Roald Dahl Quiz
Wonka, Matilda, the BFG and the Twits: 15 questions on the gloriumptious books of Roald Dahl.
Who owns the chocolate factory that Charlie Bucket wins a golden ticket to visit?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Willy Wonka
Willy Wonka hides five golden tickets in his chocolate bars to find a child worthy of inheriting his factory. Charlie, the poorest of the five winners, is the only one to pass the test.
Slugworth, Fickelgruber and Prodnose are the rival chocolate makers who sent spies to steal Wonka's recipes and forced him to close the factory.
What does BFG stand for in Dahl's 1982 book?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Big Friendly Giant
The BFG is the only kind giant in Giant Country. While the others eat children, he catches dreams in jars, drinks frobscottle and eats disgusting snozzcumbers.
Dahl dedicated The BFG to his daughter Olivia, who had died of measles complications in 1962 at the age of seven.
Which Dahl heroine has a gift for moving objects with her mind and a headmistress called Miss Trunchbull?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Matilda
Matilda Wormwood is a five-year-old genius neglected by her parents. She discovers she can move objects with her eyes and uses the power to drive the fearsome Miss Trunchbull out of school.
Matilda was published in 1988, two years before Dahl's death, and became a Tony-winning musical and two films.
In which giant fruit does James Henry Trotter sail across the Atlantic?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
A peach
After magic crystals spill near an old tree, a peach grows to the size of a house. James climbs inside, befriends the giant insects living there and floats away from his cruel aunts.
James and the Giant Peach was Dahl's first major children's novel, published in the United States in 1961 before any British edition.
What are the tiny workers in Willy Wonka's factory called?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Oompa-Loompas
The Oompa-Loompas come from Loompaland, where Wonka rescued them from a diet of green caterpillars, and now work in the factory in exchange for cacao beans, singing songs about each naughty child.
Minpins and Gremlins are also Dahl creations: The Minpins was his last book, and The Gremlins was his first, written for Walt Disney in 1943.
Who played Willy Wonka in the 1971 film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Gene Wilder
Gene Wilder's unpredictable, gently sinister Wonka is many fans' definitive version. Wilder accepted the part on condition he could enter limping with a cane and then tumble into a somersault.
Dahl disliked the 1971 film so much that he refused to allow a film of the sequel, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator.
Which Dahl book features a clever fox outwitting the farmers Boggis, Bunce and Bean?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Fantastic Mr Fox
Fantastic Mr Fox digs under the farms of three nasty farmers to feed his family and neighbours after they lay siege to his hole. The 1970 book became Wes Anderson's stop-motion film in 2009.
Dahl's rhyme introduces the farmers: Boggis and Bunce and Bean, one fat, one short, one lean, and all three were horrible crooks.
What is the name of the orphan girl who befriends the BFG?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Sophie
Sophie is snatched from her orphanage bed when she spots the BFG blowing dreams through a window. Together they persuade the Queen of England to help capture the child-eating giants.
Dahl named Sophie after his first grandchild, Sophie Dahl, who grew up to be a model and cookery writer.
In The Witches, what do the witches turn the boy narrator into?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
A mouse
The boy is turned into a mouse by the Grand High Witch's Formula 86 Delayed Action Mouse-Maker. With his grandmother's help he uses the same potion to turn the witches into mice.
Dahl's original ending leaves the boy a mouse for life, while the 1990 Anjelica Huston film changed it so he becomes a boy again.
What is the name of Matilda's kind teacher who eventually adopts her?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Miss Honey
Miss Jennifer Honey recognises Matilda's genius and becomes her protector. She turns out to be Miss Trunchbull's niece, cheated of her inheritance, and Matilda's powers win it back.
Mrs Phelps is the village librarian who introduces Matilda to Dickens and Hemingway before she has even started school.
Which illustrator's scratchy pen drawings have appeared in Dahl's books since The Enormous Crocodile in 1978?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Quentin Blake
Quentin Blake illustrated almost every Dahl book from 1978 onward and later redrew the earlier ones, so his style is now inseparable from Dahl's. He became the first Children's Laureate in 1999.
While illustrating The BFG, Blake received one of Dahl's own Norwegian sandals in the post so the giant's footwear could be drawn exactly right.
