Ferris Beach Trivia Quiz

Answer: North Carolina

The book is set in the town of Fulton, North Carolina. Author Jill McCorkle is a native of Lumberton, NC, and used to be a professor at UNC-Chapel Hill. The majority of her books are set in the "Tar Heel State".

Answer: She started going to private school when she was four.

Katie was five years old when she first met her older cousin Angela. They met at Ferris Beach, a place that had always fascinated Katie by its name. Angela had been born to unmarried parents, who were already separated when she was born. Her mother, 17, died in childbirth, so she was raised by her mother's brother and his wife, Katie's parents.

Answer: Theresa Poole

Katie's widowed neighbor, Theresa Poole, was often having socials at her house. She loved to host wedding parties, retirement parties, charity drives, and even meetings of Children of the Confederacy. As Katie and Misty got older, they started attending "teas" at Mrs. Poole's house.

Answer: Misty's mother died.

Katie and Misty and their families attended the fireworks display in Fulton. During the show, Misty's mother Ramona "Mo" left and took her six-month old son Buddy with her. Mo was gone all night before she phoned home and said she was coming back to leave the baby. Sadly Mo and Buddy were killed in a car accident trying to come back. Also killed in the accident was Gene Files, a friend of the Rhodes family, with whom Mo was having an affair.

Answer: Making cross-stitched proverbs signs

Mr. Rhodes didn't even tell Misty and Dean he was getting remarried. He told the kids they were going to a relative's wedding, but he was the one who was married that day to a woman named Sally Jean. At first Misty didn't like her new stepmother and wished her father would have told her before they were married. Misty also didn't like the way Sally Jean redecorated their house with her little cross-stitched signs of proverbs and quotes.

After his mother died, Dean became very abrupt and emotional and didn't like it when Katie came over to see Misty.

Answer: 5

The first time Angela came to stay with the family was near Christmas when Katie was in eighth grade. That was the first time she had seen Angela since that day at Ferris Beach. The next time Angela came to visit was the summer before Katie entered tenth grade.

She came to visit again when Katie's father, Angela's uncle, suddenly passed away. She left for a few days, then came back a fifth time when she had talked to the lawyer about Fred's will.

Answer: Perry

Early in the morning on Christmas Eve, Katie was on the back porch when she saw Merle's older brother Dexter fighting with his girlfriend, Perry. They were in the front yard, and his friend R.W. Quincy and another boy pulled up in the yard to watch. Dexter held a knife to Perry's throat and continued to assault her.

When Merle tried to make his brother stop, R.W. and the other boy beat him up. For the rest of the night, Katie could not sleep for all the horrible images of that night.

Answer: Dexter was already dead before the fire started.

It was first suspected that the Hucks' house fire had been from cigarettes left out, since more than one person in the house smoked. When the fire was further investigated, it was discovered that Dexter had not died because he couldn't make it to safety in time, but someone had cut his throat.

The fire had also been intentionally started with gasoline. No one was ever arrested and changed with the arson and murder.

Answer: Taxi

After Katie's dad died, her mother told her that before his death, Fred had picked her out a car. It was a used taxi, painted green, with the barrier between the front and back seats removed.

Answer: True

After Fred died, Cleva and Katie learned that he had had a family friend make a headstone for him a long time ago. Fred had always had an interest with epitaphs, and he used to collect obituaries from newspapers. He would sort the names mentioned by cause of death.

After his death, Cleva discovered an envelope on his desk where he had been planning what he wanted to happen at his funeral.

Answer: No

Right before Angela came back to discuss the will, Cleva and Mrs. Poole were talking about Angela's past. When Mrs. Poole asked who Angela's father was, Cleva said he had died in the Korean War. She really had no idea who Angela's father was.

Answer: Gene Files

Angela often mentioned knowing Gene Files, but she always would say she dated a friend of his. Angela often acted like she didn't like Mo, who had been having an affair with Gene for years. Katie was staying at Angela's house when she found out her cousin had been involved with Gene, too.

Answer: Angela was her real mother

Ever since she was a child, Katie secretly began thinking that Angela was her real mother, and she really wished it would be true. Katie thought that since Angela had left home at seventeen, it would have been perfect for her to have had Katie, then given her over to Cleva and Fred to raise as their daughter. Near the end of the book, Katie finally told Angela, and she said it was ridiculous. That was the story of her own life, not Katie's.

Answer: 5

Mo Rhodes died in a car accident with Gene Files and the baby. Katie's dad died the summer before she entered eleventh grade. Dexter Hucks was murdered. There are other people mentioned that had died before the main story started, including Mrs. Poole's husband and Angela's mother. Thomas Clayton, a World War I veteran and town barber also died, but he was not a main character.

Answer: Kitty

Katie's father started calling her "Kitty" when she was a child. She told Merle her nickname when they were in elementary school, and he used to make fun of her name by making cat noises whenever he saw her. Angela continued to call her Kitty even when she was older.