Crispin: The Cross of Lead
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40 free Crispin: the Cross of Lead trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Avi's Crispin: The Cross of Lead drops a nameless peasant boy into a manhunt across medieval England. Accused of crimes he did not commit, he runs from the only home he has ever known, falls in with a giant juggler called Bear, and slowly works out why powerful people want him dead. This quiz follows the story from the boy's village to the crowded streets of Great Wexly. Expect questions on Crispin, Bear, John Aycliffe and the people who help or betray them, on the cross that gives the book its title, and on the real events Avi built the story around. A few questions cover how the novel was written and where the trilogy goes next. It works as a comprehension check after finishing the book, as revision before a class test, or as a quick challenge for anyone who read it years ago. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so even a wrong guess teaches something.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What does John Aycliffe declare Crispin to be when he offers a reward for the boy's death?
A wolf's head
A wolf's head was a real label in medieval English law for an outlaw, who could be killed by anyone without penalty, like the hated animal itself.
Q 02Which top American children's book award did Avi win in 2003 for Crispin: The Cross of Lead?
Newbery Medal
The Newbery Medal came for Avi's fiftieth book, after two of his earlier novels had finished as runners-up for the same prize in 1991 and 1992.
Q 03Before he learns the name Crispin, what do villagers call the young hero of Avi's novel?
Asta's son
Asta's son is all anyone has ever called him, because he and his mother live as outcasts and he has no father to take a name from.
Q 04Which disaster had emptied the deserted village where Crispin first meets the juggler Bear?
The Black Death
The Black Death reached England in 1348, about three decades before the story, though that name for the plague was not used until centuries later.
Q 05What does the juggler Bear force Crispin to become when they first meet in a deserted village?
His servant
His servant is what Bear makes the runaway swear to be, relying on a law that let a free man claim anyone who had fled a master.
Q 06Which family member gave the author of Crispin: The Cross of Lead his nickname, Avi, as a baby?
His twin sister
His twin sister came up with Avi when both were about a year old, and it stuck so well that he publishes under it instead of his birth name, Edward Irving Wortis.
Q 07John Ball, a rebel priest in Avi's Crispin novel, helped lead which real English uprising of 1381?
The Peasants' Revolt
The Peasants' Revolt broke out four years after the novel's events, and John Ball is the one character Avi took straight from history.
Q 08In which small English village does Crispin live with his mother at the start of Avi's novel?
Stromford
Stromford is part of Lord Furnival's lands, and Crispin has never once left it until John Aycliffe's hunt drives him onto the road.
Q 09Which village priest tells the boy that he was baptized Crispin, only to be murdered soon afterward?
Father Quinel
Father Quinel also hands over the lead cross and promises to explain the boy's parentage the next night, but John Aycliffe's men kill him first.
Q 10Which instrument does Bear teach Crispin to play so the two can earn money performing in villages?
A recorder
A recorder gives Crispin a part in the act: he pipes a simple tune while Bear juggles, drums and sings for the village crowds.
Q 11At which Great Wexly tavern, run by an old friend of Bear, do Crispin and Bear take a room?
The Green Man
The Green Man is the tavern where the pair hear that Lord Furnival has died, leaving Lady Furnival in charge of his lands.
Q 12Which friend of Bear in Great Wexly finally tells Crispin the truth about his own birth?
Widow Daventry
Widow Daventry keeps the tavern where the pair are lodging, and she tells him only after soldiers have seized Bear and searched the house for the boy.
Q 13Where in the tavern room in Great Wexly does Bear tell Crispin to hide if things go badly?
Behind a false wall
Q 21What is the real name of Bear, the huge red-bearded juggler who becomes Crispin's master and friend?
Orson Hrothgar
Orson Hrothgar is called Bear for his size and strength, and he likens himself to the animal's two natures: one sweet and gentle, the other a vicious brute.
