Saturday, December 02, 2006

I made you a game

[Updated to add some hints, since some of my most obsessive-compulsive reading friends still don't recognize more than one or two titles. Don't read the comments before you've tried it, since some people guessed the answers (although nobody got all of them). The complete answers are posted here.]

Christmas book trivia! Actually most of these quotes aren't from Christmas books at all, just from books with good Christmas scenes in them. Virtual gingerbread men to anyone who can get 7 out of 10 (some of these are hard!). Maybe just put down the numbers of the quotes you recognize, rather than naming them, so that you don't give the answers away.

Here we go...

1. “Some Christmas,” remarked [] in a satisfied tone at the end of the day. He was playing []’s Funeral March for her, very quietly in the dusk. “I bet we’re just about the only kids in the county, maybe even the whole state, that got such a big live alligator for a Christmas present.”

HINT: Aw, c'mon, how many books have somebody getting an alligator for a Christmas present? Copyright 1942, the second book of a trilogy.

2. “Breakfast seems so commonplace at such an exciting moment. I’d rather feast my eyes on that dress….I feel that I ought to be a very good girl indeed. It’s at times like this I’m sorry I’m not a model little girl; and I always resolve that I will be in future. But somehow it’s hard to carry out your resolutions when irresistible temptations come. Still, I really will make an extra effort after this.”

3. “That was a wonderful day. It was a treasure, and no mistake! I never saw such heaps and heaps of presents, like things out of a fairy-tale—and even Eliza had a shawl. Perhaps she deserved it, for she did cook the rabbit and the pudding; and [] says it is not her fault if her nose turns up and she does not brush her hair. I do not think Eliza likes brushing things. It is the same with the carpets. But [] tries to make allowances even for people who do not wash their ears.”

Hint: also part of a trilogy. Look on the first page of The Magician's Nephew for another hint.

4. “For ere one half of the night was gone,
Sudden a star has led us on,
Raining bliss and benison—
Bliss tomorrow and more anon,
Joy for every morning!”

5. “And next day they rounded up the mice with the loudest voices. They spent the whole morning practicing their scales and the whole afternoon sorting out the pronunciation of Wenceslas, and by the time it was dark, they were ready.”

Hints: Mice. Vestry. Cat. If you can at least get the right series, you get the gingerbread cookie.

6. (a Christmas list): “Tony—a jack-knife (his has only one blade.) Mr. Gilligan—a clay pipe and tobacco. Mrs. Gilligan—a tomato pin-cushion. Mr. Night-Owl—a cake of soap.”

Hint: 1937 Newbery Medal. New York City.

7. “Don’t you have any tree?” Joey asked.
“Oh, it isn’t worth while just for me,” Mrs. Verduz said. “I don’t usually make any fuss over Christmas. But when I heard you singing I thought it was really awfully dull staying down there in my room all by myself. And you see, I’ve brought a few things with me.”

Hint: Only Amblesiders who have done Year 6 will probably get this one.

8. “'A hand-knit muffler! How warm it looks. I must try it on right now,' said Mr. Bear. He wrapped it around his neck…There was rather a lot left over.”

Hint: Children's picture book illustrated with photographs.

9. “There had never been such a Christmas as this. It was such a large, rich Christmas, the whole church full of Christmas. There were so many lamps, so many people, so much noise and laughter, and so many happinesses in it. [] felt full and bursting, as if that whole big rich Christmas were inside her, and her mittens and her beautiful jewel-box with the wee gold cup-and-saucer and teapot, and her candy and her popcorn ball.”

Hint: I figured most people would get this one pretty fast. Part of a series. Think about being amazed and astounded by mittens and a popcorn ball...

10. “She did not even hug to her heart that moment when, finally, she had become Mama’s ‘dearest, dearest child'. In her heart it was Christmas, and she was busy singing.”

Hint: the author is Jean Little.

Bonus Quote:
"All the ponies are at the war."

Hint: World War I.

9 comments:

Karen G. said...

You're right. It's hard. I'm sure of only number 2. A couple (and only a couple!) of the others sound familiar, but I can't place them.

Queen of Carrots said...

4 is from *Wind in the Willows*

And the bonus one is from the *Moffats*.

No clue on any of the others.

Katie said...

I want to play but I don't think I'm literary enough. :( Number 2 is Anne of Green Gables, right? That is the only one that I can guess at.

(I have read Wind in the Willows *and* The Moffats, but cannot remember #4 or the bonus, which does not mean they are not from those books but only that my memory is oh-so-faulty.)

Mama Squirrel said...

Queen of Carrots is right that the bonus question is from a Moffats book, but it's not from the first book, which (for Mother Auma) is why you probably don't recognize it unless you've read The Next One.

Anonymous said...

#5 must be The Church Mice at Christmas and #6 is A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, I think?

#8 is A Gift From the Lonely Doll, and #9 is On the Banks of Plum Creek (I think- the one where she gets the rabbit fur muff?)

Mama Squirrel said...

3 out of 4, Coffeemamma. So far you're the winner! (You have the right location for #6 but the wrong book.)

Katie said...

Ooh! Ooh! Is #3 The Treasure Seekers?

Karen G. said...

8, 9, and 10 were the ones that sounded familiar to me. I thought "Mr. Bear" was from the Lonely Doll series by Dare Wright(?), although I wouldn't have been able to name the book. I know I've read #9, and your hint tells me it must be from the Little House series, but again...not sure which book. I feel as if I ought to know number 10, but the hint didn't help.

I read many children's books as a child which I have not reread as an adult, and so the aura of familiarity is there without actual recognition, as if someone I haven't seen since I was 10 years old walks into the room and says, "Don't you remember me?"

Kind of, but not really.

There are some on your list that I'm sure I've never read at all. :-)

Mama Squirrel said...

Extra hint for Krakovianka: #10 is set in Germany and then in Canada during the Depression.