Organizing My Bookshelf Trivia Quiz

Answer: Child Non-fiction

"The Story of Ruby Bridges" by Robert Coles and illustrator George Ford was published in 1995 (US release). It tells the story of six-year-old Ruby who was the first African American child to attend an all-white school in New Orleans in the early days of desegregation in the early 1960s. Ruby went to school each day past angry protesters.

Other children were withdrawn from school by their parents until Ruby attended school alone with her teacher.

Answer: Child Non-fiction

"The Girl Who Thought in Pictures: The True Story of Temple Grandin" (2017 US release) is a rhyming picture book written by Julia Finley Mosca and illustrated by Daniel Rieley. It tells about Temple Grandin who was diagnosed with autism at a young age.

At that point, she was not expected to learn to speak. However, she did begin talking, completed a PhD, and went on to improve animal farms all over the world. This book won the NSTA Best STEM Books for K-12 Selection, the NSTA Outstanding Science Trade Books Selection, the Dolly Gray Children's Literature Award Recipient and A Mighty Girl Book of the Year.

Answer: Child Non-fiction

"Dream Big: Michael Jordan and the Pursuit of Excellence" (2012 US release) was written by Michael's mother Deloris Jordan and illustrated by Barry Root. The book tells about Michael Jordan's dream of winning an Olympic gold medal when he was just a boy, and how he worked to make that dream come true.

The theme involves how dedication and perseverance can make dreams come true. The book also emphasizes the importance of good values in Jordan's success as an athlete.

Answer: Child Non-fiction

"What to Do About Alice?: How Alice Roosevelt Broke the Rules, Charmed the World, and Drove Her Father Teddy Crazy!" (2008 US release) was written by Barbara Kerley and illustrated by Edwin Fotheringham. It tells the story of Teddy Roosevelt's daughter Alice during the time that he was President of the United States. Alice was just 17 years old when her father took office.

She found that new expectations that were placed upon her at that time were somewhat restrictive. So, she tried to buck the system whenever she could.

This book tells of some of her exploits like introducing her pet snake to White House visitors, or riding in cars alone with men, a social taboo at the time. This book was a Sibert Honor Book and a Boston Globe/Horn Book Award Honor Book.

Answer: Child Fiction

"The Rainbow Fish" (1992 released in Switzerland) is a book written and illustrated by Swiss author Marcus Pfister. The book was translated into English by J. Alison James. The book was also made into a television series that ran on the HBO network in Canada and the United States from 1999-2000. The story is about a small fish that, unlike the other fish in his neighbourhood, is covered in bright, multi-coloured scales. When a small blue fish approaches him and asks for one of his bright, shiny scales one day, Rainbow fish says no. The blue fish tells all the other fish the story, and they all decide not to play with Rainbow Fish because of his perceived meanness.

The lonely Rainbow Fish goes to visit a wise octopus for advice about making friends. She tells him that he should give his scales to the other fish. She warns him that he will no longer be the most beautiful fish, but he will feel happy if he does this. At the end of their meeting, Rainbow Fish finds the blue fish and shares one of his shiny scales. Rainbow Fish can see how happy this makes the blue fish, and this, in turn, makes him happy. Rainbow Fish shares all of his shiny scales except one with the other fish. Pretty soon, all of the fish, including the Rainbow Fish, have just one shiny scale on their bodies, but everyone is happy.

This story is structured similar to a fable by Aesop, with an entertaining story that delivers a moral at the end. Here, the moral is that it is important to overcome vanity and become selfless in order to bring true happiness to yourself and others.

Answer: Child Fiction

Author Rick Riordan published "The Lightning Thief" in 2005 (US release). This novel that is based on Greek mythology tells the story of Percy Jackson, a 12-year-old boy who has dyslexia and ADHD. He goes on a field trip to the the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City where one of the chaperones turns into a Fury and attacks him. His favourite teacher becomes Chiron and lends Percy a sword/pen to defeat the Fury.

After the school year ends, Percy's mother enrols him in summer camp. There, his friend Sally is attacked by a Minotaur and disappears. Percy kills the Minotaur, then finds out that he is a demigod with one human parent and one Greek god parent. The camp continues and Percy meets other demigods in attendance.

