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Quiz about Black Maria
Quiz about Black Maria

Black Maria Trivia Quiz


"Black Maria" is the 1991 novel by British author, Diana Wynne Jones. The American title of this book is "Aunt Maria".

A multiple-choice quiz by Lil_Miss_Fickle. Estimated time: 7 mins.
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Time
7 mins
Type
Multiple Choice
Quiz #
357,762
Updated
Dec 03 21
# Qns
20
Difficulty
Average
Avg Score
15 / 20
Plays
140
Question 1 of 20
1. Aunt Maria lives in Cranbury-on-Sea. Mig and Chris, along with their mother, Betty, go to stay with her following the disappearance of their father. What happened to him? Hint


Question 2 of 20
2. One of the things Mig finds most annoying about Aunt Maria is that she won't call her "Mig" like everyone else does. What does Aunt Maria insist on calling her? Hint


Question 3 of 20
3. When they arrive, Aunt Maria says that her home help, Lavinia, has gone to see her mother, so Betty has to help her out instead. Aunt Maria is an old lady who seems to need a lot of looking after! She has a group of female friends who come round every day for tea and are very protective of her. What do Chris and Mig call Aunt Maria's friends? Hint


Question 4 of 20
4. One of Aunt Maria's friends is Zöe Green. The women often mention that something happened to her son but nobody will say what it is. What is his name? Hint


Question 5 of 20
5. Chris tells Mig that there is a ghost in his bedroom who wakes him up every night. He makes Chris have terrible dreams and seems to be searching for something in the bookshelves. Chris says he looks like a cross between a jester and a parrot. What do Chris and Mig nickname the ghost early in the book? Hint


Question 6 of 20
6. Mig and Chris get lost while out for a walk, and find themselves on the other side of town. They see a large building with a yard full of children playing: The Cranbury Orphanage. There's something strange about the children. What is it? Hint


Question 7 of 20
7. Apart from Mig, Chris and the children in the orphanage, how many other children live in Cranbury? Hint


Question 8 of 20
8. While Mig and Chris are out walking, a train comes into the station and lots of men get off, coming home from work. What is unusual about the men? Hint


Question 9 of 20
9. One of the men drives a blue car. Mig sees the car again when she is waiting for her mother in the square. What is unusual about the car? Hint


Question 10 of 20
10. A grey Persian cat keeps hanging around the garden and watching through the windows. Betty says its face looks familiar somehow, and starts to look after it in secret. Who does she later realise the cat looks like? Hint


Question 11 of 20
11. Aunt Maria often mentions "Miss Phelps", who said something that upset Aunt Maria, but nobody will say what it was. Chris and Mig pay Miss Phelps a visit. She seems like a nice lady who lives with her brother, Nathaniel. Which of these DOES NOT happen when Chris and Mig meet Nathaniel? Hint


Question 12 of 20
12. One night the grey cat leads Mig into the garden shed and jumps on a shelf. While trying to get the cat, Mig pulls the shelf down. Something falls onto the floor. What is it? Hint


Question 13 of 20
13. Nathaniel told Chris to look for something that he knew was hidden away, and to give him a secret signal if he found it. When Mig and Chris find out that their dad visited Cranbury before he disappeared, they have a good idea about where to look. What do they find? Hint


Question 14 of 20
14. Chris is fed up of Aunt Maria treating everyone badly. He confronts her about everything that's happening and accuses her of 'doing away with' their dad, Lavinia the home help and Zöe Green's son. Mig is watching from the stairs. What happens next? Hint


Question 15 of 20
15. What does Betty do when Chris doesn't come home? Hint


Question 16 of 20
16. Mig goes back to the station to see the blue car. She breaks in and sits in the passenger seat waiting. Soon the men arrive from work and a man gets into the car. Who is he? Hint


Question 17 of 20
17. The whole town goes out searching for a wolf that has (supposedly) bitten one of the children in the orphanage. The men shoot and kill the wolf in the woods. Why is Aunt Maria so upset? Hint


Question 18 of 20
18. When Betty and Mig go and visit the Phelps, which of these DOES NOT happen? Hint


Question 19 of 20
19. When Betty and Mig leave the Phelps' house to rescue Zöe Green's son, they almost bump into some other visitors who have just arrived. Who are the visitors? Hint


Question 20 of 20
20. Where does Aunt Maria end up? Hint



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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. Aunt Maria lives in Cranbury-on-Sea. Mig and Chris, along with their mother, Betty, go to stay with her following the disappearance of their father. What happened to him?