Q 22Which stranger, first met at a village performance, later leads soldiers to Bear in Great Wexly?
A one-eyed man
A one-eyed man has his bowl snatched and juggled by Bear to amuse a village crowd, and he later turns up in the city pointing Bear out to the soldiers.
Q 23What name is given to the secret group of rebels, led by John Ball, that Bear belongs to?
The Brotherhood
Behind a false wall is where Crispin crouches when John Aycliffe's soldiers do come searching for him, after they have already seized Bear.
Q 14How do Crispin and Bear get past the extra guards posted at the gates of Great Wexly?
Dancing and playing music
Dancing and playing music as a father-and-son act, the pair pass through the gates without an unkind look, even though John Aycliffe has just arrived in the city.
Q 15Which office does John Aycliffe hold, running the manor while Lord Furnival is away from his lands?
Steward
Steward is the post that puts John Aycliffe in charge of the village, and he is also kin to Lady Furnival, which ties his fortunes to hers.
Q 16What crime does John Aycliffe falsely pin on Crispin after the boy sees him meeting a stranger?
Theft
Theft is the invented charge that makes Crispin a hunted fugitive, and the killing of the priest who tries to help him is soon added to it.
Q 17Which weapon does Crispin find inside Lord Furnival's palace as he searches for Bear?
A dagger
A dagger gives Crispin the nerve to confront John Aycliffe while searching for Bear, but he uses it to force a sworn oath from him, not to kill.
Q 18What does Crispin do with the cross of lead on leaving Great Wexly?
Leaves it on Aycliffe's body
Leaves it on Aycliffe's body: the cross was the price Crispin had sworn to pay for Bear's freedom, and he keeps his word even though Aycliffe broke his.
Q 19What secret about Crispin do the words on his mother's lead cross finally reveal?
His father is a lord
His father is a lord: the cross names Crispin as the son of Lord Furnival, born outside marriage, which makes him a threat to Lady Furnival's hold on the estate.
Q 20What does John Aycliffe demand from Crispin as a death tax right after the boy's mother is buried?
The ox
The ox was all Crispin had to work the land with, so handing it to the manor left the newly orphaned boy with no way to feed himself.
The Brotherhood meets in secret in Great Wexly to plan a rising against the lords, but its members refuse to help Crispin once Bear has been taken.
Q 24Which young king was present when the real John Ball, a priest in Avi's Crispin novel, was executed?
Richard II
Richard II had come to the throne as a ten-year-old in 1377, the very year the novel is set, and John Ball was put to death at St Albans in July 1381 with the king present.
Q 25Where in London did Avi see the case of medieval lead crosses that inspired Crispin's keepsake?
The British Museum
The British Museum displayed the crosses in its medieval section, and only after that research trip did Avi add the cross that gives the book its title.
Q 26What was Avi's working title for Crispin: The Cross of Lead when he first sent it to an editor?
No Name
No Name suited a hero who starts the story without one, and the manuscript was turned down by one editor before another publisher took it on.
Q 27What were Avi and his wife listening to in the car when the idea for his Crispin novel came?
A history lecture
A history lecture on the medieval period by UCLA's Teofilo Ruiz sparked the story on a drive out of Denver, and Avi later dedicated the novel to him.
Q 28Which 2006 novel by Avi continues the story of Crispin and Bear after they leave Great Wexly?
At the Edge of the World
At the Edge of the World adds a girl named Troth to their little family and carries all three across the sea, as the middle book of a trilogy.
Q 29Which island do Crispin and Troth set out for in Avi's third Crispin novel, hoping to live free?
Iceland
Iceland was Bear's dream of a place with no kings or lords, and after his death the two children try to reach it in his memory.
Q 30In what unusual form did Avi begin drafting Crispin: The Cross of Lead?
Unrhymed verse
Unrhymed verse of a kind used in fourteenth-century England ran far too long, so Avi collapsed the lines into prose that still keeps much of the rhythm.