Children of Blood and Bone
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50 free Children of Blood and Bone trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Tomi Adeyemi's debut went straight to the top of the bestseller lists and gave young adult fantasy one of its best-known heroines. Children of Blood and Bone follows Zélie Adebola across the kingdom of Orïsha, where magic has been stamped out by a ruthless king and the people born to wield it live in fear of his guards. This quiz covers the whole book: Zélie's quest and the allies and enemies she meets along the way, the maji and their gods, the artifacts, towns and beasts of Orïsha, and the twists of the final battle. It also takes in how the novel was written and sold, the prizes it won, the sequels and the long road to the film. It is for readers who have just finished the book, for book clubs and classrooms, and for anyone coming to the story through the film. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you will pick up something new even on the questions you miss.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In Children of Blood and Bone, Zélie inherits her late mother's magic as which kind of maji?
Reaper
A Reaper commands the spirits of the dead, a power Zélie shares with the parent she lost when King Saran's soldiers came for the maji.
Q 02In Children of Blood and Bone, which physical trait marks a person as a divîner able to become a maji?
White hair
White hair marks every divîner, and Prince Inan is alarmed when a streak of it appears on his own head once his hidden magic stirs.
Q 03In Children of Blood and Bone, which real language, outlawed by King Saran, do the maji use to cast spells?
Yoruba
Yoruba is the tongue of incantation and prayer in Orïsha, and Tomi Adeyemi asked her own mother for help naming the spells.
Q 04A gift-shop display of African gods in which country gave Tomi Adeyemi the idea for Children of Blood and Bone?
Brazil
Brazil was where Adeyemi studied West African mythology on a fellowship, and the shop's sacred, beautiful images of African deities stayed with her.
Q 05In Children of Blood and Bone, which wealthy, heavily patrolled city is the capital of Orïsha and home to King Saran?
Lagos
Lagos keeps its real-world name in the novel, and its palace is where the princess steals the scroll that sets the quest in motion.
Q 06Tomi Adeyemi has said Children of Blood and Bone was written partly in response to which modern protest movement?
Black Lives Matter
Black Lives Matter shaped the book's brutal royal guards, and the author's note asks readers who wept for its characters to mourn real children killed by police.
Q 07In Children of Blood and Bone, which protective older brother of Zélie joins her quest to bring magic back to Orïsha?
Tzain
Tzain is the cautious one of the siblings, and it is he who vaults the capital's wall on the family's giant ryder to snatch Zélie from the guards.
Q 08In Children of Blood and Bone, what is the name of the horned lionaire Zélie raised and rides across Orïsha?
Nailah
Nailah is a ryder, one of the huge horned cats that Orïsha's people keep as steeds, companions and fighters.
Q 09Viewers of which late-night host's show voted Children of Blood and Bone their first-ever summer book club read?
Jimmy Fallon
Jimmy Fallon launched the Tonight Show Summer Read in 2018, and Tomi Adeyemi came on as a guest that July to discuss the winning novel.
Q 10In Children of Blood and Bone, King Saran is finally killed in the temple battle by which person close to him?
His daughter
His daughter Amari drives a sword through his heart, moments after he turns on his son for secretly being a maji.
Q 11In Children of Blood and Bone, which maid and best friend of Amari is killed by King Saran after touching the scroll?
Binta
Binta's death is what drives the princess to steal the scroll and flee the palace, setting the whole quest in motion.
Q 12In Children of Blood and Bone, which artifact do Zélie and her friends win in deadly arena contests fought on water?
The sunstone
The sunstone is one of three sacred objects the ritual needs, and nobles had been dangling it as a prize for divîners forced to fight to the death.
Q 13In Children of Blood and Bone, which metal that sears a divîner's skin is used to restrain the captured Zélie?
Majacite
Majacite also turns up in the game pawn Prince Inan clutches as a keepsake, which Zélie tells him to let go of.
Q 21In Children of Blood and Bone, which young Healer leads the hidden divîner camp where Zélie's brother is held?
Zu
Zu is no older than thirteen, and she is cut down by the king's guards while trying to make peace with them.
Q 22In Children of Blood and Bone, which Burner sets himself ablaze to take the king's guards down with him?
Kwame
Kwame's fiery sacrifice at the divîner camp terrifies Prince Inan, who decides magic is too dangerous to bring back.
Q 23In Children of Blood and Bone, which foreign mercenary leader sails Zélie's group to the sacred island for the ritual?
Roën
Roën first meets Zélie by picking her pocket, yet he takes the job because deep down he believes in the gods too.
Q 14In Children of Blood and Bone, what are the ordinary citizens of Orïsha who cannot do magic called?
Kosidán
Kosidán include the ruling class that crushed the maji, though in the sequel some of its nobles suddenly gain powers of their own.
Q 15In Children of Blood and Bone, which sacred temple of the maji do Zélie and her companions seek out with the scroll?
Chândomblé
Chândomblé was once tended by an order of high priests, and only one of them is still alive when the travellers arrive.
Q 16In Children of Blood and Bone, which priest unlocks Zélie's powers in a rite and then dies holding off the guards?
Lekan
Lekan buys the travellers time to flee the temple, and in the film adaptation the role went to Idris Elba.
Q 17In Children of Blood and Bone, which admiral does Inan accidentally kill after she catches him using magic?
Kaea
Kaea is King Saran's second-in-command and the only person the tyrant truly loves and trusts.
Q 18In Children of Blood and Bone, what can Prince Inan do once contact with the scroll secretly makes him a maji?
Sense feelings and memories
He can sense feelings and memories as a Connector, a gift he first uses to track Zélie before it shows him everything she has suffered.
Q 19In Children of Blood and Bone, Zélie's family makes its home in which floating fishing village on the coast of Orïsha?
Ilorin
Ilorin is set on fire by the crown prince's soldiers early in the story, which leaves Zélie with no home to go back to.
Q 20In Children of Blood and Bone, which mentor of Zélie reveals she is a Seer who foresaw the quest to restore magic?
Mama Agba
Mama Agba teaches the girls of the village to fight so they can defend themselves, though she hopes they will never need to.
Q 24Why do Zélie and her brother travel to Orïsha's capital at the start of Children of Blood and Bone?
To pay a new tax
To pay a new tax on divîner households they go to trade in the market, and instead collide with a princess on the run.
Q 25In Children of Blood and Bone, what does Zélie discover about Princess Amari when she wakes after the final ritual?
She has magic
She has magic of her own now, a sign the ritual did far more than give the divîners their powers back.
Q 26In Children of Blood and Bone, whose death at the island temple reawakens the magic Zélie lost under torture?
Her father's
Her father's blood and spirit feed her power after the king orders him killed, even though Zélie has already surrendered the artifacts.
Q 27In Children of Blood and Bone, the ritual to bring back magic must be performed on a sacred island at which moment?
The solstice
The solstice is fast approaching when the temple's priest explains the ritual, so the heroes are racing the calendar as well as the crown prince.
Q 28In Children of Blood and Bone, through what magical means do Inan and Zélie meet while he is still hunting her?
A dreamscape
A dreamscape, a field-like world the prince creates without meaning to, lets the two enemies talk long before they join forces.
Q 29In Children of Blood and Bone, what name is given to King Saran's massacre of the adult maji, including Zélie's mother?
The Raid
The Raid struck after the king found a way to cut the maji off from their powers, leaving them defenceless against his soldiers.
Q 30In Children of Blood and Bone, which slur for divîners do King Saran's guards carve into Zélie's back?
Maggot
Maggot stays written in scar tissue even after a Healer stops the bleeding, a mark Zélie expects to carry for life.