Seedfolks
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
7correct to beat the crowd
40 free Seedfolks trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Seedfolks is a slim book with a big cast. A girl buries a handful of seeds in a junk-filled city lot, a suspicious neighbor watches from her window, and one by one the people of a divided block start digging beside each other. Each chapter belongs to a different voice, which is why the story stays with readers long after class is over. This quiz walks through the book chapter by chapter: what Kim, Ana and Wendell do in the first cold weeks, how Gonzalo, Leona, Sam and Virgil join in, and what the garden comes to mean to Sae Young, Curtis, Nora, Maricela, Amir and Florence. There are questions on who grows what, who helps whom, where the characters came from, and how the book came to be written. It suits students who have just finished the novella, teachers who want a quick multiple choice check, and book clubs reading it together. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so a wrong guess still teaches something.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In Seedfolks, what does Kim plant in a vacant lot to feel close to the father she never knew?
Lima beans
Lima beans from the kitchen are what Kim buries, hoping that her father, a farmer in Vietnam who died before her birth, will see them grow.
Q 02In Seedfolks, what does Leona open in a city health office to make officials notice her?
A bag of garbage
A bag of garbage from the lot stinks so badly that Leona, stonewalled through two days of phone calls, is shown into a meeting almost at once.
Q 03In Seedfolks, what does Ana buy after digging up Kim's secret and seeing she misjudged the girl?
Binoculars
Binoculars let Ana watch over the little garden from her window, and when the plants wilt she sends a neighbor down to water them.
Q 04In Seedfolks, what does Ana, watching from her window, assume Kim is burying in the vacant lot?
Drugs or a gun
Drugs or a gun is her guess because Ana spent twenty years as a typist for the Parole Department and expects the worst of her neighbors.
Q 05Which Ohio city, long a magnet for immigrant workers, is the setting of Seedfolks?
Cleveland
Cleveland suited the book because it was famous for its immigrants in the past and still takes in newcomers, and because its harsh white winters make green precious.
Q 06In Seedfolks, which crop does Virgil's father plant, hoping to sell it to fancy restaurants?
Baby lettuce
Baby lettuce wilts in summer heat, which Virgil's father learns only after claiming far more ground than anyone else in the garden.
Q 07In Seedfolks, which crop does Curtis raise where Lateesha can see it from her window?
Tomatoes
Tomatoes are Lateesha's favorite, and Curtis tends them in plain view to show that he has grown up since she left him five years before.
Q 08In Seedfolks, what does Sae Young buy for the garden, two years after a robbery made her fear people?
Funnels
Funnels let the gardeners pour water into their own containers without spilling, and watching neighbors use them makes her feel she belongs.
Q 09The title Seedfolks is an old word that its author saved in a notebook for years, meaning what?
Ancestors
Ancestors is the old meaning, and in the last chapter Florence uses the word for the great-grandparents who first planted her family in a new place.
Q 10In Seedfolks, which of Amir's vegetables gets neighbors who never spoke to him to stop and chat?
Eggplants
Eggplants of a pale purple, a color nothing else in the garden had, gave neighbors an excuse to start talking to a man they had only passed.
Q 11Which road in Seedfolks, home to the vacant lot, once divided Black and white neighborhoods?
Gibb Street
Gibb Street became the border between the Black and white parts of town, Ana recalls, before the factories closed and nearly everyone left.
Q 12In Seedfolks, which kitchen utensil does Kim use to dig six holes in the cold, hard ground?
A spoon
A spoon from the kitchen drawer is the only tool Kim carries to the lot, and Ana later digs in the same spot with a butter knife.
Q 13In Seedfolks, Ana's parents came from which country, whose emigrants once filled her block?
Romania
Romania sent the first families Ana remembers from her arrival in 1919; Slovaks, Italians and Black families followed as each group moved on.
Q 21In Seedfolks, what does Tío Juan do with the lot's soil before he chooses where to plant?
