The Tale of Despereaux
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50 free The Tale of Despereaux trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The Tale of Despereaux follows a tiny castle mouse with oversized ears who loves music, books and a human princess, and who is sentenced to the dungeon for it. Around him the novel braids two more lives, a rat who longs for the world upstairs and a serving girl with one impossible wish, before all three collide in the dark. This quiz covers all four parts of the novel: the mouse's birth and trial in Book the First, the rat's fall from grace in Book the Second, Miggery Sow's hard road to the castle in Book the Third, and the rescue in Book the Fourth. A handful of questions look at the author, the illustrator, the awards and the 2008 animated film. It is written for students finishing the book, for teachers and parents who want a quick reading check, and for anyone who read it years ago and wants to see what stuck. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so a wrong guess still teaches the detail.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which food does the king outlaw after the queen's death in The Tale of Despereaux?
Soup
Soup was the queen's favorite dish, and she died of fright when a rat dropped into her bowl of it. The grieving king outlawed rats as well.
Q 02What does Despereaux carry as a sword when he returns to the dungeon to rescue Princess Pea?
A sewing needle
A sewing needle from the mouse Hovis is his only weapon. He later holds its point to Roscuro's chest and chooses not to strike.
Q 03Besides enormous ears, which oddity marks the newborn Despereaux Tilling out from other mice?
Open eyes
Open eyes at birth alarm his family, because mouse pups normally arrive blind. He is also the only one of his litter to live.
Q 04Miggery Sow is sold in The Tale of Despereaux for a tablecloth, cigarettes and which animal?
A hen
A hen sealed the bargain, and the seller, her own parent, never once looked back. The same red tablecloth later ends up as a rat's cape.
Q 05From which perch does Roscuro fall into the queen's bowl at the banquet in The Tale of Despereaux?
A chandelier
A chandelier gave Roscuro his view of the party until Princess Pea shouted the word rat. He let go, and the queen died of fright on the spot.
Q 06Miggery Sow's kitchen knife costs both Despereaux and Roscuro which part of their bodies?
Their tails
Their tails both fall to Mig's blade. She was aiming to kill the mouse on kitchen orders, and later swung at the rat to protect that same mouse.
Q 07What does the jailer Gregory ask of Despereaux in return for saving him from the dungeon's rats?
A story
A story is his price, because down in the dark a good tale is the nearest thing to light. No condemned mouse had ever been spared before.
Q 08Why does the Mouse Council mistake the returning Despereaux for a ghost in Book the Fourth?
He is coated in flour
He is coated in flour after sleeping on a pantry sack, so the mice who sent him to die watch a white phantom walk into their meeting.
Q 09How does The Tale of Despereaux end for Despereaux and Princess Pea once the dungeon rescue is over?
They become friends
They become friends, since the narrator rules out a wedding between a mouse and a human. He earns a seat beside her at the royal table instead.
Q 10Which instrument is the king playing for Princess Pea when Despereaux first creeps out to listen?
A guitar
A guitar accompanies the king's bedtime songs for his daughter, and the music draws Despereaux so close that he ends up sitting at the royal foot.
Q 11Which relative of Despereaux Tilling, hidden under a black hood, delivers him to the dungeon stairs?
Furlough
Furlough, his older brother, is one of the two hooded escorts. He refuses Despereaux a last word with the princess and pushes him down the steps.
Q 12What does Lester Tilling use to summon the Mouse Council over Despereaux's behavior?
A thimble drum
A thimble drum with leather stretched across it sounds the alarm. Days later, sick with guilt over his son's sentence, Lester destroys it.
Q 13What do the mice tie around Despereaux's neck to mark him as condemned to the dungeon?
A red thread
A red thread marks every mouse sent down to the rats, and the dungeon floor is littered with scraps of it. Princess Pea wonders why hers keeps vanishing.
Q 21In The Tale of Despereaux, what held up to young Roscuro's face first sparks his love of light?
