Paradise by the Library Light Trivia Quiz

Answer: The Chalet School

Enid Blyton was a much loved English children's author of the mid 1900s. She was an extremely prolific writer - because of numerous rewrites and anthologies it is very hard to actually correctly pin down the exact number of books she authored but it is known to be over 800.

Blyton died in 1968 but she was still in the top ten list for best selling authors in the decade 2000 - 2010.

She wrote books in four main categories. One type was bible stories or books with God as part of the main story. A second category was fantasy with magical creatures or toys that came alive. Thirdly were her boarding school series and lastly were the adventure or detective stories.

Elinor Brent-Dyer wrote the "Chalet School" stories - originally a set of 58 books.

Answer: Thunderhead

Mary O'Hara wrote the trilogy of books about Ken McLaughlin and his family living on the "Goose Bar" horse ranch in remote Wyoming in the 1940s. In "My Friend Flicka" ten year old Ken falls in love with, and finally comes to own, the young filly he calls Flicka.

"Thunderhead" begins with the birth of Flicka's son who is a rather ugly, ungainly, white colt. His mother Nell was the one who named all the horses on the ranch depending on what she first thought of when she saw them. Her first comment on seeing Thunderhead referred to him being a goblin. Ken was horrified and begged her for another name. Nell saw a big storm brewing in the distance and grasped on Thunderhead which is "a cumulonimbus cloud seen during a thunderstorm".

"Thunderhead" was followed by a third novel "The Green Grass of Wyoming" by which time Ken is a young adult and no longer the complete centre of the story - his mother Nell is featured heavily throughout it.

Answer: The Glad Game

"Pollyanna" was written in 1913 by American author Eleanor H. Porter. Our young heroine is orphaned and sent to live with her rich, strict Aunt Polly. She soon makes friend with the entire town teaching them how to play 'the game.'

'The Glad Game' was taught to her by her father and simply meant finding something to be glad about no matter how bad the situation.

Porter only wrote one sequel entitled "Pollyanna Grows Up" but many other sequels have been written by other authors.

Answer: Amy's Girls

"Little Women" was first published in 1868 and was an immediate success for Alcott so was followed very quickly with the second novel "Good Wives" in 1869. These two books were published together as one novel in 1880 and became the "Little Woman" that is known today.

The novels feature the four March girls - Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy and their family, friends and relations. Apart from Beth, who dies, the other sisters are all married by the end of this book.

"Little Men" came along in 1871 and focuses on life at the school run by Jo and her husband, Fritz Bhaer. The 'little men' include their own boys, their nephews (and nieces) and their other students. Their lives are all followed up in "Jo's Boys", which was published in 1886, and is set ten years later.

Answer: Wilbur

Published in 1952 the book begins with Wilbur about to be slaughtered after being born the runt of the litter. The farmer's daughter, Fern, begs to be allowed to keep him and is given the pig. Wilbur however is completely destructive and is sent to live at her uncle's farm.

Once there he makes friends with Charlotte the spider. After finding out that he is being fattened up for Christmas dinner Charlotte devises a plan to write words in her web and make Wilbur so famous that he won't get killed.

Templeton is the rat in the story that Charlotte sends out to find paper with words on them to spell and 'Babe' is from a very different pig story.

Answer: Runs under a falling tree

Ethel Turner wrote "Seven Little Australians" in 1894. The book is set in 1880s Sydney and is centered around the Woolcot family. The father is a stern widowed army captain with a new twenty year old wife who has no idea how to cope with the boisterous family she has inherited; only the youngest of the seven is her own.

The other six children range in age from four to sixteen. Pip (14) and Judy (13) are the main ringleaders in all the trouble the children manage to get themselves into.

The book ends with the children all at a picnic in the country. Judy who had promised "on her life" not to let anything happen to the baby is true to her word when a large tree falls towards him and she rushes to throw herself on top of, and protect, him. She thus takes the brunt of the tree which breaks her back. The baby survives but Judy dies before help arrives.

In 1994, a hundred years after it was first published, the book made Australian history by still being in continuous print.

Answer: The Magician's Nephew

C.S. Lewis had the idea of the series ten years before he wrote the first novel in 1949. "The Magician's Nephew" was actually the last book to be written (1954) but was the sixth to be published. It is essentially a prequel to all the other books that explains the creation of Narnia and its occupants.

This book introduces a young Digory Kirke and his Uncle Andrew who is into sorcery and transports Digory and a friend into what will become Narnia. It also explains how the wardrobe becomes a portal and the introduction of Aslan and The White Witch. Digory is the elderly man whom the Pevensie children are sent to stay with in the beginning of "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe".

There is much argument as to whether the books should be read in chronological order, publication order or the order in which they were written. The seven books are:

"The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" : written 1949/published 1950
"Prince Caspian" : written 1949/published1951
"The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" : written 1950/published 1952
"The Silver Chair" : written 1951/published 1953
"The Horse and His Boy" : written 1950/published 1954
"The Magician's Nephew" : written 1954/published 1955
"The Last Battle" : written 1953/published 1956

Answer: Heidi

"Heidi" was written by Johanna Spyri in 1880. Another orphan, she is five at the start of the novel. She has been bought up by her Aunt Dete in the city until this time but the aunt now has a new job and can't take care of her anymore. She takes Heidi to live with her grandfather who lives high in the Swiss Alps.

The 'Alm Uncle', as he is known, has lived an isolated life on the mountain for many years and does not want Heidi at first but she slowly works her way into his heart and those of all the villagers at the bottom of the mountain.

Dete returns three years later and takes Heidi to Frankfurt to be a companion for a crippled girl. Heidi spends a year there but is so homesick that she returns back to live with her grandfather at the end.

Answer: Nellie Oleson

The original "Little House on the Prairie" books were published between 1932 and 1943. They are all based on the memories of Laura Ingalls Wilder's childhood in the second half of the 19th century. She narrates the book in the third person with herself as the central character.

Laura meets Mary Powers and Minnie Johnson for the first time when she attends school in "The Long Winter" although they appear much more in the following two novels. Ida Brown is introduced in "Little Town on the Prairie" when she joins the school after her adopted father becomes the town's new minister.

Nellie Oleson is Laura's nemesis. She first appeared in "On the Banks of Plum Creek", when she was mean to Mary and Laura, and then reappears in "Little Town on the Prairie" after her family moves west.

Answer: K.M.Peyton

I tried to help you a bit on this one. C.S .Lewis ("Narnia Chronicles") and R.L. Stine ("Goosebumps") are male. J. K. Rowling is, of course, the author of "Harry Potter".

K.M. Peyton used initials as her earliest books were adventure stories written for boys and she wanted to disguise her gender. Her name is actually Kathleen Wendy Herald Peyton - the 'M' is for her husband Michael.

Peyton was born in England in 1929 and began writing when she was nine. She had her first book published when she was 15 and has written over 60 novels since. She has a love of sailing and horses and many of her novels centre around these two themes. The majority of her works are written for children or young adults.