Goodbye Stranger
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40 free Goodbye Stranger trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Rebecca Stead's Goodbye Stranger follows a trio of best friends through the opening months of seventh grade, when a pact they made as younger children starts to feel harder to keep. Bridge is still puzzling over why she survived a childhood accident, Emily is suddenly getting attention she is unsure how to handle, and Tab has discovered big ideas about fairness. Around them, a classmate called Sherm is coping with a family split, and an unnamed older girl spends one long day hiding from a mistake. This quiz covers the whole book: the main characters and their families, the school clubs and teachers, the photo that causes so much trouble, the way the separate storylines fit together, and a little about the author and the praise the novel earned. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you can check what you remember and pick up details you may have missed. It works as a reading check after finishing the novel, as revision before a class test or an Accelerated Reader quiz, or as a set of talking points for a book club. The questions begin with the big moments and move on to finer details for readers who know the story well.
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Q 01Which accessory, inspired by a girl Rebecca Stead met on the street, does Bridge wear daily in Goodbye Stranger?
Cat ears
Cat ears stay on Bridge's head from September to mid-February. Stead once complimented a stranger's pair, and the girl said she had worn them for a year without knowing why.
Q 02On which snack cake did Bridge, Tab and Emily swear never to fight, a vow tested in Goodbye Stranger?
A Twinkie
A Twinkie sealed the pact, and seventh grade strains it: Em is suddenly noticed by older boys while Tab throws herself into social justice.
Q 03What happened to Bridge Barsamian at age eight, years before Goodbye Stranger begins, when she skated into the street?
A car hit her
A car hit her, leaving 13 broken bones and a punctured lung, and the question of why she survived follows Bridge all the way into seventh grade.
Q 04On which holiday does the mystery narrator of Goodbye Stranger skip school and avoid her friends for a whole day?
Valentine's Day
Valentine's Day is where every thread of the novel meets. It is also the birthday of Sherm's grandfather, the man whose messages he has been ignoring.
Q 05Which nickname does Ms. Berman, the teacher Tab idolises in Goodbye Stranger, tell her students they may call her?
Berperson
Berperson suits a teacher who seems to have stepped out of a 1970s women's studies course. Tab soaks up every word, then applies the lessons badly.
Q 06What does Sherm do with the letters he writes to his absent grandfather throughout Goodbye Stranger?
Never sends them
Never sends them: the letters are where Sherm keeps his anger at a man who walked out on Sherm's grandmother after 50 years of marriage.
Q 07Which older boy trades photos by text with Emily in Goodbye Stranger, leading to a picture of her being widely shared?
Patrick
Patrick may or may not be trustworthy, and when the picture spreads the blame lands on Emily, a double standard that Tab is quick to call out.
Q 08Which career did Goodbye Stranger author Rebecca Stead pursue for years because writing seemed impractical?
Lawyer
Lawyer was the sensible choice, and Stead spent years as a public defender. She only went back to fiction after her two children were born.
Q 09Which earlier novel won Goodbye Stranger author Rebecca Stead the 2010 Newbery Medal?
When You Reach Me
When You Reach Me was only her second novel, a mystery that begins when a sixth grader finds an unsigned note tucked inside her library book.
Q 10Goodbye Stranger is set in which city, where its author Rebecca Stead was born and raised?
New York
New York gives the novel its brownstones and its neighbourhood diner, and Stead says she sets stories in places she already knows by instinct.
Q 11Which school group does Tab join at the start of seventh grade in Goodbye Stranger, hoping Bridge will sign up too?
Human Rights Club
Human Rights Club suits Tab's new passion for social justice, but Bridge goes her own way and signs up for a different group instead.
Q 12Which school group does Bridge join in Goodbye Stranger, the place where she gets to know Sherm?
Tech Crew
Tech Crew is the school's team of stagehands, and it is where Bridge meets Sherm, who becomes nearly as close a confidant as Tab and Emily.
Q 13Which sport makes Emily a star at school in Goodbye Stranger, just as older students begin to notice her?
