Sixteen Characters in Search for Their Author Quiz

Answer: Enid Blyton

Enid Blyton (1897-1968) wrote several series: "Famous Five", "Secret Seven", "Malory Towers" and "The Five Find-Outers". The selected characters all appear in this last series: 15 mystery novels published between 1943 and 1961.

In the fictional town of Peterswood, Theophilus Goon was the police constable always hoping for promotion. Several crimes happened during the school holidays, and each time Theophilus Goon was outsmarted by five children and their dog. These children were between eight and thirteen years at the start of the series, but the series spanned a total of six years.

Answer: Enid Blyton

Elizabeth Hilton (nicknamed Bets) was the youngest of "The Five Find-Outers", four years younger than most of the others. Nevertheless, she noticed clues much earlier than the others. Her remarks lead to a breakthrough in most of the mysteries solved by the children.

Answer: Enid Blyton

Frederick Algernon Trotteville (nicknamed Fatty) was one of "The Five Find-Outers", and he led their research of the criminal mysteries. Three of the four children were of the same age (twelve at the start of the series), with Laurence being one year older and Bets four years younger. Fatty owned the dog Buster, who evidently loved to help them searching for the criminals.

Answer: Enid Blyton

Margaret Daykin (nicknamed Daisy) is the one who gathered the children (her brother Laurence, her classmates Fatty and Philip, and Philip's younger sister Bets) to solve the mysterious crimes that happened during each of their school holidays. She also came up with the name for their group: "The Five Find-Outers", because they were five and they tasked themselves to find out.

Answer: C. S. Lewis

C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) was a university professor of literature at Oxford and Cambridge.
The characters I chose are all from his series "The Chronicles of Narnia": a parallel world with speaking animals, magic, and medieval traditions. C.S. Lewis published seven novels in seven consecutive years, between 1950 and 1956.
The first novel published, "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe", introduced the Pevensie children, from eldest to youngest Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy. When playing hide and seek, Lucy accidentally found in an old wardrobe the passage to the world of Narnia - and after a while all four wandered in there. Narnia was controlled by the evil Jadis, the White Witch, and the four children with the speaking lion Aslan gathered an army to fight the forces of evil.

Answer: C. S. Lewis

Digory Kirke is first mentioned as an elderly professor in "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe". He owned the mansion which contained the wardrobe serving as a secret passage to Narnia, but did not appear aware of this fact. In a later novel, "The Magician's Nephew", a prequel, the young Digory and his neighbour Polly Plummer reached Narnia and accidentally released Jadis, the evil White Witch.

Answer: C. S. Lewis

Eustace Scrubb was a cousin to the Pevensie children. He was introduced in "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader", where Edmund, Lucy and Eustace got to Narnia via a seascape painting.
At first Eustace was a haughty child, but in Narnia he was for a while transformed into a dragon. That experience improved his character a lot.
In "The Silver Chair", Eustace and his classmate Jill Pole returned to Narnia, rescuing the legal heir to the Narnian throne from an evil witch, the Lady with the Green Kirtle.
Eustace and Jill returned in the final novel, "The Last Battle", where they once more returned to Narnia to fight the last battle with the forces of evil.

Answer: C. S. Lewis

Aravis Tarkheena appeared in the fifth Narnia novel, "The Horse and His Boy". Aravis was a young girl from the high nobility in Calormen, one of the neighbour lands of Narnia. When her father announced that he arranged her to marry the arrogant and bullying Ashosta, she decided to take her life.

But her horse Hwin (a talking horse from Narnia) talked her into fleeing Calormen into Narnia. On route they met another talking horse, Bree, and his rider Shasta, a young boy form Archenland (the northern neighbour land of Narnia) enslaved in Calormen.

The foursome overheard plans to invade Archenland and warned the local king Lune, who recognized Shasta as his lost son.

Answer: Suzanne Collins

Suzanne Collins (born 1962) debuted as a children's author with the series "The Underland Chronicles". But the characters I've selected, are taken from her second series: "The Hunger Games".
The original series "The Hunger Games" was a trilogy published between 2008 and 2010, later followed by a few prequels. This series for young adults played in Panem, a post-apocalyptical country in what we would call North-America. Panem was divided in twelve districts, each of which specialized in one kind of produce.
Once a year, the central government of Panem organized the Hunger Games, in which a girl and a boy of each district (all between thirteen and eighteen years old) were randomly picked to enter a televised competition: a true death match in an unfriendly environment, until only one out of the twenty-four candidates was still alive. During the complete campaign, every Panem inhabitant was forced to watch the televised massacre.
In the first novel, Katniss' young sister Primrose Everdeen was drafted for the 74th Games as the girl for District 12 (one of the poorest districts, where almost everyone was near starvation). But Katniss stepped forward to take her sister's place.

