Mare's War
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40 free Mare's War trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Mare's War by Tanita S. Davis is two stories in one car. In the present, sisters Octavia and Tali are stuck on a long summer drive with a grandmother who refuses to act like one. In the past, that same woman is a teenage runaway who joins the Women's Army Corps during World War II and ships out to Europe with the only battalion of Black women sent abroad. This quiz follows both roads. Expect questions on the family Mare leaves behind, the friends she makes in training, the places her unit is posted and the odd roadside stops the three travelers make on the way to a family reunion. A handful of questions cover the real 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion and the author's own link to the story. It is written for students who have finished the novel and want to check their recall before a Reading Counts or classroom quiz, and for book clubs and teachers who want ready-made discussion starters. Every answer comes with a short explanation.
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Q 01In Mare's War, what does Mare drive across the country with her two teenage granddaughters?
A red sports car
A red sports car suits Mare, who also wears long fake nails and flippy auburn wigs. She is not ready to sit down and be old.
Q 02In Mare's War, what does Mare lie about so that the Women's Army Corps will accept her?
Her age
Her age is the lie: Mare is not quite seventeen when she runs away from home, years short of the Army's minimum for women.
Q 03In Mare's War, what does young Mare swing at the drunken man who comes into the girls' bedroom?
A hatchet
A hatchet is all Mare has to defend her younger sister, and the fight leaves her with a dislocated shoulder.
Q 04In Mare's War, Tali agrees to keep her earphones out if Mare gives up which habit?
Smoking
Smoking is what Tali grumbles about before the car has left the driveway, so Mare promises to keep her pack in her purse.
Q 05In Mare's War, which record-breaking plant do the travelers find in Tombstone, Arizona?
A rosebush
A rosebush in Tombstone holds the world record for size, yet Octavia shrugs that it is still just a plant.
Q 06In Mare's War, what do Octavia and Tali write home that marks each jump between past and present?
Postcards
Postcards to the folks back home separate the road-trip chapters from Mare's wartime memories.
Q 07In Mare's War, which animal does Octavia fear she will hit if she takes the wheel?
A jackrabbit
A jackrabbit does cross their path, and Mare does the safe thing by holding the car straight instead of swerving.
Q 08Which First Lady was persuaded to help win a role in Europe for the Black WACs of Mare's War?
Eleanor Roosevelt
Eleanor Roosevelt was lobbied by the educator Mary McLeod Bethune, who wanted Black women given meaningful Army jobs.
Q 09In Mare's War, in which city does Mare's battalion end its service, living lavishly in a hotel?
Paris
Paris is the last posting, where the women enjoy comforts unknown in their spartan Army quarters.
Q 10In Mare's War, in which Southern state does Mare grow up on a farm before running away?
Alabama
Alabama is home: Mare is raised in the small town of Bay Slough, on land her late father bought.
Q 11In Mare's War, what is the name of the younger sister Mare has always been told to look after?
Josephine
Josephine, known as Feen, stays on Mare's mind all through the war, because Mare has promised always to take care of her.
Q 12In Mare's War, to which Northern city is Mare's younger sister sent to live with an aunt?
Philadelphia
Philadelphia is where Aunt Shirley lives, and with her sister gone Mare sees little reason to stay on the farm.
Q 13In Mare's War, what kind of shoes does Mare wear with her flippy wigs and push-up bras?
Stilettos
Stilettos and long fake nails mark Mare as no cookies-and-crosswords pensioner: she refuses to sit down and be old.
Q 21In Mare's War, which new recruit strikes a deal with Mare in training and becomes her fast friend?
Peaches Carter
Peaches Carter makes her offer after a captain corrects Mare's speech in front of everyone, and the friendship lasts a lifetime.
Q 22In Mare's War, which drink does 17-year-old Tali order that gets her into trouble?
Kahlua and cream
Kahlua and cream holds only as much alcohol as vanilla, Tali argues, but the excuse does not save her.
Q 23In Mare's War, what job falls to Octavia in the car while Mare takes whichever exit she fancies?
Reading the map
Reading the map is Octavia's task, a thankless one beside a driver who prefers random exits and roadside surprises.
Q 14In Mare's War, what does Mare's mother fire to scare off the man who is attacking her daughter?
A shotgun
A shotgun blast sends the drunken boyfriend running, but only after he has already hurt Mare badly.
Q 15In Mare's War, who lays down the law and sends Octavia and Tali on the summer road trip?
Their parents
Their parents insist on the trip, wrecking both girls' plans for a lazy summer at home.
Q 16In Mare's War, in which English city does the battalion first tackle warehouses of undelivered mail?
Birmingham
Birmingham held millions of stalled letters and parcels, and the real unit cleared them in three months instead of six.
Q 17Mare's War was named a 2010 Honor Book for which prize given by the American Library Association?
Coretta Scott King Award
Coretta Scott King Award honor books carry the award's seal on the cover, and the prize goes to Black authors and illustrators of books for young readers.
Q 18In Mare's War, the road-trip chapters narrated by Octavia all carry which one-word heading?
Now
Now marks every chapter Octavia narrates, while Mare tells her wartime chapters under the heading Then.
Q 19In Mare's War, which California city do Octavia and Tali call home before the road trip begins?
San Francisco
San Francisco is also where the author Tanita S. Davis was born, so the girls set out from her own home ground.
Q 20In Mare's War, what is the name of the lecherous boyfriend of Mare's mother whom both sisters fear?
Toby
Toby is the reason Mare's sister is sent north, after his lustful attention turns on both girls.
Q 24Houston's Emancipation Park, a stop in Mare's War, was bought by freed slaves to mark which holiday?
Juneteenth
Juneteenth crowds were often refused public space, so in 1872 freed people in Houston pooled their money to buy land of their own.
Q 25Which oversized piece of furniture in Gulfport, Mississippi, features on the Mare's War road trip?
A rocking chair
A rocking chair thirty-five feet tall stands in Gulfport, though it cannot rock because it is anchored to the ground.
Q 26In Mare's War, to which French city does the battalion move after clearing the backlog in England?
Rouen
Rouen held letters up to three years old, and the women paraded there at the place where Joan of Arc was executed.
Q 27Which major commanded the real 6888th battalion that Mare joins in Mare's War?
Charity Adams
Charity Adams ended the war as the highest-ranking Black woman in the Army, and Kerry Washington later played her on screen.
Q 28How did the real mail battalion of Mare's War tell apart soldiers who shared the same name?
By serial numbers
By serial numbers: the women kept a card index that grew to seven million cards, since many parcels bore only a nickname.
Q 29Which filmmaker directed the 2024 Netflix film about the real battalion at the heart of Mare's War?
Tyler Perry
Tyler Perry wrote, directed and produced The Six Triple Eight, which reached screens fifteen years after the novel.
Q 30In Mare's War, what work is the only future left for Mare in Bay Slough before she runs away?
Cleaning a house
Cleaning a house for a white woman is all the town offers a girl of almost seventeen, so Mare enlists instead.