1. This was a Norwegian folktale about three animals. The story was enjoyed because the main animal used in the tale was sacred to the Norse god Thor and pulled his chariot. What made the story popular with children was the familiar refrain repeated throughout the story. The story told of a horrid little man, who lived beneath an overpass and who enjoyed preventing animals from crossing to lusher pastures. When one young animal crossed, the horrible little man was told to wait for his brother who was fatter and bigger. Finally the third brother, a sizeable billy goat killed the troll. This was the story of...
2. Name the hero of this American folktale first published in 1909. It told of the heroic feat of a railway engineer who gave his life in a train crash to save his passengers and crew. As the engineer on the Cannonball Express he found that his train was careering into two freight trains. His body was later found in the wreckage with one hand on the brake lever. If he hadn't stayed in the engine to jam on the breaks, the crash would have been much worse. He was the only person killed. His name was...
3. This famous English folk hero was first mentioned in the 14th century. There is little evidence that this man was any more than a hero created by the common people. He had a generous and gallant nature and lived by shooting the king's deer. He was unrivalled with the quarterstaff and bow and he gave liberally to the poor and to honest folk in distress around Sherwood and Barnsdale. His friends included Little John, Will Scarlet and Friar Tuck. His name was...
1. This author was born in England in 1866 and although she travelled to many other parts of Britain during her childhood, it was the Lake District that caught her affection the most. She was more than just a writer of animal tales for the young; she was a businesswoman, a farmer and an environmentalist. It was on her farm at Hill Top that she wrote many of her stories about ducks, squirrels, hedgehogs, cats and rabbits, In fact, her first little book was about a rabbit named Peter. She died in 1943. Her name was...
2. This creator of a classic read-aloud book, published in 1908. Its creator was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, but lived most of his life in England. At 39, he became one of the youngest secretaries in the history of the Bank of England. He married in 1899 and his son Alastair was the inspiration for the stories, which were first told at bedtime. The animal characters lived and talked like humans and spent their lives on, beside or near the river. Some say the character Mole was the author himself as a child, while Toad was specially written for his son. The author’s name was...
3. This very popular Victorian author was born in 1812, and died in 1870. Children first read his novels in sections as soon as they were published. He paid meticulous attention to detail. He cared greatly for justice and his characterisations of cruel people and of senseless bureaucracy had a huge influence in society. He could move the hearts and minds of those who had previously been indifferent to cruelty and stupidity. His first novel was The Pickwick Papers in 1837. Two of his more popular novels were Great Expectations, written in 1861, and Oliver Twist. His name is...
1. The author of this book was born on 12 June, 1929 in Frankfurt-on-Main in Germany. The book for which she is famous was originally published by her father under the title The Annexe in 1947, two years after her death. The book has sold over 13 million copies in over 50 languages, and has been made into a stage play and a film. It lives on long after the author's death in a concentration camp in 1945. Written by Anne Frank, in diary form, the title is...
2. This book was first published in 1985. It was made into a feature film starring Helen Mirren and Paul Scofield. It tells the story of two children, Daniel Pender and Gracie Jenkins, who live on the Isles of Scilly off the southwestern tip of England. They made friends with the despised and feared Birdman, the lone survivor from the island of Samson. The Birdman was determined to save the island from the fate that had befallen Samson. He intended doing this by preventing the narwhals, a type of whale with a spiral horn, from stranding. The author was Michael Morpurgo and the title was...
3. The lad in this novel has a terrible name. He lives with his alcoholic father, while his father's sister wants him to live with her. Just before Christmas the boy’s father accidentally hits his head on the fireplace when pushed and dies. To cover up the death the boy conspires with his pretty neighbour to dispose of the body in a disused quarry. Unfortunately the girl's boyfriend learns that the lad was about to come into a substantial inheritance blackmailed them. Written by Kevin Brooks, the book’s title is the same as the name of the main character...
4. This novel has a complex plot. A father decides to send his son through a portal to our world for safety while he deals with the forces against him. Henry rescues the boy from with the help of an elderly former crook they decide to build their own portal to return the boy, who turns out to be the crown prince, son of the Purple Emperor. Extraordinary events bring out the best in the characters as the evil faeries were defeated. Written by Herbie Brennan, the title is...
5. This is a powerful and bleak novel about teenage boys in a private Catholic school in America. Brother Leon plans a fundraising effort in which the boys are supposed to sell 20,000 boxes of chocolate in the neighbourhood. The brother gets a gang of boys led by Archie to help him. Jerry Renault, a junior student, refuses to sell the chocolates. The pressures placed on him, the revenge and the victimisation made this one of Robert Cormier's most gripping novels. The title was...
6. This novel's main character is 8-year-old Barney. He's the youngest of three children. The older two are Troy and Tabitha. Barney's mother died when he was born. His stepmother, Claire, is expecting her first child. Barney's dead mother, Dove, belonged to the Scholar family, which was used to magicians and other strange happenings. Barney believed that he was being haunted by his great uncle Barnaby. It turned out that the person with the gift of magic was Barney's sister Troy. This novel written by Margaret Mahy was titled...
7. This novel was first published in Germany in 2000. A private investigator is asked to track down two brothers who have fled to Venice because their aunt wants to adopt the five-year-old boy but not the 12-year-old. In Venice they had fallen in league with a gang of homeless children led by a young thief called Scipio. Written by Cornelia Funke, this book is called...
8. An extraordinary adventure befalls four children while they are staying with a kindly old gentleman. One rainy summer's day, one of the children discovered a portal in the back of an old upright cupboard. When she passes through it she finds herself standing in a clearing in a wood on a winter's day. It turns out that she is in a country that has been cursed with eternal winter. The book is called...
1. This movie had a Polish director and was released by American Zoetrope and Warner Brothers in 1993. At the centre of the story is a young girl, orphaned in India and sent to a forbidding gothic house in the north of England to be looked after by her widower uncle Lord Craven. The film was based on a novel written by Frances Hodgson Burnett in 1911. Both the book and the movie had the same title. It was...
2. This timeless Walt Disney animated classic was first released in 1940. It was one of those rare motion pictures that could be enjoyed over and over again by children as well as adults. It was also remade as a movie in 1983 by director Peter Medak. This remake starred James Coburn, Pee Wee Herman and James Belushi. Like the Disney version it told how a lonely old man by the name of Geppetto carved a wooden puppet that came to life. The title was...
3. Three versions of this film have been made: one in 1942, another by Disney in 1967 and the latest in 1994. The 1967 version was the last animated cartoon film that had Disney's personal stamp on it. He based this cartoon film on a well known collection of stories. It included songs such as "I Wanna Be Like You", "That's What Friends Are For" and "The Bare Necessities". The movie dealt with an Indian boy who had been abandoned at birth and raised as a wolf cub after being discovered by a panther. Ten years later the panther decided to return the boy to his own people when he learned that the tiger Shere Khan was coming back to his home territory. Both book and movie had the same title...