Which golden ticket winner swells into a giant blueberry after chewing experimental gum?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Violet Beauregarde
Violet Beauregarde, the champion gum-chewer, ignores Wonka's warning and tries his three-course-dinner gum. At the blueberry pie course she turns purple and inflates, and the Oompa-Loompas roll her away to be juiced.
Veruca Salt is thrown down the rubbish chute by squirrels, Augustus is sucked up the chocolate pipe and Mike Teavee is shrunk by television.
In which country was Roald Dahl born?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Wales
Dahl was born in Llandaff, Cardiff, in 1916 to Norwegian parents and named after the polar explorer Roald Amundsen. He spent childhood summers in Norway, which inspired The Witches.
His father Harald had made a fortune as a shipbroker in Cardiff, and the family spoke Norwegian at home.
What did Dahl do during the Second World War?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
RAF fighter pilot
Dahl joined the RAF in 1939 and flew Hurricanes in Greece and Syria, where he was credited with shooting down enemy aircraft. A crash landing in the Libyan desert in 1940 left him with lasting injuries.
Invalided out of flying, Dahl was posted to Washington, where he gathered intelligence for the British and began writing stories.
Which James Bond film did Roald Dahl write the screenplay for?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
You Only Live Twice
Dahl adapted Ian Fleming's novel for the 1967 film You Only Live Twice, starring Sean Connery. He kept little of the book's plot and dashed off the first draft in about eight weeks.
Dahl and Fleming were friends, and Dahl also wrote the screenplay for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, based on Fleming's only children's book.
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All Literature quizzes →About the Roald Dahl Quiz
Roald Dahl wrote his stories in a garden hut in Buckinghamshire, sitting in an old armchair with a board across his lap, and his books have sold more than 300 million copies worldwide. Before Willy Wonka and Matilda he was a fighter pilot, a wartime spy and the screenwriter of a James Bond film.
This quiz covers the stories every child knows: the chocolate factory and its golden tickets, the Big Friendly Giant, the giant peach, Fantastic Mr Fox and the girl with the telekinetic mind. Later questions turn to Quentin Blake's drawings, the unlucky Violet Beauregarde and Dahl's own remarkable life. It is ideal for families, teachers and grown-ups who still remember the taste of a Wonka bar.
You will find 15 multiple choice questions here, each with four options. Difficulty: Easy. Most people finish in about 6 minutes, and every answer comes with a short explanation and one extra fact worth keeping.
How to play
Read the question and pick one of the four answers. The correct answer is revealed straight away with a short explanation, then press Next question to keep going. At the end you get your score out of 15 and a full review of your round. Play again any time and the questions arrive in a fresh order. There is no timer and no account.
Good to know before you play
How many questions are in the Roald Dahl Quiz?
There are 15 multiple choice questions on Dahl's books, characters and life, each with four options, an explanation and an extra fact.
Which Roald Dahl books does the quiz include?
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The BFG, Matilda, James and the Giant Peach, Fantastic Mr Fox and The Witches, plus a few questions about Dahl himself.
Is the Roald Dahl Quiz good for children?
Yes. It is rated Easy and most questions can be answered by anyone who has read the books or seen the films, with a couple of trickier ones at the end for parents.
Answer key: all 15 questions with explanations
- Who owns the chocolate factory that Charlie Bucket wins a golden ticket to visit?
Willy Wonka Willy Wonka hides five golden tickets in his chocolate bars to find a child worthy of inheriting his factory. Charlie, the poorest of the five winners, is the only one to pass the test. Slugworth, Fickelgruber and Prodnose are the rival chocolate makers who sent spies to steal Wonka's recipes and forced him to close the factory. - What does BFG stand for in Dahl's 1982 book?
Big Friendly Giant The BFG is the only kind giant in Giant Country. While the others eat children, he catches dreams in jars, drinks frobscottle and eats disgusting snozzcumbers. Dahl dedicated The BFG to his daughter Olivia, who had died of measles complications in 1962 at the age of seven. - Which Dahl heroine has a gift for moving objects with her mind and a headmistress called Miss Trunchbull?
Matilda Matilda Wormwood is a five-year-old genius neglected by her parents. She discovers she can move objects with her eyes and uses the power to drive the fearsome Miss Trunchbull out of school. Matilda was published in 1988, two years before Dahl's death, and became a Tony-winning musical and two films. - In which giant fruit does James Henry Trotter sail across the Atlantic?
