Stargirl
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
7correct to beat the crowd
50 free Stargirl trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Jerry Spinelli's Stargirl has been a classroom favourite since it was published in 2000. Told by Leo Borlock, an eleventh grader at Mica High, it follows the arrival of a new girl who dresses, sings and behaves like no one else in the building, and what happens to her, and to him, when the crowd's mood swings from fascination to adoration to something much colder. This quiz covers the whole novel, from the mysterious gift in the opening pages to the epilogue: the first weeks of rumours, the football and basketball seasons, the disastrous TV interview, the desert walks, the speech competition, the spring dance and the years that follow. There are questions on Leo, Stargirl, Hillari Kimble, Archie Brubaker and the people around them, on details from individual chapters, and a handful on the author, the sequel and the screen adaptation. It suits students checking their comprehension before a test, teachers and book clubs looking for multiple-choice review questions, and anyone who read the book years ago and wants to see what has stayed with them. Every answer comes with a short explanation.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which instrument does Stargirl Caraway carry on her back and strum for classmates in the Mica High cafeteria?
Ukulele
Ukulele strumming becomes a craze at Mica High once Stargirl is popular, with classmates taking up the instrument to copy her.
Q 02What is the name of the pet rat that Stargirl brings to Mica High every day in her bag?
Cinnamon
Cinnamon goes everywhere with Stargirl, who opens her appearance on the student TV show by asking the host if he would like to hold him.
Q 03What first name did Stargirl Caraway's parents give her, the one she uses again when she tries to fit in?
Susan
Susan is the name she takes back, along with makeup and hoop earrings, when Leo urges her to act like everyone else at Mica High.
Q 04Which habit of Stargirl's at Mica High basketball games turns the crowd's affection for her into boos?
Cheering for both teams
Cheering for both teams comes naturally to Stargirl, who asks on the student TV show whether the visitors should not be happy too.
Q 05Which dance does Stargirl lead in a long line out of the Mica Country Club and into the desert?
The bunny hop
The bunny hop pulls almost every couple at the spring dance into the line, though Hillari Kimble and her boyfriend refuse to join in.
Q 06How does Stargirl respond when Hillari Kimble slaps her across the face at the end of Mica High's spring dance?
A kiss on the cheek
A kiss on the cheek is her only reply, and after that night nobody from Mica High ever sees Stargirl again.
Q 07What unusual items does Leo Borlock, narrator of Jerry Spinelli's Stargirl, collect after a gift from his uncle?
Porcupine neckties
Porcupine neckties reach Leo twice as anonymous gifts: one soon after he turns fourteen, and another fifteen years after Stargirl disappears.
Q 08What is thrown in Stargirl's face as Mica High's basketball season ends with a playoff defeat?
A tomato
A tomato hits her while she is still performing with her back to the court, and the Mica High crowd laughs and applauds.
Q 09Which singer, a past winner of America's Got Talent, made her acting debut as Stargirl in the 2020 film?
Grace VanderWaal
Grace VanderWaal was 12 when she won the talent show singing her own songs, and she played Stargirl again in a 2022 sequel.
Q 10What does Stargirl add to or take from the tiny 'happy wagon' in her bedroom to track her mood?
Pebbles
Pebbles go in when she is happy and come out when she is not, and as her attempt to be ordinary fails Leo finds only two left.
Q 11What is the name of the student interview show that Leo Borlock directs at Mica High in Jerry Spinelli's Stargirl?
Hot Seat
Hot Seat puts each guest before a panel of student jurors, and Stargirl's episode turns so hostile that it is never broadcast.
Q 12In which state is Mica, the fictional desert town where Jerry Spinelli set his novel Stargirl?
Arizona
Arizona supplies the desert where Stargirl goes to meditate, and most adults in Mica work for a single company, MicaTronics.
Q 13How was Stargirl Caraway educated before she arrived at Mica High as a tenth grader?
Homeschooled by her mother
Q 21Which Mica High trendsetter in Stargirl tells the student TV show his ambition is to be a magazine cover model?
