Nothing but the Truth (Avi)
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40 free Nothing but the Truth (Avi) trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Avi's Nothing but the Truth starts with something tiny: a boy, a homeroom and a recording of the national anthem. Within days the quarrel has outgrown the classroom, carried along by people who each have a reason to tell it their own way, and nobody involved gets what they wanted. This quiz follows the plot from Philip Malloy's first run-in with Miss Narwin to the final page: what happened in homeroom, what each person said about it afterwards, who spread the tale and what it cost. Other questions cover the school officials, classmates and reporters, the unusual way the book is put together, and how Avi came to write it. It suits students reading the book in class, teachers after a quick comprehension check, and anyone who remembers that ending and wants to see how much of the rest stuck.
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Q 01What is Philip Malloy doing during the national anthem that gets him suspended in Avi's Nothing but the Truth?
Humming along
Humming along broke a rule that students stand silent while the recording played, and Philip kept it up for three mornings. His suspension then became a national news story.
Q 02What does Philip Malloy tearfully admit at his new school at the end of Nothing but the Truth?
He doesn't know the words
He doesn't know the words, he says, when his new teacher invites him to lead the national anthem. Avi says many readers get angry at that last line, which tells him they cared.
Q 03In which New England state is Harrison High, the school at the center of Avi's Nothing but the Truth, located?
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is home to the invented town of Harrison, though Avi took the idea from a real small-town uproar he had read about in a news story.
Q 04Which step, refused by Philip Malloy, would have spared him a suspension in Avi's Nothing but the Truth?
Apologize to his teacher
An offer to apologize to his teacher was on the table, but Philip turned it down and was sent home for two days. The rules demanded it after two trips to the office in one week.
Q 05Which motive does Philip Malloy claim for making noise during the national anthem in Nothing but the Truth?
Patriotism
Patriotism is the reason he gives at school and again at home, where his parents believe him and urge him to stand up for his rights.
Q 06Which term grade in English bars Philip Malloy from track tryouts at Harrison High in Avi's Nothing but the Truth?
D
D is the grade Miss Narwin gives him after a joke answer on the winter exam, and it makes him ineligible for the team he dreams of joining.
Q 07How does Miss Narwin's teaching career at Harrison High end once the scandal spreads in Avi's Nothing but the Truth?
She resigns
She resigns after the district, nervous about bad publicity, pushes her to take leave for the rest of the term. She suspects the offer is a first step toward being fired.
Q 08What is Philip Malloy really after when he disrupts the anthem in homeroom in Avi's Nothing but the Truth?
A different teacher
A different teacher is the goal: a disturbance, he hopes, will see him moved away from the woman whose grade keeps him off the track team. He never explains that part at home.
Q 09Which private school with no track team does Philip Malloy end up attending in Avi's Nothing but the Truth?
Washington Academy
Washington Academy is his mother's choice after he refuses to go back to Harrison. The boy who started it all in order to run ends up somewhere he cannot compete.
Q 10Which neighbor, running for school board, makes Philip Malloy's suspension a campaign issue in Nothing but the Truth?
Ted Griffen
Ted Griffen hears the story from the Malloys, steers them to a reporter and wins his seat on the back of it. He used to chase Philip off his lawn.
Q 11Which grade is Philip Malloy in when a poor English mark keeps him off the track team in Nothing but the Truth?
Ninth
Ninth grade is where the trouble finds him, in his first year at Harrison High. National news stories later get even that detail wrong.
Q 12Whose glory days as a runner hang over Philip Malloy's own track ambitions in Avi's Nothing but the Truth?
His father
His father gave up competitive running when he left his studies to take a sales job and support the family. He now pins those hopes on Philip.
Q 13Where does Philip Malloy confide the thoughts he hides from everyone else in Avi's Nothing but the Truth?
His diary
Q 21Which state, where a relative has urged her to retire, does Miss Narwin leave for in Avi's Nothing but the Truth?
Florida
Florida is home to Anita, the confidante she writes to throughout the book, who had long urged her to give up teaching. She goes only after losing the job she loved.
Q 22How does Miss Narwin respond when Philip Malloy is suspended after leaving her homeroom in Nothing but the Truth?
