Remembering Kids' Books Trivia Quiz

Aesop was a story teller who lived in Greece between 620 and 564 BCE. A collection of children's stories, or fables, has his name on it, but every one may not have actually been written by him. This is because the stories were not originally written down. Instead, they were simply told to people who then remembered the stories to tell to future generations. Aesop's stories were not written down until about 300 years after he had passed away, so there is no way to guarantee that the fables were actually told by him.

In 1484, the book of "Aesop's Fables" was published in English for the first time. Before that, they had been written in Greek and Latin. Early on, "Aesop's Fables" were mostly used to teach morals to adults. In the 1500s, the fables started to be used to teach children how to read while also teaching them morals, or lessons in how to live well.

Over 100 fables are said to have been created by Aesop. They have various titles, but many of them refer to two or more animals. These include "The Lion and the Mouse", "The Tortoise and the Hare", and "The Swan and the Goose". Some titles have humans in them such as "The Boy Who Cried Wolf", "The Old Man and His Sons", and "The Fisherman and His Flute". Others have titles without animals or humans. These include "The Moon and Her Mother", "The Rivers and the Sea", and "The Walnut Tree".

"Robinson Crusoe" is an adventure novel about a castaway that was published in 1719 by author Daniel Defoe. The story is about a young man named Robinson Crusoe who has a strong desire to sail the oceans. Early in the book, he sets out, but the ship that he is aboard is destroyed in a storm. He survives, and sails out again, but this time Crusoe is captured by pirates and enslaved for two years before he is able to escape on a boat that is headed to Brazil. After he arrives there, he takes ownership of a plantation.

Many years later, Crusoe sets sail on another boat that heads out from Brazil to purchase slaves from Africa, but it runs into bad weather. The main ship and the lifeboat are both destroyed in the storm in 1659 after getting stuck on the sandbar of an island. Everyone except Crusoe drowns in the storm and he is left to live alone on the island. He is able to get some supplies off of the ship before it breaks up in the next bad storm. He builds a shelter near a cave, and begins a new life on the island after he makes a calendar system so he can keep track of his days.

Crusoe is able to hunt using tools that were on the ship and others that he makes himself. Over the years, he hunts local animals for food, raises goats that he traps, grows barley and rice, makes raisins from grapes, and even adopts a small parrot. He realizes that cannibals visit the island now and then, so he makes his shelter stronger in case he needs protection from them. He builds two boats, but he can't sail the larger one because it is too heavy to drag to the shore. He also spends time reading the Bible.

One day, a large Spanish ship runs into the island during a storm. There are no people on this ship, but he is able to gather more supplies, and a pet dog. When the cannibals visit the island again, Crusoe is able to free one of their prisoners. He names the man "Friday" after the day of the week that he is found and teaches him English. He learns that the crew that had left the Spanish ship were on the mainland, living with Friday's tribe. When he hears this, Crusoe creates a plan to escape by building a dugout canoe.

Before he and Friday are able to leave the island, the cannibals arrive again for a feast. Crusoe and Friday are able to kill most of the cannibals, and release two of their prisoners. One of the released prisoners is Friday's father and the other is one of the sailors from the Spanish ship that had wrecked on Crusoe's island. They make a new plan to have the Spanish sailor and Friday's father return to the mainland to gather more Spanish sailors, and return to Crusoe's island to build a larger boat and escape.

While they are waiting for help after the Spanish sailor and Friday's father have left, an English ship arrives. A mutiny is taking place on the new ship, but Crusoe and the captain are able to resist the sailors who have turned against their captain. They are able to re-take the ship with the help of the sailors who were not fighting against their captain. The leader of those who were involved in the mutiny is killed, but Crusoe shows the remaining sailors who had fought against their captain how to survive on the island, tells them that the Spanish will return to help them build a ship, and Crusoe leaves the island in 1686, twenty-seven years after he landed there, to sail for Europe.

When he arrives in Portugal, he learns that is family believed that he was dead, so he was left without any money in his father's will. However, the plantation that he owned in Brazil had earned him a lot of money over the years, so he and Friday are able to use that money to settle comfortably in England at the end of the book.

