From Book to Screen
Library Facts
Children's Books
Oh the Horror!
100
In the book and movie Wicked, Elphaba and Glinda attend what university?
Shiz University
100
One of the first great libraries of the ancient world that we know of housed nearly 400,000 scrolls according to some scholars. It was eventually destroyed by fire in two different incidents. Where was the library located?
Alexandria, Egypt
We tend to think of the library's destruction as one event. In reality, Julius Caesar set fire to some ships in the harbor and the fire "accidentally" destroyed one of the library's buildings. Finally, Another Roman Emperor, Aurelian, invaded Alexandria in the 270s A.D. and that's all she wrote for one of the great libraries the world has ever known.
100
According to If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, what will the mouse ask for once he has a cookie?
Milk
Which is needed to wash down the cookie, but then the mouse needs a straw to drink the milk, followed by a napkin to clean up and a mirror to check for a milk mustache. Eventually the list of desires grows to include another cookie, starting the cycle anew.
100
Which pseudonym did Stephen King use when writing the novels Thinner and The Running Man?
Richard Bachman
200
What is the name of the main character, played by Blake Lively, in the movie version of Colleen Hoover’s It Ends With Us.
Lily Bloom
200
What DC comic book character worked as a librarian when he/she wasn't out fighting crime?
Barbara Gordon/Batgirl/Oracle is a librarian.
After being paralyzed by the Joker, Gordon became the superhero Oracle, acting as an information broker for the entire DC hero community. Her extensive skills in library and information science became the foundation of her new crime-fighting method.
200
Which children's author originally wanted his 1963 picture book to be about “wild horses,” until he realized he couldn’t draw horses (or so he claimed in interviews)?
Maurice Sendak
He landed a contract to write a book he titled Where the Wild Horses Are. However, he realized he couldn’t draw horses very well, so he decided to switch to the more ambiguous Where the Wild Things Are. He based his drawings of the “things” on childhood memories of unkempt relatives.
200
What is the alternative title of Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein?
A Modern Prometheus
300
Colson Whitehead’s novel The Nickel Boys won this prestigious fiction prize before being made into a movie in 2024.
Pulitzer Prize
It won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
300
Remember the famous lion statues outside the New York Public Library, seen in countless movies and TV shows. What are their names?
Patience & Fortitude.
They were originally named Leo Astor and Leo Lenox after two of the founders of the library. Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia renamed them in the 1930s to emphasize the qualities he believed New Yorkers needed to get through the Great Depression.
300
An editor told Shel Silverstein that their book was “too simple” for adults and “too sad” for kids.
This book published in 1964 then went on to sell more than 10 million copies.
Name the book.
The Giving Tree
Shel Silverstein said he avoided happy endings because he didn’t want young readers to wonder why they weren’t as happy as those in his books.
300
This novel by a popular modern Gothic writer was adapted by Alfred Hitchcock in his first American film.
Name the writer and the novel.
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
About an unnamed young woman who marries the wealthy widower Maxim de Winter and moves to his grand estate, Manderley, only to find herself haunted by the memory of his glamorous first wife, Rebecca, and tormented by the sinister housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers, who keeps Rebecca's legacy alive.
400
In the children’s film Dog Man (2025) by Dav Pilkey, this actor is the voice of the supervillain Petey the Cat.
*Hint: Their name is similar to the character.
Pete Davidson
400
Whose personal library constituted the core collection on which the Library of Congress, the world's largest library, was built?
Thomas Jefferson
After British forces burned down the U.S. Capitol in 1814 including the existing library, Thomas Jefferson offered his own substantial personal library as a starter kit. Congress reluctantly agreed but lowballed the offer.
400
In Roald Dahl's Matilda, what does the school motto "Bambinatum est Maggitum" mean?
"Children are maggots"
400
In Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula, the title character's castle is situated in which mountain range?
Carpathian Mountains
500
The movie Small Things Like These, based on a novel by Claire Keegan, stars this Irish actor in the lead role.
Cillian Murphy
500
What is generally considered to be the first US public library?
Franklin Public Library
Located in Massachusetts, it is generally considered the first public library in America, established in 1790 when the town voted to lend books donated by Benjamin Franklin to all residents for free.
While Benjamin Franklin founded the earlier Library Company of Philadelphia in 1731 it worked on a subscription based model, so not free!
500
Old Yeller by Fred Gipson and published in 1956 about a boy and his dog brings most people to tears. Old Yeller's name is easy to remember, but do you remember the name of the teenage boy protagonist?
Travis Coates
500
Some credit Edgar Allan Poe with the invention of the modern detective story.
It introduced the first fictional detective, C. Auguste Dupin, who solved crimes through logical analysis and deduction, setting the foundation for the genre, including the "locked-room" mystery.
Which of his works is considered the first detective story?
The Murders in the Rue Morgue