She objects to it
She objects to it, but the office insists the rule must stand. Reporters then cast her as the one who threw him out of school.
Q 23The grant Miss Narwin is refused in Avi's Nothing but the Truth goes instead to a teacher studying what?
Marching band techniques
His diary holds what he tells no one, so readers can set his private excuses beside what he says aloud. Miss Narwin's side comes through her private letters.
Q 14Which classic novel does Philip Malloy mock in a joke exam answer, angering Miss Narwin, in Nothing but the Truth?
The Call of the Wild
The Call of the Wild gets only a wisecrack from Philip, who mocks its author for spending so long on a book about a dog. The flippant answer helps drag his English grade down.
Q 15Which competition does track-mad Philip Malloy dream of one day running in, in Avi's Nothing but the Truth?
The Olympics
The Olympics are the dream, fed by hours of training and copies of a running magazine. By the end he is at a school with no squad to run for.
Q 16Which subtitle did Avi give Nothing but the Truth, a story told only through memos, letters and transcripts?
A Documentary Novel
A Documentary Novel is the subtitle because no narrator ever steps in. Avi said he wanted to take himself out of the story and leave readers to decide what happened.
Q 17Which major children's book recognition did Avi's Nothing but the Truth receive the year after it was published?
Newbery Honor
Newbery Honor status came in 1992, a year after Avi's The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle earned the same. His first thought on that earlier news was that people would now read his new book.
Q 18Which job does Dr. Joseph Palleni, the man who actually suspends Philip Malloy, hold in Nothing but the Truth?
Assistant principal
Assistant principal is his title and discipline is his job, yet strangers across the country blame Miss Narwin for a suspension she had no power to order.
Q 19What is the job of Jake Barlow, whose outrage helps turn Philip Malloy into a national story in Nothing but the Truth?
Talk radio host
Talk radio host Jake Barlow reads the wire report on air and invites listeners to rage about it. Nearly all of them side with a boy they have met in one paragraph.
Q 20What happens to the Harrison school budget in the election held near the end of Avi's Nothing but the Truth?
Voters reject it
Voters reject it by a wide margin, so sacrificing Miss Narwin to protect the vote achieved nothing. A candidate who campaigned on Philip's story wins a board seat in the same election.
Marching band techniques won the last of the money, since the superintendent loves sports and a band looks good at games. Miss Narwin had never asked for a grant in over twenty years.
Q 24What does Coach Jamison advise Philip Malloy to do about his English grade in Avi's Nothing but the Truth?
Ask for extra work
Ask for extra work, the coach says, but Philip sulks instead. By the time he finally tries, the scandal has already moved him out of Miss Narwin's class.
Q 25Which classmate, sweet on Philip Malloy at first, drops him over his treatment of Miss Narwin in Nothing but the Truth?
Allison
Allison had planned to sit with him on the bus, but she tells the school she thinks he acted to land his teacher in trouble. Once she sees what he is doing, their friendship is over.
Q 26What does a friend say classmates are planning, sending Philip Malloy running home, in Avi's Nothing but the Truth?
A petition
A petition asking Philip to admit he was wrong is the plan his friend reports, and it shows how far opinion at school has turned. He goes home and refuses to return to Harrison.
Q 27What does tuition at Philip Malloy's new private school largely use up in Avi's Nothing but the Truth?
His college savings
His college savings go on the fees, along with much of what his parents have put away, and his dad protests the move. The price of the scandal lands on Philip's own future.
Q 28Which school subject does Philip Malloy say he likes most, though he clowns through English, in Nothing but the Truth?
Math
Math is the one class he studies for, and he admits liking it even if friends think that odd. It hints at the student he could have been for Miss Narwin.
Q 29How do Miss Narwin's other students describe her as a teacher when questioned in Avi's Nothing but the Truth?
Fair
Fair is how classmates describe her, the opposite of the grudge-holder Philip paints at home. Their accounts of what happened in homeroom also differ from his.
Q 30Which joke-cracking teacher runs Philip Malloy's first homeroom at Harrison High in Avi's Nothing but the Truth?
Mr. Lunser
Mr. Lunser wisecracks through the morning announcements and once threatens to make Philip sing a solo. A schedule change then moves the boy to Miss Narwin's stricter room.