Dead Author Tribute- Robert Cormier Quiz

Answer: he went to inspect a noise on the balcony with a box of matches, as order by his boss

John-Paul Colbert was working at a theater on the night of a show for underprivileged children. There was a strange sound up on the balcony, which his boss used as a storage area. He sent John-Paul up there, with a box of matches, to check it out. He lit a match so that he could see, but he accidentally set the box on fire. Then the balcony collapsed because the sound was cracking.

After the fire, many of the children were dead. Then his boss committed suicide. A lot of people blamed him, even though it wasn't his fault. Years later, when his sixteen-year old son asks him why he lets people blame him, he says that it is because it makes them feel better to have someone to blame.

Answer: False

When he was eleven, the Avenger murdered the school bully. Then he murdered his grandfather, because he was getting suspicions. He's at least forty now, but sometimes he thinks he is still eleven.

He likes to spy on the Jerome family and has a crush on sixteen-year old Jane. Jane is dating Buddy, who the Avenger knows had been tagging along with the thrashers - they trashed her house. He decides that because of this, he will have to kill her. He pays a kid to lure him into the shed where he is waiting, but the kid calls the police.

Answer: he is a rapist

Larry LaSalle used to run the rec center, and then he went off to war and came back with a medal. He goes to the rec center that night with Francis and Nicole. Then he asks Francis to leave early so that he can dance with Nicole alone. Francis doesn't leave, he just goes out into the other room. He hears her get raped, but he is too afraid to go and save her.

"I had my bully, and it was excruciating. Not only the bully, but the intimidation I felt."
-Robert Cormier

Answer: Lori was walking through the woods soon after Eric had killed a girl

They met a few years before the book takes place. Lori had just turned twelve and was walking through the woods. Then she ran into Eric, who is a serial killer and had just murdered a girl. She started talking to him and made up some stuff about her birthday, which her mother had forgotten about, but Eric realized that she is lying.

Then a gang came by and started hitting on Lori and Eric got them to leave.

Answer: from uncle to nephew

Paul's uncle taught him how to use the fade and how to control the evil that tries to take over you when you're in it. When Paul grows up, he watches his nephews closely, but none of them have the fade. Then he discovers that one of his sisters had a son who nobody knew about, who was adopted.

His name is Ozzie. He figured out how to use the fade himself, but not how to control the evil that is taking over him. Paul tracks him down and tries to help him.

Answer: an airplane in somebody's backyard

Eugene sees an airplane in someone's small backyard, and doesn't understand how it could possibly land and take off. He comes back later and it's gone. He tells his siblings and cousins, but they don't believe him. Then his dad gets home and tells everybody about the airplane he saw in somebody's backyard, and that Eugene saw it too.

Answer: Miro's father

Miro tells Kate about how Artkin had taken him and his orphan brother to a terrorist school, and then came back to get him. Kate thinks Artkin is Miro's father and points out that a stranger would not have come back to get him and that they looked exactly alike with their ski-mask on. Miro thinks that she is just making this up in hopes that it will prevent him from shooting her, so he shoots her.

Answer: "Do I dare disturb the universe?"

At Trinity, it is common for boys to put posters in their lockers. His says "Do I dare disturb the universe?" It is a quote that he takes to heart.

"I have always had a sense that we are all pretty much alone in life, particularly in adolescence."
-Robert Cormeir

Answer: by chopping his head off with a guillotine

His new friend Ray is a magician and he shows him the guillotine he built. He had a switch to make it work as a guillotine, so he could show the audience that it worked by chomping a cabbage, and a switch to turn it off, so a person could stick their head in it but not be hurt. Obie convinces him to do a magic show, with him as his assistant.

Then he rigs the box so that Archie will draw the marble that signifies that he has to be the one who gets his head cut off. He plans to forget to change the switch, but that's not really the case. During the show, he finds out that Ray has a safety thing on it to prevent accidents like this.

Answer: No

Cassie lives in the shadow of her twin brother Mazzo. She starts getting strange pains for no reason. Then she realizes that there is a reason, because she is feelings Mazzo's pains, but he cannot feel hers. She wonders what will happen if Mazzo dies. She feels it when he does, but she won't let herself die because she doesn't know for sure that she can't live, so she does live.

Answer: No

Henry tells his boss Mr. Hairston about his friend Mr. Levine, who is building a village at the art studio. Later, when he tells him about wanting a grave stone for his brother's grave but not being able to afford it, Mr. Hairston tells him that he will buy it if Henry destroys Mr. Levine's village.