Percy soon finds out that his father is the Greek god Poseidon. He meets his father and is then sent to retrieve Zeus' lightning bolt. He takes some friends and they set out, but are attacked by various mythical Greek gods and monsters while they fulfill the quest. Eventually, after many adventures, he finds the lightning bolt and returns it to Zeus on Mount Olympus. When Percy gets back to the camp, one final enemy awaits who attacks him with a scorpion sting. He faints, but recovers and decides to leave the camp to spend time with his mother.

"The Lightning Thief" found its way onto a number of "best book" lists. It also won the School Library Journal Best Book of 2005, the Red House Children's Book Award Winner (UK), 2006, Askews Torchlight Award (UK), 2006, and the Mark Twain Award (Missouri Association of School Librarians), 2008. "Scholastic Parent & Child" magazine included the novel on its 100 "Greatest Books for Kids" list.

Answer: Child Fiction

"The Wild Robot" was published in 2016 (US release) by author and illustrator Peter Brown. It is the first book in a trilogy, with "The Wild Robot Escapes" (2018), and "The Wild Robot Protects" (2023) making up the remaining two books of the set. The first book in the series became an animated movie in 2024.

This novel tells the story of a box that washes up on an island after a hurricane. Some otters open the box and find a ROZZUM unit 7134 robot. Her name is shortened to "Roz" later in the book, but at first the animals on the island are very wary of her. She needs to adapt to her new life in the wild while learning to use her innate technology. The animals end up trusting her because she adopts a gosling named Brightbill. Problems begin to happen when gun-toting robots arrive on the island.

"The Wild Robot" was received well by critics. It was on the a "New York Times Best Seller List" when it was first released, and the Association for Library Service to Children placed it on their list of "Notable Children's Books", and Booklist included it on their list of the "50 Best Middle-Grade Novels of the 21st Century".

Answer: Child Fiction

"The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" (1972 US release) is also known as "The Worst Kids in the World" in Australia, New Zealand and the UK. Author Barbara Robinson tells a heart warming story about the true meaning of Christmas that, at first, seems like it will be a Christmas disaster tale. Six siblings from the Herdman family are known for their bad behaviour around town due to the fact that their single mother is never around to discipline them because she works so many hours to pay for their essentials. The children are left on their own to swear, smoke cigars, drink wine, and shoplift from businesses in town. They start attending Sunday school one week because they hear that snacks are given out there.

As Christmas approaches, the Herdman children bully the other children at Sunday school to ensure that the others don't try out for the Christmas pageant. The pageant director is forced to give the major roles of Mary, Joseph, the Angel, the wise men, and the shepherds to the Herdman children even though they have never heard the Christmas story before. Their behaviour during rehearsals and the final performance forces everyone who watches to re-think the true meaning of Christmas. Everyone who sees the show decides that it IS the best Christmas pageant ever staged in the town.

The book was well-received, and has sold over 800,000 copies. It has also been adapted into a play, a television movie, and a feature-length film that was released to movie theatres in November, 2024.

Answer: Adult Non-fiction

"Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder: Pronged Ants, Horned Humans, Mice on Toast, and Other Marvels of Jurassic Technology" was written and released by Lawrence Weschler in 1995 (US release). The book details the history and role of museums in modern society. One part of this book has a particular focus on the Museum of Jurassic Technology in Los Angeles, and the author's experiences with that museum and its curator. The second part of the book details different types of wonder cabinets that have been around over the years. Wonder cabinets, aka cabinets of wonder, were places to display early collections to the public. They were rooms or pieces of furniture that contained real and fake items from areas such as natural history, geology, archaeology, religious or historical relics, works of art, and antiques.

"Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder" was very well-received by critics. It was a finalist for both the National Book Critics Circle Award for nonfiction and the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction In 1996. In 2019, "Slate" ranked it one of the 50 best nonfiction works of the past quarter-century.

