Shiloh (Novel)
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40 free Shiloh (Novel) trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Shiloh has been a classroom favorite since 1991. Phyllis Reynolds Naylor's short novel follows eleven-year-old Marty Preston, who meets a frightened dog in the West Virginia hills and decides he cannot give it back to the neighbor who owns it. What begins as a boy-and-his-dog story becomes a harder one about lying for a good reason, keeping your word, and what people owe an animal. This quiz covers the whole book, from the day the dog first follows Marty to the final deal with Judd Travers, so it works as an end-of-book check as well as a refresher. Expect questions on the Preston family, the secrets Marty keeps, the bargain he strikes and the setting, plus the story behind the story: how the author came to write it, the prize it won, the sequels and the film. It is written for readers who have finished the novel, for teachers and parents who want discussion starters, and for anyone returning to a book they remember from school. Every answer comes with a short explanation.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In the novel Shiloh, what breed is the timid hunting dog that follows Marty Preston home?
Beagle
Beagle is the breed, one of several hunting dogs Judd Travers keeps. Beagles are scent hounds, used mainly for tracking rabbits.
Q 02Which award, the top prize in American children's books, did the novel Shiloh win in 1992?
Newbery Medal
The Newbery Medal went to Shiloh as a dark horse. One committee member called it a sleeper that surfaced as a serious contender only deep in the debate.
Q 03In Shiloh, what kind of animal leaps into the dog's hiding place one night and badly hurts him?
A German shepherd
A German shepherd gets in and mauls him. Marty is left feeling that his rescue has hurt the dog worse than its owner ever did.
Q 04In Shiloh, which crime does Marty see Judd Travers commit, giving the boy leverage to win the dog?
Poaching a deer
Poaching a deer out of season meant a stiff fine Judd could not afford. Marty trades his silence and twenty hours of work for the dog, then worries he has put other animals at risk.
Q 05Shiloh is set in which American mountain region, whose folk music gave rise to bluegrass?
Appalachia
Appalachia shapes how the book sounds: Marty and his family speak the region's West Virginia dialect, often dropping the subject of a sentence.
Q 06The 1996 film of Shiloh is set in the West Virginia hills, but in which state was it actually shot?
California
California stood in for the hills. The film, budgeted at under $2 million, was shot in 30 days at Topanga.
Q 07Which 1940 novel has been compared with Shiloh, as both dogs keep running back to a boy?
Lassie Come-Home
Lassie Come-Home, by Eric Knight, also has an upright father who tries to talk his son out of keeping a dog that belongs to someone else.
Q 08The fourth book about Marty and Shiloh, published in 2015, is named for which holiday?
Christmas
Christmas gives the fourth book its title, A Shiloh Christmas. It arrived 18 years after the third, and 200,000 copies were printed.
Q 09Which Mark Twain novel, a favorite of Shiloh's author, is echoed when Marty risks hell for a dog?
Huckleberry Finn
Huckleberry Finn chooses hell rather than betray Jim, and Marty likewise decides he would sooner be damned for lying than give up the dog.
Q 10In Shiloh, where does Marty hide the dog after it runs away from Judd Travers a second time?
A pen in the woods
A pen in the woods, built of wire with a shelter against rain, keeps the dog out of sight of both his owner and Marty's own family.
Q 11In Shiloh, what does Marty do that finally makes the cowering dog rush over and lick his face?
He whistles
He whistles, and the dog that ignored a spoken call comes running. It then trails him all the way to his house.
Q 12In Shiloh, what job takes Marty's father on a daily route past the homes of his rural neighbors?
Mail carrier
Mail carrier is the job, and it backfires on Marty. Once word spreads that the family is short of food, neighbors leave groceries in their boxes for his father.
Q 13In the novel Shiloh, which character, a doctor for people, not animals, stitches up the wounded dog?
Doc Murphy
Doc Murphy cleans and stitches the wounds and says the next 24 hours will decide whether the dog lives. Marty insists on paying the fee himself.