Wayne Parr
Wayne Parr names GQ magazine as his role model, and after graduation he is last heard talking of joining the Coast Guard.
Q 22Which spring dance at the Mica Country Club does Leo Borlock skip rather than invite Stargirl?
The Ocotillo Ball
The Ocotillo Ball goes on without him, though Leo rides over after dark and watches the lantern-lit party from a distance.
Q 23From which state did Leo Borlock's family move to Mica when he was twelve, in Jerry Spinelli's Stargirl?
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania is also the author's home state: Jerry Spinelli was born in Norristown, and the sequel sends Stargirl to live there.
She was homeschooled by her mother, who brought her one day a week to learn from Archie Brubaker, a retired paleontologist.
Q 14What does Stargirl deliberately drop on sidewalks and benches for strangers, especially children, to find?
Loose change
Loose change is something Stargirl says she dislikes carrying, so she leaves coins where a child might be thrilled to spot them.
Q 15Which streaming service released the 2020 film of Jerry Spinelli's Stargirl, directed by Julia Hart?
Disney+
Disney+ carried the film with no cinema run, months after the service launched, and a sequel followed there in 2022.
Q 16Which novel about an orphan in the divided town of Two Mills won Stargirl author Jerry Spinelli the Newbery Medal?
Maniac Magee
Maniac Magee took the medal in 1991, and Wringer later added a Newbery Honor to Spinelli's shelf.
Q 17What name does Archie Brubaker give the towering cactus in his backyard, which visitors in Stargirl must greet?
Señor Saguaro
Señor Saguaro is close to death, with elf owls nesting inside, yet Archie talks to the cactus as he would to a person.
Q 18Who is Leo Borlock's best friend in Stargirl, the on-camera host of the interview show the two boys created?
Kevin Quinlan
Kevin Quinlan asks the questions while Leo directs the cameras, and fifteen years later he is still living in Mica, selling insurance.
Q 19What does Leo Borlock find tucked in his notebook the day after Mica High's playoff loss, sent by Stargirl?
A valentine
A valentine had sat unnoticed in the notebook for days, and Leo casually asks his best friend whether he got a card too; he had not.
Q 20Which ninth grader is the only student waiting to welcome Stargirl home from the state oratorical finals?
Dori Dilson
Dori Dilson was also the first to share Stargirl's cafeteria table, and she pedals her friend to the spring dance wearing a tuxedo.
Q 24What desert bird gives its shape to the plywood bulletin board in the Mica High courtyard in Stargirl?
A roadrunner
A roadrunner outline frames the board where a painted bedsheet later announces to all of Mica High that Stargirl loves Leo.
Q 25Which patriotic text is Stargirl said to reword in her own way, leading one student juror to call her a traitor?
The Pledge of Allegiance
The Pledge of Allegiance in her version turns up pinned to the courtyard bulletin board, and at first classmates happily copy it.
Q 26Which family occasion does Stargirl attend uninvited, so that Anna Grisdale's mother throws her out?
A funeral
A funeral for Anna's grandfather, a man Stargirl had never met, finds her weeping at the graveside, and Mrs. Grisdale orders her out of the lunch that follows.
Q 27What anonymous gift for young Danny Pike, home from hospital with a broken leg, is traced to Stargirl?
A new bicycle
A new bicycle arrives after Danny crashes his old one into a mailbox, but his family, unsure who sent it, throws it out.
Q 28What is the nickname of the Mica High basketball squad whose winning streak sours the fans in Stargirl?
Electrons
The Electrons, named for the town's electronics industry, breeze through the regular season unbeaten, and Mica's once-indifferent fans turn into fanatics.
Q 29According to Archie Brubaker, what does Stargirl Caraway's mother do for a living?
Costume designer
Costume designer for films is Mrs. Caraway's trade, while her husband works at MicaTronics like most of Mica.
Q 30Leo Borlock hopes to direct television; what does Stargirl tell him she wants to drive for a living?
A silver lunch truck
A silver lunch truck is her dream, and she pictures owning a whole fleet that astonishes working people with the food on offer.