Answer: Nobody really knows

Mig and Chris's dad had been seeing another woman, Vera Bland. He was driving to see Aunt Maria after their mother told him she wanted a divorce. His car skidded on some ice and drove off a cliff in Cranbury. The car was found in the sea but he was not found. Nobody knows if he is dead or alive.

Aunt Maria asks Mig and Chris and their mother to come and stay with her as they are now her only relatives. None of them really want to go.
2. One of the things Mig finds most annoying about Aunt Maria is that she won't call her "Mig" like everyone else does. What does Aunt Maria insist on calling her?

Answer: Naomi

Mig's real name is Naomi, named after Aunt Maria's daughter who (allegedly) died. Mig is taken from her middle name, Margaret.
3. When they arrive, Aunt Maria says that her home help, Lavinia, has gone to see her mother, so Betty has to help her out instead. Aunt Maria is an old lady who seems to need a lot of looking after! She has a group of female friends who come round every day for tea and are very protective of her. What do Chris and Mig call Aunt Maria's friends?

Answer: the "Mrs Urs"

The "Mrs Urs" are various friends of Aunt Maria's. Mig, Chris, and their mother have trouble remembering their names at first, and privately call them "the Mrs Urs" because they find themselves saying, "Hello, Mrs...er...Green".

Chris and Mig suspect that Lavinia is not really looking after her mum and has really left Aunt Maria because she is so difficult to live with.
4. One of Aunt Maria's friends is Zöe Green. The women often mention that something happened to her son but nobody will say what it is. What is his name?

Answer: Antony

Antony Green disappeared and nobody will say what happened, although everyone knows. Eventually we discover that Antony is not dead - he was buried alive by Aunt Maria's daughter 20 years ago.
5. Chris tells Mig that there is a ghost in his bedroom who wakes him up every night. He makes Chris have terrible dreams and seems to be searching for something in the bookshelves. Chris says he looks like a cross between a jester and a parrot. What do Chris and Mig nickname the ghost early in the book?

Answer: Neighbour John

Chris and Mig are walking by the sea with the waves roaring loudly. Mig can't hear what Chris is saying and thinks he says the ghost is called "Neighbour John". They find this so funny that they decide to keep the nickname.

We later find out that the ghost is really Antony Green, and is not actually a ghost but Antony's soul, projected out from beneath the ground where he is buried.
6. Mig and Chris get lost while out for a walk, and find themselves on the other side of town. They see a large building with a yard full of children playing: The Cranbury Orphanage. There's something strange about the children. What is it?

Answer: They look different but seem to be acting exactly the same

Mig and Chris get lost in the woods and find themselves, somehow, on the other side of town but don't know how they got there. They come across the orphanage which has a yard full of about 40 children. They all seem to act exactly the same as if they have been cloned, but they all look different.
7. Apart from Mig, Chris and the children in the orphanage, how many other children live in Cranbury?

Answer: 0

In all the time they are in Cranbury, no other children are seen, only adults.
8. While Mig and Chris are out walking, a train comes into the station and lots of men get off, coming home from work. What is unusual about the men?

Answer: They look straight ahead and walk like zombies

When Mig and Chris stop at the station to clean the mud off their shoes, a train comes in and men start to get off. None of them look at Mig and Chris but just keep walking straight ahead in a group, not seeming to see where they're going. Mig and Chris joke that they are the husbands of the 'Mrs Urs' who have taken their souls and turned them into zombies, which is not far from the truth.
9. One of the men drives a blue car. Mig sees the car again when she is waiting for her mother in the square. What is unusual about the car?

Answer: It looks exactly the same as Chris and Mig's dad's car

One of the men drives off in a blue car - it looks just like their family car which their dad drove off the cliff! Chris tells Mig that it isn't the same car because the number plates were different. Mig isn't so sure, because it even had dents in the same places as theirs did.

