TASK DEFINITION: You will be given a summary of a story. You need to create a question that can be answered from the story. You can create a question about characters, events, facts and beliefs, etc. Your question should be specific, try not to use pronouns instead of full names. As the stories are sometimes movie plots, they will contain actor names in parentheses. You should not use those names. Only use character names. Try to ask a question about all parts of the plot, not just the beginning.
PROBLEM:  In the opening credits, hands made of sewing needles are seen recreating a button-eyed doll to resemble an 11-year-old girl named Coraline Jones before sending it out into a void. Coraline Jones, an adventurous 11-year old girl, and her family move from Pontiac, Michigan, to Ashland, Oregon, into the Pink Palace Apartments, a divided mansion. The other residents include retired actresses Ms. Spink and Forcible and eccentric Russian acrobat Mr. Bobinsky. Coraline finds her new home boring, and her parents hardly pay any attention to her adventures, as they are always seemingly busy working on a garden catalogue. Coraline meets Wyborn "Wybie" Lovat, the grandson of the apartments' landlady, Mrs. Lovat, who has a missing twin sister. Coraline also meets a black cat that follows Wybie around. While exploring, she is given a doll that looks like her by Wybie and finds a small brick-sealed door which can only be unlocked by a small black key with a button for a handle. That night, Coraline follows a mouse through the door, where she discovers the bricks have been replaced by a long corridor. Coraline goes through it and finds herself in the Other World, which is another, smaller world. Its inhabitants have buttons instead of eyes. Her Other Mother and Other Father are more warm and attentive than her real parents, and they have dinner together before tucking her in in her Other Bedroom. To her dismay, Coraline wakes up in her real bedroom and is unable to convince her parents that she has actually visited the Other World.
Despite warnings from one of her neighbours, Coraline frequents the Other World. During her visits, she sees the garden that from sky looks like her face, she meets the Other Wybie, who is mute; the Other Mr. Bobinsky, who ringmasters a jumping mouse circus; and the Other Miss Spink and Forcible, who perform theatrical acts. The Cat also goes into the Other World and is able to disappear and appear behind objects and can talk.
On the third visit, the Other Mother invites Coraline to stay in the Other World forever, on condition that she have buttons sewn over her eyes like everyone else. Horrified, Coraline tries to escape. The Cat tells her about the true nature of the Other Mother, as well as the Other World, and how "she'd just love something to eat". Coraline demands the Other Mother let her return to the real world, but she transforms and imprisons Coraline behind a mirror. There, she meets three ghost children, one of them Mrs. Lovat's missing twin sister; victims of the Other Mother, whom they refer to as the Beldam. They tell Coraline that the doll was sent to them to show the Other Mother what was wrong with their lives, then lured them away and tricked them into having buttons sewn over their eyes, eventually eating up their lives behind the mirror. In order to escape, they need their real eyes, which the Other Mother has hidden. Coraline promises to find their eyes moments before the Other Wybie grabs her. She finds out that his mouth has been stitched shut into a horrific grin by the Other Mother, but he helps her escape back to the real world. She also encounters the real Wybie again who asks for the doll but after hearing her stories of the doll and the Other World runs away believing she is crazy. The Cat tells her that her parents have been kidnapped by the Other Mother. She sees them write a message of "Help Us" through the mirror. Coraline burns the doll.
Coraline returns to the Other World to play a "game" with the Other Mother: to find her parents and the children's eyes. If she cannot, she will stay forever. Coraline manages to retrieve the children's eyes from the various "wonders" and the twisted inhabitants that the Other Mother made for her. She then confronts the Other Mother, who has reverted into her true form, an arachnoid witch with sewing needle-finger hands. One of the ghost children warns her that the Other Mother will never let her go, even if she wins. Coraline finds and frees her real parents from a snow globe and manages to trick the Other Mother and escape, blinding her and severing her right hand. Coraline's parents return with no memory of being kidnapped.
The ghosts appear to Coraline in a dream to warn her that she is still in danger and that she must get rid of the key, or the Other Mother will find it. As Coraline prepares to drop the key into a well, she is attacked by the Other Mother's severed hand, but is saved by Wybie, who crushes it with a rock. Coraline throws the key and the pieces of the hand down the well. The next day, Coraline hosts a garden party for her neighbors and prepares to tell Mrs. Lovat about her adventures.

SOLUTION: Who alerts Coraline that her parents have been kidnapped?

PROBLEM:  The Boxcar Children tells the story of four orphaned children: Henry, Jessie (or Jess), Violet, and Benny. In the original 1924 version of the tale, the children are orphaned in the first few pages; in the heavily revised and simplified 1942 revision, they have evidently been orphaned for some time.
When a baker and his wife learn that the children are orphans, they make plans the children object to. In the 1924 edition, they plan to send the children, who live in a house next door to the bakery, to live with their grandfather, but the children have been brought up to fear their grandfather, whom they have never met, because he did not approve of their parents' marriage. In the 1942 revision, the children are already homeless and wandering at the start of the story. The baker and his wife plan to take in the three elder children, who are big enough to be useful in the bakery, but to send little Benny to a Children's Home.
Finding an abandoned boxcar, the children start a new life of independence. Henry ends up working various odd jobs in a nearby town (Intervale in the 1924 edition; Silver City in later editions) for a young doctor (Dr. McAllister in the 1924 edition; Dr. Moore in later editions), in order to earn money for food and other materials they need. He also does gardening for the doctor's mother. The children's lives are pleasant and full of hard work until Violet becomes ill and they go to the doctor for assistance.
Unbeknownst to the children, by that time the doctor knows very well who they are and where they are living; indeed, he has been keeping a discreet eye on them for weeks. Their grandfather, who lives nearby, has been advertising in the papers, offering a reward for news of them, but the doctor hasn't wanted to spoil the children's fun by informing on them. When Violet becomes ill, however, he feels it is time to do so.
Their grandfather, a steel baron (James Henry Cordyce in the 1924 edition; James Henry Alden in the 1942 revision), comes at once to see them. The doctor suggests that he get to know them first before telling them who he is, so he is simply introduced to them as a friend of the doctor's. The children warm to his kindness and are surprised but delighted when they eventually learn that he is their much-feared grandfather. They go to live with him after all, and he has the boxcar transferred to his backyard for their enjoyment.

