Sunday Pub Quiz: Children’s Literature

On a grey and parky Sunday afternoon, few things are more diverting than a quiz down at the pub. Throw a log on the fire, pull yourself a pint of bitter and above all Google not and see how many of these 10 questions you can get correct. This one isn’t too hard so you should be able to correctly answer at least half and maybe even all of them.

Answers after the jump. Please post your score.

1. London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital has been able to treat many sick children over the years because it was generously granted the rights to what classic children’s tale?

2. By what moniker is Nick Chopper better known?

3. Jim Hawkins is the hero of what well-loved children’s book?

4. How many siblings does Tiny Tim have in a Christmas Carol?

5. Who uses her psychic powers to get the better of the horrid Miss Trunchbull?

6. In the original version of the poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas”, what reindeer names followed these words “On, Comet! on, Cupid!, on…”

7. What doctor made the largest ever contribution to Dartmouth Medical School?

8. The Terrible Trivium is a villain in what book?

9. What do the authors of Winnie the Pooh, Mary Poppins, Peter Pan and Go, Dog, Go have in common, besides the obvious fact that they all wrote famous children’s books?

10. Who were the two parties in this exchange?:

“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”
“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,”
“I don’t much care where-”
“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,”
“-so long as I get somewhere,”
“Oh, you’re sure to do that if you only walk long enough.”


1. Peter Pan
2. The Tin Woodman
3. Treasure Island
4. He has three sisters and two brothers for a total of 5.
5. Matilda Wormwood (if you only got Matilda, that’s fine).
6. Dunder and Blixem
7. Dr. Seuss.
8. The Phantom Tollbooth
9. They all published as two initials and a last name: A.A. Milne, P.L. Travers, J. M. Barrie and P.D. Eastman.
10. Alice and the Cheshire Cat (no points if you only got one)

Author: Keith Humphreys

Keith Humphreys is the Esther Ting Memorial Professor of Psychiatry at Stanford University and an Honorary Professor of Psychiatry at Kings College London. His research, teaching and writing have focused on addictive disorders, self-help organizations (e.g., breast cancer support groups, Alcoholics Anonymous), evaluation research methods, and public policy related to health care, mental illness, veterans, drugs, crime and correctional systems. Professor Humphreys' over 300 scholarly articles, monographs and books have been cited over thirteen thousand times by scientific colleagues. He is a regular contributor to Washington Post and has also written for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Monthly, San Francisco Chronicle, The Guardian (UK), The Telegraph (UK), Times Higher Education (UK), Crossbow (UK) and other media outlets.

12 thoughts on “Sunday Pub Quiz: Children’s Literature”

  1. I got five (1,3,5,7,10), which I consider a fairly decent score given that I haven’t really been exposed to children’s literature since I was a child (though I might quibble over whether Alice In Wonderland is children’s literature in the same way as the others, as opposed to surreal and well-written literature accessible to children).

    2. How did you miss 3? Everyone else got it. Possibly you saw the movie and thought it was “Awkins”?

  5. I hate you all. I knew the last one was from Alice in Wonderland and that was it. And I was a voracious reader as a kid.

  9. I got 1, 3, and 8, 9, 10. Like FuzzyFace, I guessed the reindeer names from the song. I was pretty sure that wasn’t right, but I had no hope of getting the ones from the poem (although my daughter has a very nice version of the poem with illustrations by Jan Brett).

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