Jonathan Swift wrote "Gulliver's Travels" in 1726. It tells the tale of a number of voyages that are taken by Lemuel Gulliver. The first voyage ends when his ship is wrecked and he lands on Lilliput, an island of tiny people that are less than 6 inches (17.8 cm) tall. They accept him when he assures them that he will remain on his best behaviour. However, they are a group that seems to be very concerned with little things. For example, a big argument occurs over which end of an egg is cracked first. Eventually, the people of Lilliput become angry with Gulliver because he refuses to help them to overcome a neighbouring island. He is tried and sentenced after being found guilty of with treason, and is given the punishment of being blinded. However, Gulliver escapes to the neighbouring island and takes a boat that had been abandoned there. He is able to sail away where he is rescued and taken home by a passing ship.

Gulliver's next voyage sees his ship become blown off course by bad weather. When the crew lands on western North America in a land known as Brobdingnag, they abandon Gulliver there. He finds himself a tiny man amongst a race of very tall people. In fact, the farmer who finds him is about 72 ft (22 m) tall. The farmer treats him like a side show and exhibits the tiny human for money. However, all of these showings make Gulliver ill, so the farmer sells him to the Queen. She has a tiny house built for him where he can be cared for and recuperate. The house is called his "travelling box" because it can be picked up and carried around. On one particular trip to the sea, a giant eagle picks up Gulliver's travelling box and drops it in the ocean. There, he is rescued and returned home to England.

On his next voyage, Gulliver's ship is attacked by pirates and he is left on a deserted island near India. He is rescued by people who live on the flying island of Laputa. Although they are nice people, they seem to be really wrapped up in the pursuit of meaningless scientific ideas. For example, they are trying to get sunbeams from cucumbers, and to soften marble for use in pillows. Gulliver is offered passage to Japan, and while he is waiting for that, meets a magician and discusses history with the ghosts of important historical figures including Julius Caesar, Brutus, Homer, Aristotle, René Descartes, and Pierre Gassendi. When he gets to Japan, he is able to find passage home to England where he wants to remain forever as a surgeon.

In England, he becomes bored with being a doctor, so he sets sail again. Unfortunately, his crew engages in a mutiny and leaves him on the first bit of land they come to after they gain control of the ship. Gulliver meets up with deformed humanoid savages there first, but soon meets up with a group of talking horses known as the Houyhnhnms. They are actually the rulers of this land and the savages are known as the Yahoos. Gulliver becomes a member of a Houyhnhnm's household where he begins to identify with their way of life. Unfortunately, the leader of the Houyhnhnms sees him as a Yahoo with the ability to think and reason, so he assumes that Gulliver is a threat to their society. Gulliver is told that he must leave, but the head of the household that he has been staying with buys him time so he can build himself a canoe in whic to sail. After he sails away, he is rescued by a Portuguese ship and returned to England.

After his return following his final voyage, Gulliver becomes quite reclusive. He stays inside his house, avoids friends and family, and spends time in the barn talking with his horses.

"The Swiss Family Robinson" was published by Swiss author Johann David Wyss in 1812. It tells the story of a Swiss family who set out to sail to Australia, but are blown off course during a storm. In the bad weather, the crew abandons ship and the family is left alone. After the storm passes, they spot a tropical island nearby in the East Indies, near where the damaged ship ends up. They make a raft using pieces of the ship and make their way to the island.

The family, with William (father), Elizabeth (mother), and their four sons Fritz, Ernest, Jack, and Franz make a number of trips back to the ship over a few days. They are able to gather valuable items like food, weapons, ammunition, tools, kitchen wares, two pet dogs and some livestock, as well as a small boat. All of these items come in handy when they settle on the new island. They start out in a treehouse that they construct, but move to a more permanent housing situation in a cave when Elizabeth is injured climbing down from the treehouse.

Eventually, the son Fritz rescues a young English woman named Jenny Montrose. The ship that she had been on was also shipwrecked. She had found her way to shore, and the son had discovered her when he was out on an exploratory trip around the island. She lives with the family for more than ten years until a British ship arrives because it is searching for her.

The British ship takes the journal that has been kept by William that tells the story of the family's life on the island. The captain of the ship takes the diary back to Britain where it is published. Some of the family members return to England when the ship heads home, but some stay on the peaceful island that they have grown to love over the years.

