Literary Scavenger Hunt

First Lines Book Challenge

Oct 30, 2008

Let those voracious readers see how much they know of literature. A first lines quiz is a great way to introduce gifted readers to the joys of the classics.

Teachers can come up with a selection of great books that they want students to be exposed to basing their decision on reading and grade levels. Or they can use the list below. Students should be allowed to research the quotes in teams of three or less. Bartlett’s Quotations or the Oxford Dictionary of Literary Quotations are both excellent resources outside of the internet.

Examples

"A green and yellow parrot, which hung in a cage outside the door, kept repeating over and over: "Allez vous-en! Allez vous-en! Sapristi! That's all right!" "

"It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife."

"My father's family name being Pirrip, and my Christian name Philip, my infant tongue could make of both names nothing longer or more explicit than Pip. So, I called myself Pip, and came to be called Pip."

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way--in short, the period was so."

"While the present century was in its teens, and on one sunshiny morning in June, there drove up to the great iron gate of Miss Pinkerton's academy for young ladies, on Chiswick Mall, a large family coach, with two fat horses in blazing harness, driven by a fat coachman in a three cornered hat and wig, at the rate of four miles an hour."

"When I was three and Bailey was four, we had arrived in the musty little town, wearing tags on our wrists which instructed - "To Whom It May Concern" - that we were Marguerite and Bailey Johnson Jr., from Long Beach, California, en route to Stamps, Arkansas, c/o Mrs. Annie Henderson."

Introduce gifted children to the importance of knowing classic literature. Use a first line quiz to do just that.

The copyright of the article Literary Scavenger Hunt in Gifted Classes Materials/Lessons is owned by Adrienne Wilson. Permission to republish Literary Scavenger Hunt in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.