Answer: Adult Non-fiction

Jon Krakauer published the non-fiction book "Into the Wild" in 1996 (US release). It tells the story of a young man named Chris McCandless who was from Virginia in the eastern US. McCandless graduated from university, gave away most of his belongings and set out on a cross-country trip in 1990. His adventures included losing his car in a flash flood, and working in a grain elevator before hitchhiking to Alaska. McCandless was hiking across the northern state, aiming for the coast. He lived by foraging edible plants and shooting some game. He survived for about 113 days, hiking, foraging, and keeping a journal. In the summer, the Alaskan terrain got quite boggy and difficult to hike, so he took shelter in an old bus that had been left behind by a construction crew. On July 40, he wrote in his journal, "Extremely Weak. Fault Of Pot[ato] Seed". He died in the bus after that date.

Krakauer suggests in the book that McCandless either ate poisonous plants/roots or ingested a toxic mold that had infested his seeds. He hypothesizes that one of these things that McCandless ate caused him to become sick and die. However, Krakauer has been criticized by some who claim that he inferred and invented too much based on the simplistic journal that had been left by McCandless. The book was made into a movie in 2007, directed by Sean Penn, and starring Emile Hirsch as McCandless. The book also inspired Ron Lamothe to create a documentary about McCandless called "The Call of the Wild" (2007). In the documentary, Lamothe concludes that McCandless did not die by ingesting toxic substances, but that he simply ran out of supplies and starved to death.

Answer: Adult Non-fiction

"The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science" (2008 in the UK; 2009 in the US) by Richard Holmes is a non-fiction book that details the history of science and the influence that science had on the arts in the Romantic era. Much of the information in the book takes a biographical perspective, with particular attention paid to Sir Joseph Banks, the astronomers William and Caroline Herschel, and chemist Humphry Davy. In his exploration of how science has interacted with the arts, he suggests that Mary Shelley was influenced by the scientific debate about Vitalism, or the belief that living organisms are different from non-living organisms because they contain non-physical elements like personal energy or a vital force. Holmes also discusses the historical science of discovery with chapters on Joseph Banks traveling to Tahiti on HMS Endeavour, and Charles Darwin's travels to the Galápagos on HMS Beagle.

"The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science" was well-received when it was released. It made several "Best Books" lists, and was rated with over 4.0 stars (out of 5) by most critics.

Answer: Adult Non-fiction

"The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon" was published in the US in 2009. American author David Grann recounts the life of British explorer Percy Fawcett who disappeared in 1925 with a small party while trying to find a lost city, known as the City of Z, in the Amazon rainforest. Grann found evidence in Fawcett's diaries that the exploration party had visited with the Kalapalo tribe in the Xingu Indigenous Park region in Brazil. This tribe had an oral history that told of the small group of explorers that were among the first Europeans to visit the tribe. This history states that the explorers who were on a mission of exploration visited the tribe, and were warned about hostile natives in the area. They did not heed the warnings and proceeded into the jungle anyway, trying to find a lost city. They were never seen again. Grann also discusses the search parties that have been formed over the years, and how there has never been evidence found of the original exploration party.

Despite some criticism about the style of the writing and what may be considered some slight inaccuracies, the "The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon" was generally well-received by critics. It ended up on several "Best Books" lists in 2009, and was ranked the single best non-fiction book of 2009 by Barnes and Noble.

Answer: Adult Fiction

Emily Henry published the romance novel "People We Meet on Vacation" in the US in 2021. In the UK and Australia, it is known as "You and Me on Vacation". It is the story of best friends Poppy and Alex who take a trip together every year. She is bubbly and outgoing, but he is the quiet type, preferring not to interact too much with strangers. On one trip to Croatia, their relationship apparently falls apart and they stop speaking to one another for two years. At the end of that time apart, Poppy begins thinking about the times when she was truly happy, and they all involved Alex. They come together for a trip to San Diego where they take the time to review their friendship, and what happened in Croatia that split them apart for the last two years.

"People We Meet on Vacation" is on the "New York Times" and IndieBound bestseller lists. The book also received positive reviews from many critics, and received the Goodreads Choice Award for Romance in 2021. In 2024, filming began for a Netflix film based on the book.

