline realize about Theo, her ambitious summer romance?
He was using her
He was using her to get close to Clyde, the artist his boss wanted on camera, and he turns bitter once she ends it.
Q 09What does the family firm where Emaline works in The Moon and More offer Colby's summer tourists?
Vacation house rentals
Vacation house rentals are the trade of Colby Realty, where every property has a name of its own, from Heron's Call to Jolly Pirate.
Q 10In The Moon and More, what proves to be the reason Emaline's father went back on paying her tuition?
His divorce
His divorce is something Emaline only learns of later; at the time he simply withdrew the offer without a word of explanation.
Q 11Margo and Amber, who work beside Emaline at Colby Realty in The Moon and More, are her what?
Stepsisters
Stepsisters Margo and Amber are Rob's daughters, and Emaline bickers most with Margo, who loves imposing rigid rules at the office.
Q 12Which member of Emaline's family owns the rental agency where she works in The Moon and More?
Her grandmother
Her grandmother, Mrs. Merritt, is the real boss of Colby Realty, which she and her husband started more than fifty years before the story.
Q 13Where does Daisy, Emaline's stylish best friend in The Moon and More, work for her own parents?
A nail salon
A nail salon called Wave Nails is her family's shop, though Daisy designs and sews her own clothes and is bound for art school.
Q 21Clyde, the reclusive artist of The Moon and More, first appeared in which earlier Dessen novel?
Along for the Ride
Along for the Ride gave him a small part as a Colby business owner, and Netflix released its film of that novel in 2022.
Q 22Besides a laundromat, which Colby business does the reclusive artist Clyde own in The Moon and More?
A bike shop
A bike shop called Abe's Bikes is his, and the laundromat hides a secret room where he also sells pie.
Q 23Spinnerbait, the band heard on Emaline's date with Theo, first turned up in which Dessen novel?
This Lullaby
This Lullaby introduced the band as the despised rivals of its own group, Truth Squad, and they have been name-dropped in Dessen's novels ever since.
Q 14Which easygoing friend of Emaline ends The Moon and More working for Clyde on an art tour?
Morris
Morris has been fired from one job after another for needing every instruction spelled out, so steady work with the artist is a happy ending.
Q 15Which fictional university does Emaline plan to attend on a full scholarship in The Moon and More?
East U
East U is where Luke is heading too, and the school reappears in later Sarah Dessen novels as the college several characters attend.
Q 16What does Benji do during the art show in The Moon and More after learning he must leave Colby?
Runs away
Benji runs away because the summer with Emaline was his first real taste of simply being a kid, and Luke joins the search for him.
Q 17After Theo abandons Ivy to chase a job with Clyde in The Moon and More, how do his plans turn out?
He ends up jobless
He ends up jobless: Clyde never actually offered him anything, and Ivy has no reason to take back the assistant who walked out on her.
Q 18At what stage of life did Emaline's mother become pregnant with her in The Moon and More?
As a teenager
As a teenager, her mother had Emaline with Joel, a summer visitor who soon drifted out of their lives; Rob married her mother and adopted Emaline at three.
Q 19What has Emaline just arranged for Theo in The Moon and More when he impulsively kisses her?
An interview with Clyde
An interview with Clyde is what Theo and his boss had been chasing, and it lands on the very day Emaline and Luke agree to a break.
Q 20What task brings Emaline's long-absent father to Colby for the summer in The Moon and More?
Selling a relative's house
Selling a relative's house keeps him in town for part of the summer with his young son, yet he and Emaline still struggle to communicate.
Q 24Wes, a cousin of Luke in The Moon and More, is the love interest in which Sarah Dessen novel?
The Truth About Forever
The Truth About Forever follows Macy, who takes a job with Wish Catering and grows close to Wes, one of the crew.
Q 25Which real beach town on the Bogue Banks is Sarah Dessen's model for Colby in The Moon and More?
Emerald Isle
Emerald Isle is where Sarah Dessen spends summers, and a chat with a local there about life in a holiday town sparked the novel.
Q 26Which Sarah Dessen novel, about a girl whose brother is jailed, followed The Moon and More in 2015?
Saint Anything
Saint Anything left the beach behind to follow Sydney, whose family is devastated when her brother Peyton paralyzes a boy while driving drunk.
Q 27Which 2003 Mandy Moore film was adapted from two novels by The Moon and More author Sarah Dessen?
How to Deal
How to Deal wove the plots of her first two novels into one story, with Allison Janney and Peter Gallagher also in the cast.
Q 28Which American Library Association honor for teen literature did Sarah Dessen receive in 2017?
Margaret A. Edwards Award
The Margaret A. Edwards Award recognized seven of her earlier novels together, among them Dreamland and Just Listen.
Q 29Besides Colby, which fictional town modeled on Chapel Hill recurs in Sarah Dessen's novels?
Lakeview
Lakeview stands in for the college town where Sarah Dessen lives, and most of her novels away from the beach are set there.
Q 30How does Clyde quietly tease Ivy and Theo for looking down on Colby in The Moon and More?
Assigning pointless books
Assigning pointless books is his private joke: he insists that random old volumes are essential to understanding his paintings.