Dragonwings
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40 free Dragonwings trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Dragonwings is the story of Moon Shadow, a boy who leaves his mother's farm in China in 1903 to join a father he has never met in San Francisco. There he finds a city that can be cruel to newcomers, a band of men who become his kin, and a parent consumed by one improbable dream: to build a machine that flies. The novel has been read in classrooms for decades because it is at once an adventure, an immigrant story and a careful piece of history. This quiz follows the book from start to finish. Expect questions on Moon Shadow's arrival, the men of the Company and their gifts, Black Dog's crimes in chapters five and eleven, the move to Miss Whitlaw's house in chapter six, the great earthquake, and the day of the flight in chapter twelve. A few look at the real aviator, the prizes and the history behind the story. It suits students checking their comprehension after each section, teachers who want a ready-made multiple choice review to print, and anyone returning to a childhood favourite. The first questions are the most approachable, later ones reward close readers, and every answer comes with a short explanation.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Whom does Moon Shadow write to in Dragonwings for advice on building his father's flying machine?
The Wright brothers
The Wright brothers were still doubted by much of the public, yet Orville wrote back promptly with diagrams and charts. Windrider treated each reply as a lesson for his next model glider.
Q 02Which San Francisco-born author based Dragonwings on a real Chinese immigrant who built a plane?
Laurence Yep
Laurence Yep grew up working in his parents' grocery store and has said he felt too American for Chinatown and too Chinese for anywhere else. Moon Shadow shares that outsider's view.
Q 03What does Windrider make so well in Dragonwings that Moon Shadow knows his skill before they meet?
Kites
Kites are how Moon Shadow first knows him: back in China his mother flies the ones Windrider left behind, including a fast swallow. The real model was the author's own kite-making father.
Q 04What business does the Company run in Dragonwings, serving the white customers of San Francisco?
A laundry
A laundry on the ground floor of a three-storey building is the Company's livelihood, under a sign reading Peach Orchard Vow. The author's mother was raised around one in West Virginia.
Q 05What do Moon Shadow's people call America in Dragonwings, a name that sets him looking for treasure?
Land of the Golden Mountain
Land of the Golden Mountain was a real Cantonese name for California, born of the Gold Rush. Moon Shadow notes on landing that there are plenty of hills but not one of them is golden.
Q 06In Dragonwings, what do rioters hurl through the Company's window on Moon Shadow's first night?
A brick
A brick shatters the shopfront on his welcome evening while the mob shouts abuse Moon Shadow cannot yet understand. The men sweep up the glass and send him upstairs with Windrider.
Q 07What does Windrider decide matters more than flying after Dragonwings crashes on its first flight?
His family
His family comes first, he says on waking, and one flight is enough for him. He drops any thought of a second aeroplane and goes back to steady work.
Q 08How is Robin, the red-haired girl who befriends Moon Shadow in Dragonwings, related to Miss Whitlaw?
Her niece
Her niece moved in after losing both parents, and enters the story by tumbling through a door she was spying behind. She later helps Moon Shadow read English with borrowed dime novels.
Q 09Which drug has a hold on Black Dog in Dragonwings, souring a man who once lived in comfort in China?
Opium
Opium is his escape from hard labour in a country he resents, having been pampered at home before he was brought over. Britain fought two wars in the 1800s over its trade in the drug to China.
Q 10On which vast American building project did Uncle Bright Star once labour in Dragonwings?
The transcontinental railroad
The transcontinental railroad was carved through the Sierra Nevada largely by thousands of Chinese labourers. Uncle swaps stories about it with Miss Whitlaw, whose cousin laid track from the east.
Q 11In Dragonwings, what do the Tang people call China, translating the country's own name for itself?
The Middle Kingdom
The Middle Kingdom renders Zhongguo, China's own name for itself. Moon Shadow leaves for America from Canton, the southern city whose streets he later sees echoed in Chinatown.
Q 12Which cousin, a teller of tall tales, escorts Moon Shadow across the Pacific in Dragonwings?
Hand Clap
Hand Clap counts as a cousin because he shares the surname Lee, and he coaches Moon Shadow on what to tell the immigration officials. He is the Company's great exaggerator.
Q 13Why did Lefty, the Company's one-handed poet in Dragonwings, cut off his own right hand?
To punish his gambling
Q 21Where do Windrider and Moon Shadow live in Dragonwings once they move behind Miss Whitlaw's house?
A stable
A stable in the back yard of her Victorian boarding house becomes their home. Windrider's first act there is to build shelves for the Company's parting gifts.