He tastes it
He tastes it after studying the sun, and Gonzalo, embarrassed at first, realizes that his great-uncle knows everything about growing food.
Q 22In Seedfolks, which TV sitcom is Gonzalo watching when Tío Juan slips out of the apartment?
The Brady Bunch
The Brady Bunch is part of how Gonzalo keeps learning; he picked up English in two years from the playground and cartoons.
Q 23In Seedfolks, which plant does Leona decide to grow in honor of the Granny who raised her?
Goldenrod
Goldenrod went into the tea her Granny drank every morning, a habit doctors warned against; Granny outlived them all and reached ninety-nine.
Q 14In Seedfolks, what is the job of Wendell, who says he spends his whole week being bossed around?
A school janitor
A school janitor, Wendell is recognized in the lot by Gonzalo, who knew him from his old school.
Q 15In Seedfolks, Wendell recognizes Kim's wilting plants because he grew up on a farm in which state?
Kentucky
Kentucky farm life is why Wendell can name the plants at a glance and knows to bank a ring of soil around each one to hold water.
Q 16In Seedfolks, Wendell sees that which piece of junk saved Kim's seedlings by reflecting sunlight?
A refrigerator
A refrigerator dumped in the lot bounced the sun onto the soil and warmed it, and it also hid Kim from the sidewalk while she dug.
Q 17In Seedfolks, which sound makes Wendell jump, because it twice brought news of a family tragedy?
A ringing phone
A ringing phone is how Wendell learned that his son had been shot and that his wife had died in a car wreck, so Ana's wake-up call terrifies him.
Q 18In Seedfolks, what mistake does Wendell say Kim made, so that her seeds were lucky to sprout at all?
Planted too early
Planted too early, in a cold April, the seeds lacked the hot weather they need, yet they sprouted, and Ana insists on saving them.
Q 19In Seedfolks, what does Wendell bring home from work after deciding to change one patch of earth?
A shovel
A shovel from work lets Wendell dig the sunny spot he has already cleared of garbage and broken glass, making him the second gardener in the lot.
Q 20In Seedfolks, Gonzalo and his great-uncle Tío Juan came to the United States from which country?
Guatemala
Guatemala is where Tío Juan was the oldest man in his village and a farmer; in his new city he cannot work or even talk with strangers.
Q 24In Seedfolks, Leona grew up in her Granny's house in which Southern city?
Atlanta
Atlanta is where young Leona went with Granny to the funerals of the doctors she outlived, laying her favorite herb on each grave.
Q 25In Seedfolks, which crop does Sam talk the teenager who digs his plot into growing to sell?
Pumpkins
Pumpkins can be sold at Halloween, Sam argues, and unlike the marijuana the boy first had in mind they will keep him out of jail.
Q 26In Seedfolks, which Bible story does Sam recall when gardeners split by race and put up fences?
The Tower of Babel
The Tower of Babel, where God divided people by language, is Sam's image for a garden sorting itself into corners behind barbed wire.
Q 27In Seedfolks, Sam spent thirty-six years working for groups that promoted which cause?
World peace
World peace was his life's work, through groups pushing world government and pacifism; retired, he mends his own neighborhood by greeting everyone.
Q 28In Seedfolks, which word does Sam tell a stranger comes from Persian and means a walled park?
Paradise
Paradise slips out of Sam's mouth when he sees men in jumpsuits clearing the lot and hears that anyone may garden there.
Q 29In Seedfolks, which idea from a young girl wins Sam's contest for getting water to the garden?
Rain from downspouts
Rain from downspouts, caught in cans the neighbors chip in to buy, wins the twenty-dollar prize, and a thunderstorm the next day nearly fills them.
Q 30In Seedfolks, how does Virgil's father earn a living while scheming to get rich from the garden?
Driving a taxi
Driving a taxi is how he hears, from a passenger, that expensive restaurants will pay well for a certain salad green.