Q 21In Shiloh, what career does Marty dream of, though his father warns the training costs too much?
Veterinarian
Veterinarian is the dream. When the cost of the schooling sinks in, Marty tells himself he could settle for being an assistant to one instead.
Q 22In Shiloh, which relative's care takes the spare money of Marty's family, leaving none for a pet?
A grandmother
A grandmother is the reason. The Prestons have enough to feed five people, but every spare dollar goes to nursing Marty's ailing grandma.
Q 23In which verb tense does Marty tell most of the story of Shiloh, in his own West Virginia voice?
The present
Q 14In Shiloh, which best friend of Marty, an only child from a bigger house, finds the dog's hideout?
David Howard
David Howard is asked to keep the secret too. His mother, a teacher, has unknowingly been giving Marty extra food that ends up with the dog.
Q 15In Shiloh, what does Marty decide should settle who owns a dog, against his parents' view?
Who loves it
Who loves it has the better claim, Marty decides. His parents hold that a dog belongs to whoever paid for it, however it is treated.
Q 16In Shiloh, what does Judd Travers say his signed deal with Marty lacks, making the paper worthless?
A witness
A witness never signed, Judd points out. Marty keeps turning up to finish his hours anyway, and that stubbornness slowly earns the man's respect.
Q 17In Shiloh, what does Judd Travers hand Marty on the last day of chores, a sign the dog is his?
An old collar
An old collar comes with news Marty had stopped expecting. Judd announces that the dog is his, and the whole family is overjoyed.
Q 18In Shiloh, what does Marty learn about Judd Travers's childhood that helps explain his cruelty?
He was beaten as a boy
He was beaten as a boy, from the age of four, by his own father. Nobody stepped in to rescue him, so he cannot see why people fuss over a dog.
Q 19In Shiloh, which sister of Marty owns the chocolate Easter rabbit whose ear he secretly bites off?
Dara Lynn
Dara Lynn hears his confession in the end. His mother's talk of Jesus watching weighs on Marty until he owns up, an early lesson in how lying feels.
Q 20Which real West Virginia town, the postal address of the author's friends, is the setting of Shiloh?
Friendly
Friendly is a real Tyler County town whose population was just 100 at the 2020 census. The friends were a couple named Madden.
The present puts readers inside each choice as Marty faces it. Only the opening and closing passages slip into the past.
Q 24In the novel Shiloh, what is the runaway dog named after once Marty Preston takes him in?
The place he was found
The place he was found is a real spot on the map. Shiloh is a small Tyler County community on Middle Island Creek.
Q 25The author of Shiloh also wrote which often-banned book series about a motherless girl growing up?
Alice
Alice grows older from book to book, and the series' frank treatment of adolescence made it one of the most challenged of the early 2000s.
Q 26The author of Shiloh wrote sequels after seeing which reaction from young readers to Judd Travers?
Hatred
Hatred of Judd surprised her, so the later books let readers watch him wrestle with hard moral choices, just as Marty does.
Q 27In Shiloh, what must Marty promise before his mother will keep his secret from his father for a day?
Not to run away
Not to run away with the dog is her one condition. It is the first secret she has ever kept from her husband, and the couple quarrel over it later.
Q 28In Shiloh, Marty dislikes Judd Travers partly because he once watched him cheat which local figure?
The storekeeper
The storekeeper was cheated, and Marty explains that in his community people tend to keep out of each other's business.
Q 29In Shiloh, what ailment does Marty invent for his mother so his best friend will not come to visit?
Bad headaches
Bad headaches come back to haunt him. His mother returns from town puzzled that so many people have asked how her head is feeling.
Q 30In Shiloh, what new habit of Marty's makes his mother suspicious enough to follow him up the hill?
Saving half his meals
Saving half his meals, with the excuse that he will be hungry later, feeds the dog but leaves Marty himself going short.