Answer: Adult Fiction

"Where the Crawdads Sing" (2018 US release) was written by zoologist Delia Owens. It tells a tale that intertwines across times in the life of the main character. The first part is about a young girl named Kya who lives in a home in the marshes of North Carolina with an abusive father. Her mother and siblings have fled the home, but she is forced to stay behind due to her young age. She collects colourful feathers and seashells. To survive, she sells vegetables from her garden and foraged mussels that she gathers. Kya is illiterate and living in poverty when she meets and becomes close to a young man named Tate Walker when he is fishing in the marsh. He teaches her how to read and write, and they start a romantic relationship. He is heading to study at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He promises to return for her, but realizes that she is not sophisticated enough for him, so he leaves without saying goodbye.

In the second storyline, Kya has turned 19 years of age. She becomes romantic with Chase Andrews, the local star quarterback, and decides to consummate their relationship when he promises to marry her. But, when she reads about his engagement to another young woman in the paper a little while later, she breaks off her relationship with him. In the meantime, Tate has graduated from college and returns to visit Kya one day where he sees her extensive collection of bird feathers and seashells. He encourages her to publish a book about them. She decides to proceed with that project, and to give Tate a second chance. Meanwhile, Chase confronts Kya one day and attempts a sexual assault. She fights him off and threatens to kill him if he doesn't leave her alone. Nearby fishermen hear her threats, so when Chase turns up dead a short while later, she becomes a prime suspect despite having an alibi. She goes to trial, is found not guilty, and lives a number of happy years with Tate. When she passes away, Tate finds evidence that she was, in fact, the killer of Chase Andrews.

"Where the Crawdads Sing" was chosen for Reese Witherspoon's book club in September 2018, and for the Barnes & Noble Best Books list of 2018. It was sold over 18 million copies, including more print copies in 2019 than any other adult fiction or non-fiction book. It topped "The New York Times Fiction Best Sellers" list in 2019 and 2020. The book was also adapted into a film that was released in July, 2022.

Answer: Adult Fiction

Cheyenne and Arapaho author Tommy Orange published his novel "There There" in 2018 (US release) about a group of Native Americans in who unite at a powwow in California. Orange starts the novel with an essay that details a brief history of Native Americans, and how they have been mistreated over the years. The fictional story then follows a group of twelve Native Americans and their struggles in the modern world. Some struggle with their identity, and how they do or do not identify as Native. Other characters in the novel struggle with substance use disorder or fetal alcohol syndrome. Still others face the suicide of close relatives, or abusive relationships. The story comes to a climax when some of the characters smuggle 3-D printed guns into a powwow in an attempt to complete a robbery to re-pay drug debts.

"There There" was very well-received by critics, with most giving it rave reviews. The book reached the top ten on both the "San Francisco Chronicle's" best-seller list, and on "The New York Times Best Seller List". "There There" was also shortlisted for the 2019 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, won the 2018 National Book Critics Circle Award's "John Leonard Prize" for a debut novel, and won the 2019 Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award.

Answer: Adult Fiction

Colleen Hoover wrote the novel "It Ends with Us" in 2016, and followed that up with the romantic sequel "It Starts With Us" in 2022 (US release). In the sequel, Lily Bloom is the main female character, who has an 11-month-old daughter with her ex-husband Ryle. She runs into her former lover Atlas on the way to work one day. He then visits her at the flower shop where she works, but Ryle arrives unexpectedly. She hides Atlas in a closet because she worries about how Ryle will react to seeing her with her former boyfriend. Regardless of his closet treatment, Atlas invites Lily on a date, re-starting their romance.

Atlas and Lily get back together, but this causes Ryle to become very angry and to physically attack her. He then goes to the restaurant that Atlas owns to try to get him to fight, but Atlas does not engage in the physical confrontation. Later, at their daughter's birthday party, Lily and Ryle arrange to meet. There, Lily informs him that if he wants to continue seeing his daughter, he must attend anger management classes and have supervised visits until he gets his anger under control. Ultimately, Atlas and Lily move in with one another, then marry.

When it was released, "It Starts with Us" debuted on "The New York Times" fiction best-seller list. According to "Publishers Weekly". It was the third-bestselling novel in 2022. "It Starts with Us" was also named WHSmith's Book of the Year for 2022.