While out shopping with her mum, Mig sees the car again. She goes for a closer look and there is a lady sitting in the car. Mig thinks it could be Verena Bland, the lady her dad was seeing, but the woman says she's called Zenobia Bayley. Mig still suspects it's their car.
10. A grey Persian cat keeps hanging around the garden and watching through the windows. Betty says its face looks familiar somehow, and starts to look after it in secret. Who does she later realise the cat looks like?

Answer: Aunt Maria's home help, Lavinia

The cat is very friendly and the family don't understand why Aunt Maria keeps shouting at it to go away. Betty can't work out why the cat's face looks familiar. One night the cat comes into the room Betty and Mig share, which used to be Lavinia's room. Betty realises that the cat looks just like Lavinia in a photo. Lavinia was turned into a cat after she saw the 'ghost' of Antony Green and accused Aunt Maria of having killed him.
11. Aunt Maria often mentions "Miss Phelps", who said something that upset Aunt Maria, but nobody will say what it was. Chris and Mig pay Miss Phelps a visit. She seems like a nice lady who lives with her brother, Nathaniel. Which of these DOES NOT happen when Chris and Mig meet Nathaniel?

Answer: Nathaniel tells them he is in love with Aunt Maria

Miss Phelps seems different to all Aunt Maria's friends. She won't tell them about what happened with Aunt Maria, or what happened to Anthony Green, but she does confirm that Lavinia won't be coming back. She introduces them to her brother, Nathaniel.

He is a bit mad and is standing in a room pointing a sword at them as they enter. Just then, Miss Phelps falls over - she is quite unsteady on her feet. Nathaniel is quite hostile at first until Chris tells him about the ghost. Nathaniel is suddenly keen to talk to him alone.
12. One night the grey cat leads Mig into the garden shed and jumps on a shelf. While trying to get the cat, Mig pulls the shelf down. Something falls onto the floor. What is it?

Answer: An exercise book with a story she wrote last year

Lavinia the cat asks to be let into the garden and insists that Mig go out too. It leads her into the shed and jumps up, staying just out of Mig's reach. The shelf falls down and there is Mig's old exercise book with a story she had written years ago.

The exercise book had been hidden in a secret space behind the radio in the family car when her dad ran away with Verena Bland. It should have still been in the car when it fell off the cliff into the sea, but the book has never been wet and still smells of their old car.

This means that her dad did visit Cranbury before he disappeared and Aunt Maria has never told them.
13. Nathaniel told Chris to look for something that he knew was hidden away, and to give him a secret signal if he found it. When Mig and Chris find out that their dad visited Cranbury before he disappeared, they have a good idea about where to look. What do they find?

Answer: A green patterned box

Nathaniel told Chris about a missing box that is the key to undoing what is wrong in Cranbury. He says it is his only hope. When Mig shows Chris the exercise book that had been hidden in the car, they know that their dad must have been in Cranbury. They think he would have taken the exercise book out of the hiding place to put something else there - the box. They break into the car parked at the railway station, which IS their old car, and Mig finds the box.

Chris gives Nathaniel the signal and they meet on top of the hill by the orphanage. Mig opens the box slightly and some strange smoke escapes and starts swirling around them. It takes both Chris and Mig to close it again. Nathaniel is very annoyed that Mig, a female, has let some of it escape, but it is perhaps because she does this that some of the men in Cranbury have a small 'awakening'.
14. Chris is fed up of Aunt Maria treating everyone badly. He confronts her about everything that's happening and accuses her of 'doing away with' their dad, Lavinia the home help and Zöe Green's son. Mig is watching from the stairs. What happens next?

Answer: Aunt Maria turns Chris into a wolf

Unwisely, Mig leaves Chris alone with Aunt Maria. He gets so fed up of her that he starts telling her what he thinks of her and accuses her of killing people or "doing away with" them. Aunt Maria bangs her walking stick on the floor and says a spell, turning him into a wolf. Chris the wolf sees Mig watching on the stairs and runs out of the back door.
15. What does Betty do when Chris doesn't come home?