Henry tries to do it, and then he decides not to, but accidentally drops it on the village. He tells Mr. Hairston that, but he say that he can still get the gravestone for his brother because he still did it. Then Henry realizes that Mr. Hairston made this offer because he thought Henry was too nice and wanted to make him meaner. That is why he doesn't accept it.

Answer: her Shirley Temple doll

Kathleen Mary makes fun of Darcy for having a doll. She suggest that they both give away all of their kid stuff to charity. Darcy doesn't want to, but she does anyway.

On Christmas Eve, Kathleen's brother delivers the Christmas present that Kathleen got for Darcy, and it's a miniature Shirley Temple doll. He also reveals that Kathleen always felt bad for making Darcy give away her doll, and that Kathleen has died.

Answer: False

Jason is twelve years old and is accused of killing his seven-year old friend. He is interrogated and the Interrogator doesn't understand why he is having so much trouble getting a confession out of Jason. Then he finds out that the real killer has been found.

"You seldom get a censorship attempt from a 14-year-old boy. It's the adults who get upset."
-Robert Cormier

Answer: go horseback riding

They met each other at the library and talked about how much they liked books and movies. Later, they hang out and go around doing things to try to annoy other people.

Answer: it is not the same

When Tommy is seventy years old, he leaves the place he has been staying and heads downtown, where he hasn't been in three years. He is disappointed, but he realizes that he has changed too and accepts that he is old.

"I simply write with an intelligent reader in mind. I don't think about how old they are."
-Robert Cormier

Answer: the death of his father

This is Robert Cormier's first book. It is about a man dying of cancer.

"The beautiful part of writing is that you don't have to get it right the first time, unlike, say, a brain surgeon."
-Robert Cormier

Answer: True

She has three children and now she is pregnant again. The father is not her late husband. He's a coworker who went home with her after a party.

Answer: I Am The Cheese

Adam's father used to sing that song a lot, and he would joke and say it was written just for them because their last name is farmer; at least, their fake last name is. Adam sings this song to soothe himself on his bike trip. He has always wondered about the ending when it says "the cheese stands alone" and by the end of the trip he finally understands it. He is the cheese.

Answer: In The Middle Of The Night

While his parents are away, a woman keeps on calling Denny and he talks to her. They arrange to meet each other and he finds out that she wants to kill him in order to get revenge on his father for an accident that wasn't completely his fault. Then her brother shoots her and then shoots himself. Denny leaves.

Answer: Fade

She realizes that he has a crush on her and talks to him about it, but doesn't tell anyone else. She says it's her fault because of the way she treats him. Sometimes she forgets that he is not a baby anymore.

Answer: The Chocolate War

The Vigils is supposed to be a secret society at Trinity Prep School, but everybody knows about it and everyone fears them. That is why, when the school is in need of money, Brother Leon asks for help from them. They work at getting everybody to sell more, except for one student who they ask to not sell any chocolates until a certain date.

His name is Jerry and, when the time for him to sell chocolates comes, he decides not to sell them.

Answer: Fade

The author's cousin has read it and doesn't think it's true. His grandniece is now reading it and doesn't think it's true at first, but after doing some research she wonders if it is.

"I've had aunts and uncles who not only haven't read my books but could hardly believe that I was a writer."
-Robert Cormier

Answer: We All Fall Down

After seeing a girl drop her key, a teenage boy follows her to see where she lives. A few nights later, he takes his gang there and they go in and trash the house. When a girl comes in, they assault her and push her down a flight of stairs.

Answer: Eight Plus One

A boy collects president trading cards to earn a baseball glove but sells the glove to buy his brother a pair of new shoes; a boy investigates his father's life; a man takes his daughter to an amusement park while he has a hangover and she gets mad at him because she got scared on a roller coaster that he didn't go on with her; a man struggles with his daughter leaving for college; a boy grows a mustache and confuses his elderly grandmother; a man meets the young woman who his friend has left his wife and kids for, and more events occur in this book.

"You bring up your children to be self-reliant and independent and they double-cross you and become self-reliant and independent."
-Robert Cormeir

Answer: I Have Words To Spend

This book contains several works of his that were taken from newspaper columns, from back when he was a journalist.

"In a lot of instances, young adults are living that darker side of life or are aware of it threw television, movies, of what they see and hear on school buses or in school corridors. For Some reason, many people think teenagers live in a kind of vacuum. They don't, and when they read about the dark side of life in books, it gives an affirmation to what they see and hear every day. For the more protected and isolated teenager, the books give them a dose of reality, of what's really going on it the world out there that's waiting for them."
-Robert Cormier