A peach After magic crystals spill near an old tree, a peach grows to the size of a house. James climbs inside, befriends the giant insects living there and floats away from his cruel aunts. James and the Giant Peach was Dahl's first major children's novel, published in the United States in 1961 before any British edition. - What are the tiny workers in Willy Wonka's factory called?
Oompa-Loompas The Oompa-Loompas come from Loompaland, where Wonka rescued them from a diet of green caterpillars, and now work in the factory in exchange for cacao beans, singing songs about each naughty child. Minpins and Gremlins are also Dahl creations: The Minpins was his last book, and The Gremlins was his first, written for Walt Disney in 1943. - Who played Willy Wonka in the 1971 film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory?
Gene Wilder Gene Wilder's unpredictable, gently sinister Wonka is many fans' definitive version. Wilder accepted the part on condition he could enter limping with a cane and then tumble into a somersault. Dahl disliked the 1971 film so much that he refused to allow a film of the sequel, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator. - Which Dahl book features a clever fox outwitting the farmers Boggis, Bunce and Bean?
Fantastic Mr Fox Fantastic Mr Fox digs under the farms of three nasty farmers to feed his family and neighbours after they lay siege to his hole. The 1970 book became Wes Anderson's stop-motion film in 2009. Dahl's rhyme introduces the farmers: Boggis and Bunce and Bean, one fat, one short, one lean, and all three were horrible crooks. - What is the name of the orphan girl who befriends the BFG?
Sophie Sophie is snatched from her orphanage bed when she spots the BFG blowing dreams through a window. Together they persuade the Queen of England to help capture the child-eating giants. Dahl named Sophie after his first grandchild, Sophie Dahl, who grew up to be a model and cookery writer. - In The Witches, what do the witches turn the boy narrator into?
A mouse The boy is turned into a mouse by the Grand High Witch's Formula 86 Delayed Action Mouse-Maker. With his grandmother's help he uses the same potion to turn the witches into mice. Dahl's original ending leaves the boy a mouse for life, while the 1990 Anjelica Huston film changed it so he becomes a boy again. - What is the name of Matilda's kind teacher who eventually adopts her?
Miss Honey Miss Jennifer Honey recognises Matilda's genius and becomes her protector. She turns out to be Miss Trunchbull's niece, cheated of her inheritance, and Matilda's powers win it back. Mrs Phelps is the village librarian who introduces Matilda to Dickens and Hemingway before she has even started school. - Which illustrator's scratchy pen drawings have appeared in Dahl's books since The Enormous Crocodile in 1978?
Quentin Blake Quentin Blake illustrated almost every Dahl book from 1978 onward and later redrew the earlier ones, so his style is now inseparable from Dahl's. He became the first Children's Laureate in 1999. While illustrating The BFG, Blake received one of Dahl's own Norwegian sandals in the post so the giant's footwear could be drawn exactly right. - Which golden ticket winner swells into a giant blueberry after chewing experimental gum?
Violet Beauregarde Violet Beauregarde, the champion gum-chewer, ignores Wonka's warning and tries his three-course-dinner gum. At the blueberry pie course she turns purple and inflates, and the Oompa-Loompas roll her away to be juiced. Veruca Salt is thrown down the rubbish chute by squirrels, Augustus is sucked up the chocolate pipe and Mike Teavee is shrunk by television. - In which country was Roald Dahl born?
Wales Dahl was born in Llandaff, Cardiff, in 1916 to Norwegian parents and named after the polar explorer Roald Amundsen. He spent childhood summers in Norway, which inspired The Witches. His father Harald had made a fortune as a shipbroker in Cardiff, and the family spoke Norwegian at home. - What did Dahl do during the Second World War?
RAF fighter pilot Dahl joined the RAF in 1939 and flew Hurricanes in Greece and Syria, where he was credited with shooting down enemy aircraft. A crash landing in the Libyan desert in 1940 left him with lasting injuries. Invalided out of flying, Dahl was posted to Washington, where he gathered intelligence for the British and began writing stories. - Which James Bond film did Roald Dahl write the screenplay for?
You Only Live Twice Dahl adapted Ian Fleming's novel for the 1967 film You Only Live Twice, starring Sean Connery. He kept little of the book's plot and dashed off the first draft in about eight weeks. Dahl and Fleming were friends, and Dahl also wrote the screenplay for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, based on Fleming's only children's book.
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