Interestingly, the surname "Robinson" does not show up anywhere but the title of this book. The family members are only referred to by their first names in the story. Some think that the "Robinson" name was used in the title because of the success of "Robinson Crusoe", the book that had been published almost 100 years beforehand by Daniel Defoe. The earlier book had been very popular and the story was similar, so it may be that this author, Johann David Wyss, was hoping for the same popularity as the book by Defoe.

Charles Dickens published "The Cricket on the Hearth" in 1845. It tells the story of John Peerybingle, his wife Dot, and their baby boy. They live a quiet, but very happy life together. A cricket chirps near the fireplace as a symbol of how happy the family is.

John is employed as a carrier who transports goods around town in a cart. One night, a mysterious older man asks for a ride in his cart. John agrees, and when they arrive at John's house, the older gentleman asks if he can stay with the Peerybingles for a day or two. Dot agrees, and they carry on with their lives.

John and Dot are friends with Caleb Plummer. Caleb is a poor toy maker who has two children, a daughter named Bertha who is blind, and a son named Edward. Edward had travelled to South America and had not returned, so the family and friends assumed that he had died on his journey.

May is an old school friend of Dot's who had been in love with Edward before he disappeared. When he doesn't return, May's mother insists that she marry Tackleton, Caleb's grumpy boss. May agrees to marry Tackleton even though she still cares for Edward.

At some point, Tackleton becomes suspicious of the old stranger, so he and John peek into a window of the Peerybingle's house. They discover that the strange old man is actually a young man in disguise. He seems to be hugging Dot, so John becomes angry and thinks about leaving his wife so she can be happy with this new man. Before he can take action, Dot lets him know that the young man is actually Edward. He had returned in disguise so he could find out whether May truly loved Tackleton.

Once everyone discovers who the young man is, May and Edward marry. Even though he is a bit angry at first, Tackleton ends up sending gifts and good wishes to the young couple. Dot reminds John that she loves him and was not doing anything with Edward when John peeked besides offering support to him. There is a wedding dance and the cricket chirps on the hearth to reflect the happiness and love in the room.

"Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" is also known as "Alice in Wonderland". Lewis Carroll published this children's novel in 1865. The book tells the story of Alice who sees a White Rabbit checking his watch and saying that he is running late. When he enters a rabbit hole, Alice decides to follow him. There, she falls down into the hole, but ends up landing safely in a room that has a small door. The door is too tiny for her to fit through, so Alice drinks some liquid that she finds in a bottle with a label that says "Drink Me". She shrinks in size but realizes that she left the key to the door on the table where she had found the bottle. Then, she spots some cake with a sign that says "Eat Me". Alice does, but grows very large. She starts to cry and the startled White Rabbit drops his fan and his gloves and takes off. Alice uses the fan to shrink herself, but ends up swimming in the tears that she had shed while she was large. There in the pool caused by her tears, she meets a number of creatures, but they all run away when she frightens them by speaking of her cat.

Then, the White Rabbit appears and asks her to retrieve his fan and gloves because he mistakes her for his maid. She goes into his house and finds another bottle with a "Drink Me" label. She does and grows very large once again and she cannot leave the house. The White Rabbit throws stones at her with his neighbours. These pebbles turn into cakes. Alice eats one and shrinks a bit in size. This lets her leave the White Rabbit's house and run into the forest where she encounters a caterpillar that is smoking a hookah while sitting on a mushroom. He tells her that in order to change her size, she needs to nibble on the mushroom, that one side will make her larger and the other smaller. Through trial and error with nibbling the mushroom, she grows too tall, then shrinks to a normal size.

Alice moves on to the home of a Duchess who owns a Cheshire Cat that has a grin that does not change. The Duchess hands Alice her baby that ends up to be a piglet. Alice releases the piglet into the forest before the Cheshire Cat tells her to find the Hatter and March Hare. The Cat disappears, but his grin is left behind. Alice sets out as directed and finds the Hatter and March Hare and a sleepy Dormouse having a tea party. Alice becomes impatient with the characters at the tea party and decides to leave.