Answer: Suzanne Collins

In "The Hunger Games", Haymitch Abernathy was the only District 12 citizen who once won the Games (the 50th Games, with a special rule: not 24 but 48 competitors). As a reward, he had a fine lodgement and plenty of money, which he squandered for strong liquor. Per the rules for the Games, every boy and girl chosen to compete in the Games had to be helped out by a mentor, a previous winner from the same district. So Haymitch acted as a mentor to Katniss and her fellow candidate Peeta Mellark. The mentors had as principal task to collect funds from the audience and buy supplies for their candidates.

Answer: Suzanne Collins

In "The Hunger Games", Coriolanus Snow was the President of Panem when Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark were the candidates for District 12.
As explained in one of the prequel books, Coriolanus was a young mentor to the District 12 candidate during the Tenth Hunger Games. So by the time Katniss Everdeen would compete in the Games, Coriolanus was already in his eighties.
After a series of complots, Coriolanus became the President of Panem, and he stubbornly held this position for over 50 years.

Answer: Suzanne Collins

In "The Hunger Games", Effie Trinkett was an inhabitant of the Capitol in Panem, the capital city where everyone enjoyed an abundant wealth. She oversaw the Reaping (selection by lottery) for the 74th Games, and then she accompanied the candidates and their mentor on their trip to the Capitol.
Effie tried to teach Katniss and Peeta the manners of the Capitol people. She also explained the rules of the preparation to the Games: televised interviews, fine clothing, et cetera. But once the Games started, there was only one rule: kill all the others.

Answer: J.K. Rowling

J.K. Rowling became world famous with the "Harry Potter" series, seven novels published between 1997 and 2007.
The title character, Harry Potter, was a young wizard, who attended the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry from his eleventh year onwards. Each novel deals with one consecutive year in Harry's life.
When Harry was still an infant, his parents were killed by the evil wizard Lord Voldemort, who lost most of his powers as he attempted to kill Harry too. The overarching story is how Harry had to confront Lord Voldemort, and (as prophesied) one had to kill the other.
Luna Lovegood was a student at Hogwarts, one year younger than Harry Potter. Most of her classmates thought she was "weird", even for a witch, because she believed in the existence of magic creatures no one ever had seen. But she was one of the few wizards and witches who could really see the Thestrals, skeleton-like winged horses only visible for someone who had witnessed the death of a human.

Answer: J.K. Rowling

Sirius Black was introduced in "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban", the third novel. When Sirius attended Hogwarts, he was best friends with James Potter (Harry's father), Remus Lupin (in this novel one of the Hogwarts professors) and Peter Pettigrew.
Remus Lupin was the victim of a werewolf, and so every month he transformed into a werewolf himself. In order to keep him company, Sirius, James and Peter secretly trained to transform into animals, as a werewolf would only harm humans. Sirius Black learned to take the form of a huge black dog.
Shortly after James was killed by Lord Voldemort, Sirius and Peter had a violent argument. Sirius was convicted as a mass murderer and imprisoned in Azkaban. But at the start of "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban", Sirius escaped and started following Harry.
Was Sirius indeed a mass murderer? You'll only find out if you read the book.

Answer: J.K. Rowling

When Harry started his schooling at Hogwarts (see "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone"), Severus Snape was the professor of Potions. Harry immediately had a dislike for Snape, and frequently accused him of being assistant to Lord Voldemort.
Indeed, Severus was frequently seen belittling Harry and his closest friends (Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, the latter being "an intolerable know-it-all" according to Severus).
And Severus would be seen in the company of Lord Voldemort in later books.
Hogwarts' headmaster Albus Dumbledore, on the other hand, trusted Severus with his life. So was Severus a good guy or a bad guy? The only way to find out, is reading all seven novels - because his true allegiance is only revealed in the last book.

Answer: J.K. Rowling

In "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone", Harry met his classmate Ron Weasley in the station where they would board the train to Hogwarts. They became friends for life, and thus Harry would also befriend the rest of the Weasleys, most notably the prankster twins Fred and George (two years older than Harry and Ron), their parents Arthur and Molly, and last but not least Ron's only sister Ginny. Molly Weasley was a very caring mother, although she could reprimand her children severely for transgressions. One of the finest examples was when Ron "borrowed" his father's magic flying car to take Harry and Ron to Hogwarts, and Molly sent a Howler (magic letter that magnified the screaming voice of the wizard or witch who sent it).