The Breadwinner
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50 free The Breadwinner trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The Breadwinner puts an eleven-year-old at the centre of a city where girls are barred from school and their mothers are shut indoors. When her father is taken away, Parvana cuts her hair, pulls on a boy's clothes and goes out to earn the family's living. It is a short novel, widely taught, and hard to forget. This quiz follows the story from the first chapter to the last page: the family crowded into one room, the arrest, the disguise, the friends Parvana makes in the market and the choices each of them faces at the end. Other questions cover the words and customs a reader meets along the way, the real history behind the setting, the author and the sequels, and the animated film adaptation. It suits classes reading the book, anyone revising for a chapter test, book clubs, and viewers who found the story through the film. Every answer comes with a short explanation, and the questions can be played on screen or printed as a worksheet.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In The Breadwinner, whose old clothes does Parvana put on so she can work in the market as a boy?
Her dead brother's
Her dead brother's clothes had sat in the cupboard since a land mine killed Hossain at fourteen. The sight of Parvana in them upsets her mother, who calls the baby Hossain that night.
Q 02In The Breadwinner, what grim job do Parvana and Shauzia take in a bombed Kabul graveyard to earn money fast?
Digging up bones
Digging up bones paid so well that the first blanket-load earned what Parvana made in three days at the market. A bone broker weighed the haul on a scale beside a ruined building.
Q 03In The Breadwinner, what do Parvana and Shauzia witness in a Kabul stadium where they expected a soccer match?
Thieves losing their hands
Thieves losing their hands was a punishment the Taliban staged at the stadium every Friday. Men sitting nearby told the two girls to stay down and helped gather their scattered goods.
Q 04In The Breadwinner, where do Parvana and Shauzia promise to meet again twenty years after they leave Kabul?
The Eiffel Tower
The Eiffel Tower is the meeting place, on the first day of spring. Shauzia has been saving to reach France, which she pictures as a land of sunshine and smiling people.
Q 05Which Hollywood star and UN goodwill ambassador was an executive producer of the animated film The Breadwinner?
Angelina Jolie
Angelina Jolie helped fund the film and had a say in casting its young lead. Her visits to Afghan girls' schools let her advise the film-makers on the country's customs.
Q 06In The Breadwinner, what does Parvana's father name after her, a landmark she can see from the end of their street?
A mountain
A mountain at the end of the street becomes Mount Parvana because, her father says, it is people who name mountains. She watches its snowy peak as the truck carries her out of Kabul.
Q 07In The Breadwinner, young Parvana wears only a chador outdoors; which garment must her mother and Nooria put on?
A burqa
A burqa covers a woman from head to feet, and Parvana wonders how anyone sees out of one. Her father admits that women wearing them on Kabul's broken streets fall down a lot.
Q 08In The Breadwinner, what reason do Taliban soldiers give when they burst in and drag Parvana's father to prison?
He was educated abroad
He was educated abroad, at a university in England, and the soldiers shout that Afghanistan does not need his foreign ideas. Parvana throws herself at the two who stay to search the room.
Q 09In The Breadwinner, who does the tea boy who trips and drops his cups near Parvana turn out to be?
A girl from her class
A girl from her class, Shauzia, has been passing as a boy for six months to support her family. The two team up, and Shauzia soon has bolder ideas for making money.
Q 10Which writer and anti-war activist wrote The Breadwinner after months of interviewing Afghan refugees in camps?
Deborah Ellis
Deborah Ellis was inspired by one interview in particular, with a mother and a girl who had disguised herself as a boy. The later books in the series were more freely imagined.
Q 11In The Breadwinner, what did Parvana's father sell after a market customer made him an offer too good to refuse?
His false leg
His false leg went to a buyer, so he leans on Parvana to reach the market. The stalls are full of them, because many husbands sold the legs of wives who were no longer allowed out.
Q 12In The Breadwinner, which heroine who rallied Afghan troops against the British does Parvana pretend to be?
Malali
Malali, in her father's telling, pulled off her veil and waved it like a flag to rouse a wavering army in 1880. Parvana whispers the name while leading a frightened stranger home in the dark.
Q 13In The Breadwinner, what is the toshak on which Parvana's mother lies for days after the beating at the prison?
Q 21In The Breadwinner, why was Parvana secretly pleased when the Taliban first shut down Kabul's schools?
She missed a maths test
She missed a maths test she had not prepared for, and assumed lessons would start again soon. Nooria, who understood what the closure meant, sobbed and called her stupid.
