Zeroteenth Birthday Book Quiz! (Part 1)

For my daughter's zeroteenth (aka 10th) birthday party, I put together a 30-question book trivia quiz for her book-loving friends.  The kids did really well - I think the questions were too easy!  Since I was unable to figure out how to make one of those fancy buzzfeed-type quizzes, I went the old-fashioned route.  Scroll all the way to the bottom for the answers.  30 questions are a lot, so I'll post them in 3 installments of 10 each.  Part 2 can be found here and Part 3 can be found here.  Good luck!

Birthday balloon bouquet

1.        In All-of-A-Kind Family, which girl refuses to eat her soup?

a.       Gertie

b.      Sarah

c.       Henny

d.      Charlotte

2.       In the Ramona books, what game that Henry and Beezus like to play does Ramona
  always ruin?

a.       Chess

b.      Checkers

c.       Tiddlywinks

d.      Twister

3.       In Where the Wild Things Are, the Wild Things have:

a.       A fancy ball

b.      A board game competition

c.       A wild rumpus

d.      A dance party

4.       In the Little House on the Prairie books, Mary becomes:

a.       Blind

b.      Deaf

c.       Mute

d.      Paralyzed

5.       In Anne of Green Gables, when Anne is upset she says she is:

a.       Feeling blue

b.      Down in the dumps

c.       Sadder than a soggy potato chip

d.      In the depths of despair

6.       A frindle is really a:

a.       Pencil

b.      Piece of chalk

c.       Pen

d.      Computer

7.       In When You Reach Me, what game show does Miranda’s mother compete on?

a.       The Price is Right

b.      Wheel of Fortune

c.       Jeopardy!

d.      The $20,000 Pyramid
 

8.       Which character accidentally mails dog poop instead of her mother’s artwork?

a.       Clementine

b.      Anastasia Krupnik

c.       Ramona Quimby

d.      Sheila Tubman

9.       In one of the All-of-a-Kind Family books, the girls go to the library and pick out which  
  book?

a.       Heidi

b.      Treasure Island

c.       Anne of Avonlea

d.      Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm

10.   Which of these does Ramona NOT do?

a.      Take one bite out of each of the apples in the basement

b.      Bake her doll in her sister’s birthday cake

c.      Get paint on her hands and leave handprints all over her house

d.    Lock Henry's dog in the bathroom

Answers: 1. b, 2. b, 3. c, 4. a, 5. d, 6. c, 7. d, 8. b, 9. c, 10. d.

How did you do?

When the Character Ages Faster Than the Reader

A friend recently mentioned that she and her daughter stopped reading the Anne of Green Gables books because her 7-year-old was not interested in Anne's courtship by Gilbert, her career, marriage, or motherhood.  That comment got me thinking about series that follow a character from early childhood through to adulthood.  In addition to Anne, Betsy-Tacy and the Little House books came immediately to mind.  While, Type-A personality that I am,  I am a big believer in reading a series start to finish, it is hard when the character ages faster than the reader!  We are reading Little Town on the Prairie right now, in which Laura is 15, just meeting her future husband, and planning for her career as a teacher (which back then could start at age 16!).  So far my daughter still seems interested, but I wonder if and when that interest will wane.

Did you/your child read these series straight through or return to them later?  Can you think of any other series that present the same issue?

Old-Fashioned Fun

Reading the Little House books to my daughter and finding out a friend of hers loves them because they are "old-fashioned" got me thinking - what other books are there about "olden times" for the 6-8 year-old set (either as a read-aloud or for them to read on their own)?  A quick question at my fabulous local independent bookstore yielded recommendations I already knew about: the Betsy-Tacy books, another Betsy series, the B is for Betsy one, and The Saturdays.  But none of them were set quite as long ago as the Little House books.  The only books that came to mind from that era or something close to it and that embody the same pioneer spirit were Sarah, Plain and Tall and the Great Brain series.

Do you have any suggestions?

Heresy (Or, How Laura Ingalls Wilder and I Don't Have Any Chemistry)

Right now, I'm reading Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder to my 6-year-old and having the same reaction to it that I did 30 years ago: it's okay.  Yup, just okay.  I know this is heresy to legions of Little House devotees (dare I say fanatics?), my sister among them, but these books just don't have the emotional resonance for me that the Ramona series or the All-of-a-Kind Family series (which a friend called, correctly, I think, "the Jewish Little House books") or, for an older audience, Anne of Green Gables, do.  Laura herself was bored during those long winters - why did she think they'd be any more interesting for her readers?  To be fair, the books are not nearly as boring as they could be, but they just don't do it for me. 

And yet, I am finally reading them to my daughter for a number of reasons.  Peer pressure was one - many of her friends are reading it too.  But I also I felt that it was part of the children's canon, books that every (girl) child should read in order to be culturally literate. 

I'm not sure what accounts for the series' appeal, but the hardships faced by Laura and her family and their lack of technology, not to mention what we consider basic creature comforts (like indoor plumbing) are fascinating to some.  But not me.  I can relate to many books that I "shouldn't" be able to - books set in a time and place I know nothing about, like Anne of Green Gables and The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate but not these.  I love plenty of spunky heroines (Anne and Calpurnia again being prime examples) but for me, Laura isn't one of them.  I guess it just comes down to chemistry.  It's just not there between me and Laura.

If you or your child loves the Little House books, why?