Q 22Which saint does Miss Whitlaw say slew the creature in her stained-glass window in Dragonwings?
St George
St George is her only idea of a dragon: a wicked beast for a hero to kill. Moon Shadow is stunned, and on later visits he sets about teaching her that dragons can be noble creatures.
Q 23What does Miss Whitlaw nearly stir into Moon Shadow's gift of jasmine tea in Dragonwings?
Milk and sugar
To punish his gambling, after he lost the money saved for his passage home to China. His farewell present to Windrider and Moon Shadow is a poem he wrote before the loss.
Q 14In Windrider's dream in Dragonwings, what did he try to put out as a dragon, earning exile as a man?
The sun
The sun was his target, and he beat his wings to blow it out, the Dragon King explains. To win back his true shape he must pass a series of tests during his human life.
Q 15Which stranded motorist does Windrider help for free in Dragonwings, earning the offer of a job?
Mr. Alger
Mr. Alger, a property man, offers his business card when Windrider refuses payment for the repair. The job later gives the Lees a way out of Chinatown.
Q 16What is the long braid worn by Tang men in Dragonwings called, first imposed by Manchu rulers?
A queue
A queue was a sign of submission to the Manchu emperors. Moon Shadow's grandfather fought the white men who cut his off, and they hanged him for it.
Q 17How is Black Dog related to Uncle Bright Star, the elderly head of the Company in Dragonwings?
His son
His son had lived in comfort in China and resents being brought to America. Uncle threatens him constantly yet quietly keeps covering his debts.
Q 18What job is Moon Shadow doing in Dragonwings when Black Dog beats him and takes the money?
Collecting overdue bills
Collecting overdue bills in Chinatown was a task he was trusted with once he turned ten by American count. Black Dog first confides his bitterness to the boy, then knocks him senseless.
Q 19In Dragonwings, what does Windrider do in the duel with Black Dog that forces him out of Chinatown?
Kills a man
Windrider kills a man with his hatchet to stop him finishing off Moon Shadow, who had jumped on a hidden gunman. The gang's leader apologises for the ambush but advises him to get out of town.
Q 20In Dragonwings, what fills the porcelain cup Uncle Bright Star gives Windrider as a farewell gift?
Soil from China
Soil from China fills the cup, a piece of home to carry into the white part of the city. Uncle presents it dressed in his finest clothes, the last of the Company to say goodbye.
Milk and sugar would have ruined it in his eyes, and he stops her just in time. She admires the dragon printed on the tea packet instead, which gives him his opening to defend dragons.
Q 24What does Robin say the bully Jack fears most in Dragonwings, a tip that ends Moon Shadow's torment?
A punch on the nose
A punch on the nose is the thing Jack dreads, so Moon Shadow walks outside and lands one. Jack goes down, Moon Shadow helps him up, and the neighbourhood boys stop tormenting him.
Q 25How do the Tang leaders in Dragonwings win the right to rebuild Chinatown after the earthquake?
By threatening to leave
By threatening to leave the city for good, taking their businesses and their money with them. Days of forced marches under army guard had already driven most of the Tang people away.
Q 26To which city across the bay do Windrider and Moon Shadow move in Dragonwings to build their plane?
Oakland
Oakland's foothills give them a smelly barn on a run-down estate, where they work for three years. The real aviator who inspired the story built his aeroplanes in the same city.
Q 27What is Red Rabbit, the slow and lazy member of the Company's delivery rounds in Dragonwings?
A horse
A horse, he pulls the delivery wagon at his own unhurried pace. He finally moves fast on the day the city burns, and years later he helps drag the aeroplane to its hilltop.
Q 28Dragonwings was named an Honor Book, or runner-up, for which American children's book prize?
The Newbery Medal
The Newbery Medal itself went that year to Susan Cooper's The Grey King. A later novel in the same saga, Dragon's Gate, brought the author a second Honor.
Q 29Which honour did Dragonwings win in 1995, for a book overlooked by major prizes two decades before?
The Phoenix Award
The Phoenix Award takes its name from the bird reborn from its own ashes, for books that rise from obscurity. In truth the novel had hardly been ignored, having earned two runner-up honours.
Q 30Which real aviator, who flew his own biplane in California in 1909, inspired Dragonwings?
Fung Joe Guey
Fung Joe Guey flew in a wide circle for some twenty minutes before a propeller bolt snapped. He walked away bruised, and later took his aeroplanes to China to aid the rebellion against the Qing dynasty.