SOLUTION: What does the kids' grandfather do with the boxcar?

PROBLEM:  The plot of the novel begins seven years after the broken engagement of Anne Elliot to then Commander Frederick Wentworth. Anne Elliot, then 19 years old, fell in love and accepted a proposal of marriage from the handsome young naval officer. He was clever, confident, ambitious, and employed, but not yet wealthy and with no particular family connections to recommend him. Sir Walter, her father and her older sister Elizabeth were not pleased with her choice, maintaining that he was no match for an Elliot of Kellynch Hall, the family estate. Lady Russell, acting in place of Anne's late mother, persuaded her to break the engagement, for she felt it was an imprudent match for one so young. They are the only ones who know about this short engagement, as younger sister Mary was away at school.
The Elliot family is now in financial trouble. Kellynch Hall will be let, and the family will settle in Bath until finances improve. Baronet Sir Walter, the socially-conscious father and daughter Elizabeth look forward to the move. Anne is less sure she will enjoy Bath. Mary is married to Charles Musgrove of nearby Uppercross Hall, the heir to a respected local squire. Anne visits Mary and her family, where she is well-loved. The end of the war puts sailors back on shore, including the tenants of Kellynch Hall, Admiral Croft and his wife Sophia, who is the sister of Frederick Wentworth, now a wealthy naval captain. Frederick visits his sister and meets the Uppercross family, including Anne.
The Musgroves, including Mary, Charles, and Charles's sisters, Henrietta and Louisa, welcome the Crofts and Wentworth. He tells all he is ready to marry. Henrietta is engaged to her clergyman cousin Charles Hayter, who is away for the first few days that Wentworth joins their social circle. Both the Crofts and Musgroves enjoy speculating about which sister Wentworth might marry. Once Hayter returns, Henrietta turns her affections to him again. Anne still loves Wentworth, so each meeting with him requires preparation for her own strong emotions. She overhears a conversation where Louisa tells Wentworth that Charles first proposed to Anne, who turned him down. This is startling news to him.
Anne and the young adults of the Uppercross family accompany Captain Wentworth on a visit to two of his fellow officers, Captains Harville and James Benwick, in the coastal town of Lyme Regis. Benwick is in mourning for the death of his fianc e, Captain Harville's sister, and he appreciates Anne's sympathy and understanding. He admires the Romantic poets, as does Anne. Anne attracts the attention of a gentleman passing through Lyme, who proves to be William Elliot, her cousin and the heir to Kellynch, who broke ties with Sir Walter years earlier. The last morning of the visit, Louisa sustains a serious concussion in a fall brought about by her impetuous behaviour with Wentworth. Anne coolly organizes the others to summon assistance. Wentworth is impressed with Anne, while feeling guilty about his actions with Louisa. He re-examines his feelings about Anne.
Following this accident, Anne joins her father and sister in Bath with Lady Russell, while Louisa and her parents stay at the Harvilles in Lyme. Wentworth visits his older brother in Shropshire. Anne finds that her father and sister are flattered by the attentions of William Elliot, recently widowed, who has now reconciled with Sir Walter. Elizabeth assumes that he wishes to court her. Although Anne likes William Elliot and enjoys his manners, she finds his character opaque.
Admiral Croft and his wife arrive in Bath with the news that Louisa is engaged to Captain Benwick. Wentworth comes to Bath, where his jealousy is piqued by seeing Mr Elliot courting Anne. He and Anne renew their acquaintance. Anne visits an old school friend, Mrs Smith, who is now a widow living in Bath in straitened circumstances. From her she discovers that beneath his charming veneer, Mr Elliot is a cold, calculating opportunist who had led Mrs Smith's late husband into debt. As executor to her husband's will, he takes no actions to improve her situation. Although Mrs Smith believes that he is genuinely attracted to Anne, she feels that his first aim is preventing Mrs Clay from marrying Sir Walter. A new marriage might mean a new son, displacing him.
The Musgroves visit Bath to purchase wedding clothes for Louisa and Henrietta, both soon to marry. Captains Wentworth and Harville encounter them and Anne at the Musgroves' hotel in Bath, where Wentworth overhears Anne and Harville conversing about the relative faithfulness of men and women in love. Deeply moved by what Anne has to say about women not giving up their feelings of love even when all hope is lost, Wentworth writes her a note declaring his feelings for her. Outside the hotel, Anne and Wentworth reconcile, affirm their love for each other, and renew their engagement. William Elliot leaves Bath with Mrs Clay, whose charming ways may yet attract him. Lady Russell admits she was wrong about Wentworth; she and Anne remain friends. Once Anne and Frederick marry, he helps Mrs Smith recover her lost assets. Anne settles into life as the wife of a Navy captain, he who is to be called away when his country needs him.

SOLUTION:
What responsibility does William Elliott have to Mrs. Smith?