Soccer
Q 21Who told the young Bridge she must have survived for a reason, a remark that stays with her in Goodbye Stranger?
A nurse
A nurse said it in the hospital, and Bridge made finding that reason her mission. Years later, in seventh grade, she is still asking what it could be.
Q 22Which creature does Bridge still doodle on her homework in Goodbye Stranger, a habit her best friends have dropped?
A three-eyed Martian
A three-eyed Martian is Bridge's signature. The three became friends as the girls who decorated their homework with animals, a bird for Tab and a snake for Em.
Q 23How does the boy Emily likes say her private photo got out in Goodbye Stranger, a story she chooses to believe?
Soccer puts Emily at the centre of the team, and the older boy she starts flirting with by text is a player too.
Q 14Which point of view narrates the chapters about the unnamed older girl in Goodbye Stranger, all set on a single day?
Second person
Second person keeps her identity hidden for most of the book, while Bridge and Sherm get conventional chapters told from the outside.
Q 15What is the name of Tab's older sister, finally revealed as the girl skipping school in Goodbye Stranger?
Celeste
Celeste has betrayed a new friend's confidence to an old one, and she spends the day working out that some friendships have to end.
Q 16Which old friend with a worsening mean streak does the school-skipping narrator of Goodbye Stranger finally let go?
Vinny
Vinny was once a real friend, which is what hurts. Stead said the story is about accepting that the person you were close to is gone.
Q 17Whose secret does Tab's older sister give away in Goodbye Stranger, the betrayal that sends her into hiding for a day?
Gina
Gina was a new friend who had trusted her, and the confidence went straight to an old friend who could not be relied on to keep it.
Q 18Which historic event does Bridge wonder might have been faked, one of her many worries in Goodbye Stranger?
The moon landing
The moon landing sits on Bridge's list of worries beside whether Sherm likes her and whether her brother will ever shake off a toxic friend.
Q 19What is the name of Bridge's older brother in Goodbye Stranger, who keeps losing bets to a not-so-nice friend?
Jamie
Jamie and Bridge bond over a cheesy Christmas movie they both adore, one of several warm sibling pairs in the novel.
Q 20Which toxic 'frenemy' does Bridge hope her older brother will finally shake off in Goodbye Stranger?
Alex
Alex is the brother's closest friend and not a kind one, and the brother is on the verge of losing yet another bet to him.
Someone took his phone
Someone took his phone and forwarded the picture, he says. Emily stands by him, while Tab is convinced he let things go too far and takes matters into her own hands.
Q 24Rebecca Stead said she wanted Goodbye Stranger to be a serious book about which subject, shown in many forms?
Love
Love in the novel is rarely dramatic. Stead set out to show the meaningful kinds, from best friends and siblings to a first crush.
Q 25Which school rule in Goodbye Stranger did Rebecca Stead tie to the way the school responds to Emily's photo?
The dress code
The dress code debate matters to Stead, who finds it strange to tell girls to cover their shoulders so that they will not distract classmates.
Q 26The photo swap between Emily and an older boy in Goodbye Stranger starts innocently with pictures of what?
Knees and elbows
Knees and elbows come first, then the pictures grow more revealing by degrees, which is how a private game ends up in front of a much larger group.
Q 27Which school subject is Bridge afraid of failing in Goodbye Stranger, on top of her bigger questions about survival?
French
French joins a list of worries that runs from whether a classmate likes her all the way to why she was spared.
Q 28In Goodbye Stranger, Bridge's father is an American of which heritage?
Armenian
Armenian heritage is one strand in a cast drawn from several immigrant families, and the novel never turns anyone's background into an issue.
Q 29Which Rebecca Stead novel made her the first American winner of the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize?
Liar & Spy
Liar & Spy nearly had a sequel: Stead began Goodbye Stranger as a story about Candy, a character from that book, before Bridge took over the page.
Q 30Which broadcaster named Goodbye Stranger a 2015 'Great Read' and interviewed Rebecca Stead about the novel's origins?
NPR
NPR also aired Stead describing the book's seed: she knew early on that one girl would send a boy a picture and still feel good about herself.