A lit match
A lit match is waved in his face by the jailer as a warning, but the flame leaves the young rat hungry for more. Rats are supposed to love the dark.
Q 22In The Tale of Despereaux, what does the rat Botticelli Remorso swing while lecturing Roscuro?
A locket
A locket shaped like a heart is his toy as he argues that making prisoners suffer is the whole point of a rat's life. Roscuro suspects the point is light.
Q 23In The Tale of Despereaux, the prisoner who once traded away his daughter is jailed for which crime?
Stealing cows
Q 14As Despereaux is led to the dungeon, Antoinette Tilling calls a one-word goodbye in which language?
French
French is Antoinette's native tongue, and her farewell, adieu, gives the chapter its title. Lester had already blamed her foreign blood for their son's odd ways.
Q 15Which sight in the castle makes young Despereaux ask his brother whether they are in heaven?
A stained-glass window
A stained-glass window stops him in the middle of a scurrying lesson. He would rather stare at colored light than learn to hide from humans.
Q 16During the king's bedtime concert, what does Despereaux hold out to Princess Pea?
A handkerchief
A handkerchief is his gallant offer when she cries at being told she cannot keep him. The appalled king then orders the mouse out of the room.
Q 17When Princess Pea first points out Despereaux, what does the king insist the tiny creature must be?
A bug
A bug is the king's guess, because Despereaux is so small. Once he accepts that the visitor is a mouse, his mood turns sour.
Q 18How does the sickly young Despereaux Tilling react whenever he hears a loud noise?
He faints
He faints, and he does it again in front of the Mouse Council on hearing his sentence. Antoinette passes out in turn when she learns where he is going.
Q 19What does Merlot Tilling take her little brother Despereaux to the castle library to learn?
How to nibble paper
How to nibble paper is the lesson, with tips on the tastiest parts of a page. Instead the marks turn into words for him, and he refuses to eat them.
Q 20In The Tale of Despereaux, the rat Roscuro's full name, Chiaroscuro, comes from which art form?
Painting
Painting gave the world the word chiaroscuro, the play of bright against shadow, and Book the Second borrows it as a title. The rat is born in the dark but craves the glow upstairs.
Stealing cows, six of them, put him in the dungeon, yet he tells Roscuro the trade he made years earlier was worse. The cloth from that trade is tossed in after him for warmth.
Q 24What is the name of the queen whose death at a banquet sets off The Tale of Despereaux?
Rosemary
Rosemary dies before the main events begin, yet her death causes nearly all of them: a grieving husband's strange laws, a rat's grudge and a daughter's sorrow.
Q 25In which fictional kingdom, in a castle full of mice and rats, is The Tale of Despereaux set?
Dor
Dor is the kingdom, a name that sounds like the word for golden in the tongue of Antoinette Tilling. Its glittering castle sits on top of a dungeon run by rats.
Q 26What does Roscuro pick up while fleeing the banquet and wear on his head in The Tale of Despereaux?
A spoon
A spoon becomes his crown as he slinks back to the dungeon swearing revenge. With a stolen tablecloth for a cape, he looks like a tiny king.
Q 27In Book the Third of The Tale of Despereaux, what does Miggery Sow call the man who buys her?
Uncle
Uncle is the only name she ever gives him. He sets her to cooking and cleaning, and hits her ears whenever he is displeased.
Q 28Which exclamation of Miggery Sow's starts the title of Book the Third of The Tale of Despereaux?
Gor
Gor begins the full title of Book the Third, which steps back in time to follow Miggery Sow from the age of six.
Q 29Which animals is Miggery Sow tending when the royal family rides past in The Tale of Despereaux?
Sheep
Sheep fill the field where Mig, on her seventh birthday, watches Princess Pea ride by on a white horse and first dreams of wearing a crown herself.
Q 30A soldier takes Miggery Sow from her master in The Tale of Despereaux because the king bans what?
Slavery
Slavery is against the law of the land, so the soldier collecting kitchenware under a newer decree takes the girl as well. She becomes a paid servant at the castle.