Answer: She doesn't seem to notice that he's not there

When she first comes home, Betty asks where Chris is and Aunt Maria tells her he has just gone out. Betty believes her. From that moment, it is as if she has been brainwashed and she won't believe Mig when she tries to tell her that Chris has gone, always believing that he is just in the next room or in the garden. It seems the more Mig mentions Chris, the more mum forgets him.
16. Mig goes back to the station to see the blue car. She breaks in and sits in the passenger seat waiting. Soon the men arrive from work and a man gets into the car. Who is he?

Answer: Her dad

Frustrated that she can no longer talk to her mum and Chris is out in the wild, Mig goes out for a walk. She decides to visit the family car, perhaps for some comfort. When the men arrive from work on the train, her dad opens the door and gets in! He seems to be in a bit of a daze, but they have a conversation.

He doesn't understand why Mig would think he was dead. He has been living in Cranbury with Zenobia Bayley, but has been kept away from his family. Zenobia and her mother suddenly pull up in the carpark, so Mig sneaks out of the car and goes home.
17. The whole town goes out searching for a wolf that has (supposedly) bitten one of the children in the orphanage. The men shoot and kill the wolf in the woods. Why is Aunt Maria so upset?

Answer: They killed the wrong wolf

Aunt Maria organises the whole town to search for Chris the wolf, after he supposedly bit one of the orphans. (This is a lie.) Mig warns Chris that they will be looking for him so she panics when the men shoot a wolf in the woods. It isn't Chris - it is a female wolf.

When Aunt Maria finds out, she is inconsolable. The wolf was really Naomi, her daughter. Mig starts to see that the people of Cranbury are not as faithful to Aunt Maria as they first appeared, as they knew they had killed the wrong wolf.
18. When Betty and Mig go and visit the Phelps, which of these DOES NOT happen?

Answer: They turn into wolves

Mig manages to bring Betty back to her senses by showing her the ghost (Antony Green) in Chris's room. Betty works out that it isn't really a ghost but the projected soul of a man who is still alive. She asks him to tell her where he is buried and he does, although only Betty can hear him.

Mig and Betty go to Nathaniel Phelps for help. He uses the green box's power to transform them into cats, and they travel back in time to the hill by the orphanage. They watch as Naomi Laker (Aunt Maria's daughter) tricks Antony Green into letting her bury him alive. She then says a spell to seal him in with the power of her name. (Luckily for Antony, this happens to be Mig's real name too!) Aunt Maria then appears and gets into an argument with Naomi. Aunt Maria turns her into a wolf and sends her to the woods, making it so she is unable to leave.
19. When Betty and Mig leave the Phelps' house to rescue Zöe Green's son, they almost bump into some other visitors who have just arrived. Who are the visitors?

Answer: Betty and Mig from the future

As they leave to go to the hill by the orphanage to rescue Anthony, some other visitors have just arrived and been taken into the back room. We later discover that it is their future selves, having returned from rescuing Antony.

When they get to the hill, it is being excavated with large diggers and there is no sign of Antony. They return to the Phelps' and go back in time to that morning before the diggers arrived, and Mig says the spell (using her name) to bring him up from the earth where he has been buried for 20 years.
20. Where does Aunt Maria end up?

Answer: She is a tiny, frozen statue, floating in the sea on a box

After rescuing Antony Green, they return to the Phelps' house where he retrieves the green box he has been searching for. The box contains all the Cranbury men's mental powers, and Antony is the one who has been chosen to 'manage' the box. Anthony turns Chris back into a human, and then rescues all the children from the orphanage.

There is a showdown at the seafront between all the Cranbury folk and Aunt Maria and her friends. The women use a 'guilt' spell to try and regain control, but Antony tries to shame them by showing them the misery they have caused over the years. On showing her the death of her own daughter, Naomi, Aunt Maria says "Upon reflection, I have nothing in my life to reproach myself with, young man".

At that point, Antony closes the green box and suddenly, Aunt Maria is a tiny, frozen statue. He later sails out in a boat and leaves her floating on top of the opened box in the middle of the sea.
Source: Author Lil_Miss_Fickle

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