Stand Tall
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40 free Stand Tall trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Joan Bauer's Stand Tall follows Tree, a twelve-year-old who towers over everyone at his middle school and feels out of place almost everywhere. His home life has been turned upside down, his grandfather is recovering from major surgery, and the people around him keep expecting things he cannot deliver. This quiz covers the plot, the characters and the setting, from Tree's family and friends to the crisis that tests the whole town. A few questions look at the author herself and at how the novel came to be written. It suits students who have just finished the book, teachers and librarians running a class read, and book clubs that want a quick check on who remembers what. Every answer comes with a short explanation.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In Joan Bauer's Stand Tall, Tree's grandfather is haunted by friends he lost fighting in which war?
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War changed Grandpa's life for good, and he talks about it often, using what combat taught him to coach Tree through hard times.
Q 02Joan Bauer handed her editor the first draft of Stand Tall just three days before which event?
The September 11 attacks
The September 11 attacks came three days after Bauer delivered the draft. She later said finishing the novel helped her work through the fear and grief that followed.
Q 03Which natural disaster strikes Tree's hometown in Stand Tall, giving him the chance to be a hero?
A flood
A flood swamps the town, and afterwards Grandpa's veteran friends put up a sign welcoming neighbours home and promising that everyone will pull through.
Q 04In Joan Bauer's Stand Tall, what is the real name of the towering twelve-year-old nicknamed Tree?
Sam Benton
Sam Benton has always been the tallest in his class, and the nickname stuck so firmly that it is now what everyone calls him.
Q 05Because of his height in Stand Tall, which sport does everyone wrongly expect Tree to be good at?
Basketball
Basketball is the sport his school's coach expects him to lead, yet Tree is not very athletic and has never really fitted in on the team.
Q 06In Stand Tall, which upheaval leaves Tree feeling uncomfortable even in his own home?
His parents' divorce
His parents' divorce comes with joint custody, so home shifts every week, and Tree ends up as the glue holding his scattered family together.
Q 07In Stand Tall, Tree is the tallest boy ever in his year at a middle school named for which First Lady?
Eleanor Roosevelt
Eleanor Roosevelt lends her name to the school, and her famous saying about nobody making a person feel inferior without consent also turns up in the story.
Q 08After Grandpa's operation in Stand Tall, which everyday skill does Tree help him learn again?
Walking
Walking has to be relearned after part of Grandpa's leg is amputated, and helping him do it is how Tree starts to heal himself.
Q 09In Joan Bauer's Stand Tall, what does Tree's mother create to stay in touch with her sons between visits?
A website
A website called heymom.com is her answer to living apart, though her sons find that it makes them uncomfortable.
Q 10What is the name of Tree's beloved, ageing dog, whose failing health worries him throughout Stand Tall?
Bradley
Bradley is one more worry for a boy who already frets about his grandfather, his two older brothers and his parents.
Q 11Which outspoken newcomer to Tree's school becomes his friend after the in-crowd taunts her in Stand Tall?
Sophie Santack
Sophie Santack always speaks the truth, which not everyone appreciates, and her advice to Tree is simply to be himself.
Q 12Which school year is Tree in during Stand Tall, when he already stands well over six feet tall?
Seventh grade
Seventh grade is the hardest year yet for Tree, who is only twelve and has been the tallest in his class for as long as he can remember.
Q 13In Stand Tall, which kind of creature is credited with saving Tree's old dog on the vet's table?
A cat
A cat gets the credit when the old dog rises from the table, and Tree takes it as proof that everything has a purpose if you look for it.
Q 21In Stand Tall, what does Sully Devo wear that marks him out as different, as height does Tree?
A hearing aid
A hearing aid sets Sully apart, making him one of several characters whose differences echo how out of place Tree feels.
Q 22In Stand Tall, Grandpa's fellow veterans bring Christmas to youngsters staying in which kind of place?
A children's hospital
A children's hospital gets the visit, one of the story's many examples of people easing their own losses by helping someone else.
Q 23What are the names of Tree's two older brothers, both away at college, in Joan Bauer's Stand Tall?
Larry and Curtis
Q 14What is the first name of Tree's grandfather, the good-humoured veteran who guides him through Stand Tall?
Leo
Leo steers his grandson through a minefield of hurts, and when their town later needs heroes, the two of them are ready.
Q 15Which storytelling relative does Stand Tall author Joan Bauer call her biggest creative influence?
Her grandmother
Her grandmother, whom she called Nana, lived with the family and told tales in a range of voices, teaching Bauer the importance of stories and laughter.
Q 16Joan Bauer's Stand Tall is set in which town, where Tree goes to middle school?
Ripley
Ripley is the town that needs a hero when disaster arrives, and by then Tree is ready to do everything that is asked of him.
Q 17In Stand Tall, what gets left beside the locker of the new girl being picked on at Tree's school?
Garbage
Garbage piled by her locker is one of the ways she is picked on, and Tree reaches out to her because he knows what it is like to be teased.
Q 18In Stand Tall, Mona Arnold shows Tree how best to help Grandpa recover; what is her job?
Physical therapist
Physical therapist Mona Arnold asks Tree to picture his own daily routine with a disability, so he understands what Grandpa is up against.
Q 19In Stand Tall, which classmate first called the tallest boy in class Tree, back in fourth grade?
Jeremy Liggins
Jeremy Liggins coined the nickname and it stuck for good, along with years of teasing from classmates about the height that inspired it.
Q 20Which coach at Tree's school expects the unathletic twelve-year-old to lead the team in Stand Tall?
Glummer
Coach Glummer assumes that height equals talent, a mistake shared by players, classmates and even Tree's own family.
Larry and Curtis take the family's troubles hard and turn irritable, until rebuilding after the town's disaster gives them something to do.
Q 24During the emergency that hits Tree's town in Stand Tall, what does he help to save?
Animals
Animals are what Tree helps rescue, finding purpose amid the fear and danger, and his dad tells him how proud he is.
Q 25In Stand Tall, Tree's brothers lose many of their belongings when whose house is badly damaged in the disaster?
His father
His father is the one whose house is wrecked, and Tree's brothers move from shock and anger to grief before they start to rebuild with Grandpa's help.
Q 26In which season does disaster strike Tree's town in Stand Tall, calling for heroes like him and Grandpa?
Spring
Spring brings the crisis, a contrast with the opening of the story, when Tree thinks of his family's troubles as a winter in his own life.
Q 27What sudden illness strikes Tree's old dog around the time disaster hits the town in Stand Tall?
A stroke
A stroke fells the old dog just as the town is in crisis, handing Tree one more fight when he is already stretched thin.
Q 28In Joan Bauer's Stand Tall, at which point on the right leg was Grandpa's amputation carried out?
Below the knee
Below the knee is where the leg now ends, and Grandpa likes to point out that every other part of him still works.
Q 29Which Joan Bauer novel about a teenage waitress was named a Newbery Honor Book shortly before Stand Tall?
Hope Was Here
Hope Was Here follows a sixteen-year-old who moves to small-town Wisconsin and gets swept up in a diner owner's campaign for mayor.
Q 30Before Stand Tall, which 1996 Joan Bauer novel also centred on a boy instead of a teenage girl?
Sticks
Sticks is set around a family-run pool hall in a blue-collar New Jersey town, the home of its determined young hero.