Q 22In The Breadwinner, which daily chore is Parvana's alone because her mother and Nooria stay indoors?
Fetching water
Fetching water means bucket after bucket hauled from the street tap up bomb-damaged stairs. It is why Parvana resents every round of cleaning that Mother and Nooria begin.
Q 23In The Breadwinner, what illegal item does Parvana's mother hold up to people on the walk to the prison?
A thin mattress
A thin mattress is where Mother stays, silent and facing the wall, until the food runs out on the fourth day and Nooria sends Parvana to the market alone.
Q 14In the novel The Breadwinner, what boy's name does Parvana's family call her when she is outside the home?
Kaseem
Kaseem is the name little Maryam has to remember before she is allowed outdoors with Parvana. The animated film changed the alias to Atesh.
Q 15In The Breadwinner, what does Parvana's first customer, a Talib with a rifle, do as she reads him an old letter?
He sheds a tear
He sheds a tear, because the letter was sent from Germany to his wife, who has since died. Parvana had never imagined that a Talib could feel sorrow.
Q 16In The Breadwinner, how does Parvana say goodbye to the Window Woman before she leaves Kabul with her father?
She plants flowers
She plants flowers, wild ones uprooted from a ruin, in the spot where her blanket used to lie. A passer-by has them watered and tells the doubters that Afghans love beautiful things.
Q 17In The Breadwinner, which subject did Mrs. Weera, the family friend who moves in and takes charge, once teach?
Physical education
Physical education was her subject, and she still treasures a gold medal won as the fastest woman runner in Afghanistan. She treats the household like a team that needs coaching.
Q 18In The Breadwinner, what do Parvana and Shauzia save up to buy so they can follow the crowds around Kabul?
Selling trays
Selling trays, hung from straps, let the two carry cigarettes, chewing gum and matches to wherever people gathered. It paid better than Parvana's mornings spent reading letters.
Q 19In The Breadwinner, to which northern city, then free of the Taliban, does Nooria travel to be married?
Mazar
Mazar, in full Mazar-e-Sharif, offers Nooria a husband whose parents will send her to university. Her mother takes the two youngest children along for the wedding.
Q 20In The Breadwinner, how does Parvana's father finally come home after his months in a Taliban prison?
He is simply released
He is simply released, so weak that two men who find him outside the prison have to help him up the stairs. Asked later why he was let go, he can only say he has no idea.
A photograph
A photograph of her husband is all she has to show, though photos are illegal under the Taliban. A prison guard rips it up, and Parvana gathers the pieces under her chador.
Q 24In The Breadwinner, to which neighbouring country is the secret women's magazine smuggled to be printed?
Pakistan
Pakistan is where the magazine is printed before copies are smuggled back to Kabul. Mrs. Weera later sets off there with Homa to join the rest of her women's group.
Q 25In The Breadwinner, why is Parvana rather than her sister Nooria chosen to be disguised as a boy?
She looks young enough
She looks young enough at eleven, while seventeen-year-old Nooria has a figure that no haircut could hide. Parvana agrees once Mrs. Weera makes clear that the choice is hers.
Q 26In The Breadwinner, which feature of her new boy's clothes delights Parvana because she has never had it before?
Pockets
Pockets are new to her, and she soon enjoys the feel of her earnings stuffed inside one. She is just as startled to walk outdoors with the sun on her uncovered face.
Q 27In The Breadwinner, which language is Parvana's mother tongue, used alongside Pashto when she reads for customers?
Dari
Dari, the Afghan form of Persian, is her first language, and she knows Pashto less well. Her parents, both graduates, speak English too.
Q 28In The Breadwinner, what work did Parvana's mother, Fatana, do before the Taliban ordered women to stay home?
Radio journalist
Radio journalist was her job, and without it she will not go outside: she sees no point in looking at things she cannot write about. The magazine gives her a voice again.
Q 29In The Breadwinner, what must a woman in Taliban-ruled Kabul have with her before she may leave the house?
A male relative
A male relative had to escort every woman, which left Parvana's household stranded once her father was arrested. Nooria even forges a note of permission in his name.
Q 30Which animator directed the film The Breadwinner, her first feature as sole director, for a studio she co-founded?
Nora Twomey
Nora Twomey had co-directed The Secret of Kells before taking on Parvana's story alone, and the film brought her an Oscar nomination.