Upon making her decision to leave the party, Alice sees a tree with a door in its side. She goes through the door and finds that she is back in the room where she started. She uses the key that she left behind on the table to open another door in the room and finds herself in the croquet court of the Queen of Hearts. The guards in the court are actually live playing cards, and croquet games are played where hedgehogs are used as balls, flamingos are used as mallets, and soldiers act as hoops. The Queen of Hearts constantly threatens to cut off everyone's heads. She sends Alice for a beheading, but Alice slowly grows in both size and confidence. The Queen's guards swarm Alice and she is having a difficult time resisting them when her sister wakes her from a dream. Apparently the leaves that had been brushing on her face were translated into the feeling of playing card guards in her dream.

American author Mark Twain published his first novel, "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer", in 1876. It tells the story of a young boy named Tom Sawyer growing up on the Mississippi River in the central state of Missouri in the US. Tom is an orphan who lives with his Aunt Polly. He always seems to be playing tricks on people for his own benefit. For example, when his aunt catches him sneaking home after he has been out too late one evening, she makes him whitewash her fence. Then, Tom tricks neighbourhood friends into thinking that this is a really, really special job. He charges them small trinkets and only then lets them do the special job while he rests.

Tom then takes the trinkets to church where he trades them with the other children for vouchers that they have received for memorizing Bible verses. He gets enough vouchers to trade for a new Bible even though he hasn't really earned it because he has not memorized any verses.

When a new girl named Becky moves to town, she is in Tom's class at school. Tom develops a crush on her and asks her for a kiss so they can be "engaged". She obliges, but then finds out that he has been engaged to another girl before. She gets angry and ends their "engagement".

Tom's best friend is Huckleberry Finn, a skallywag in town. The two of them go to the graveyard one night to perform a ceremony that is meant to cure warts. There, they witness a group of grave robbers who get into an argument. One of the grave robbers is knocked out, and one of the other two robbers murders the remaining one, then places the weapon in the unconscious man's hand. When he comes to, the murderer leads him to believe that he committed the murder, so the wrong man ends up in jail while the murderer remains free. Tom and Huck swear that they won't tell anyone about what they have seen for fear of having the actual murderer chase them to kill them too.

One day, the boys decide to move to an island in the Mississippi River. When they don't return, the town assumes they are dead and holds a funeral for them. They surprise everyone by turning up at the service. Then, Tom decides to break his promise to Huck and testify for the innocent man in the murder trial. The murderer is in the courtroom, but runs away when he hears the testimony. Tom and Huck are afraid, but have adventures over the summer looking for a treasure that the murderer has reportedly hidden.

Tom and Becky go on a picnic to a cave with a group of other children, but become lost when they separate from the group. They are lost for three days, during which time Tom secretly sees the murderer in the cave. When they find their way out, Becky's father reinforces the gateway at the cave entrance. After a couple of weeks, Tom realizes that the murderer and his treasure are likely still in the cave. He takes a group to the cave where they find the murderer dead from starvation just inside the gate. A week later, Tom and Huck go to the cave where they retrieve the treasure that the murderer was trying to hide.

Beatrix Potter wrote "The Tale of Peter Rabbit" in 1893, but was not able to publish it until 1901 when she published it privately after it was rejected by several publishers. It was printed by publishers Frederick Warne & Co. in 1902, and became an extremely successful children's story around the world.

This book tells the story of Peter Rabbit and his family. When his mother needs to leave the home to do some shopping, she lets Peter and his sisters Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cotton-tail stay home so that they can play with one another outside. She warns them to stay out of neighbour Mr. McGregor's garden because Peter's father had gone there only to be caught and baked into a pie for the McGregor's dinner. Peter's mother leaves the home after giving these instructions and the young rabbits head outside.

Peter is mischievous, so when his sisters go to pick blackberries, he heads to Mr. McGregor's garden. There, he eats far too much and gets a sore stomach. He decides to go looking for some parsley to help settle his stomach, but Mr. McGregor spots him and gives chase. Peter runs around and gets caught in a net, but escapes after being comforted by some friendly sparrows. He loses his jacket and his shoes in the chase, but does manage to hide in a watering can in a greenhouse. Unfortunately, there is water in the can, so Peter gets wet. This makes him sneeze which alerts Mr. McGregor to his presence. After a chase, Mr. McGregor gets tired of running after Peter, so he heads back to do some work in his garden.

Peter wanders around completely lost in the large garden. He meets some other creatures, but gets no help from any of them to find his way out. Eventually, he sees the gate that he used to enter the garden, so he takes off running. Mr. McGregor spots him and almost catches him before Peter is able to slip under the gate to escape. He returns home where his mother sends him to bed early with no dinner because he has lost his jacket and shoes during his adventures. She gives him some chamomile tea to settle his stomach as his sisters enjoy a dinner of dinner of milk, bread and blackberries.

"The Velveteen Rabbit" was written Margery Williams and illustrated by William Nicholson. It was first published in "Harper's Bazaar" magazine in 1921, and then published in book form in 1922. It received the IRA/CBC Children's Choice award, and fell at Number 28 on the list of the "Teachers' Top 100 Books for Children" in a poll by the National Education Association.

"The Velveteen Rabbit" tells the story of a stuffed rabbit toy that is given to a boy for Christmas. The boy receives many other modern and mechanical toys, but they snub the rabbit thinking that they are better than the stuffed toy. Another toy that the boy owns is a skin horse that had once belonged to the boy's uncle. The horse tells the rabbit not to worry because toys become Real when they receive love from children.

One day, the boy loses a favourite toy, so his nanny gives him the velveteen rabbit to comfort him as he falls asleep. The rabbit becomes a favourite toy of the boy's. The boy takes him everywhere as he plays outside and goes on picnics. One day, the velveteen rabbit meets some real rabbits who remind him that he is not truly real because he can't jump.

Awhile later, the boy comes down with scarlet fever. The boy's doctor orders that his room be disinfected and all of his sheets, pillows, and toys be burned in order to kill the bacteria that has made the boy sick. All of the toys are gathered, placed in a sheet, and set out by the burn pile. The velveteen rabbit is very sad for the boy, and for himself because he knows that his friendship with the boy has come to an end. As he is thinking these thoughts, he cries a real tear. When the tear lands, a flower sprouts and a magical fairy pops out of the flower. She tells the rabbit that it has become real to the boy, so she will make him real to everyone.

The fairy takes the velveteen rabbit into the woods to be with other real rabbits. She kisses the velveteen rabbit and he magically becomes a real rabbit to live amongst the other real rabbits in the forest. The next spring when the boy has recovered, the rabbit hops close to the boy's house. The boy recognizes it as a rabbit that looks just like his old favourite toy. This brings much joy to both the boy and the rabbit.

"Charlotte's Web" was written by E. B. White and illustrated by Garth Williams. This children's book was published in 1952, and quickly became a favourite around the world. It tells the story of Wilbur, a piglet that a little girl named Fern is given by her father. Before long, he grows too large for Fern to handle, so he is given to her uncle. Fern does still visit now and then, but Wilbur becomes very lonely at her uncle's farm because the other animals do not want to be his friend. Then, he meets up with a spider named Charlotte who has her web near the pen in which he is kept.

Wilbur soon learns that he is being raised for slaughter. Charlotte promises him that she will figure out a way to save his life. She decides that she will use her web to make Wilbur famous. She reasoned that the uncle wouldn't kill a famous pig. So, she sets about her task. The first thing she weaves into her web are the words "Some pig". When the farmer finds out, he lets other people know. This causes the farm to become a tourist attraction.

After people start to lose interest in her first words, Charlotte weaves "Terrific" into her web. This causes more excitement and brings more people to the farm to see the famous pug. To keep the cycle of fame going, Charlotte decides she needs another new word for her web. She sends Templeton, the barn rat, on a mission to find a new word for her. He comes back with a piece of a laundry detergent box that has the word "radiant" on it. Charlotte then weaves that into her web.

The farmer enters Wilbur in the county fair. Charlotte and Templeton go along with Wilbur to the fair. Wilbur does not win the blue ribbon, but does win a special award. Charlotte weaves the word "humble" into her web and realizes that Wilbur is now a very special pig that will never be killed by the farmer. Unfortunately, Charlotte's life comes to a natural end at the fairgrounds. When she realizes that she won't be returning to the farm with Wilbur, she sends her egg sac back to the farm with him.

Although Wilbur misses Charlotte, he knows that he would not have survived without her intervention. So, he gets comfortable in the barn for the winter and looks forward to her eggs hatching. Although many of the new spiders leave the barn when the eggs hatch the following spring, a few stay behind and make friends with Wilbur. He takes comfort knowing that he will have many generations of friendly spiders to keep him company thanks to his friend Charlotte.