The Tiger Rising
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
7correct to beat the crowd
40 free The Tiger Rising trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The Tiger Rising is Kate DiCamillo's short, serious novel about a boy who has stopped letting himself feel anything. Rob has lost his mother and moved to a Florida motel with his father. Then, on the same day, he discovers a tiger locked in a cage and meets Sistine, a furious new girl who says exactly what she thinks. This quiz follows the story from that first morning to its final pages. There are questions on the main characters, including Rob, Sistine, Willie May and Beauchamp, on key moments in the plot, and on the details careful readers notice. A handful cover the author's life, the prize the book was shortlisted for and the film adaptation. It is pitched at readers of about ten and up who have finished the book, and at teachers, librarians and parents looking for a ready-made comprehension check. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so the set works for class review, a book club or a quick test of your own memory.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In The Tiger Rising, Rob imagines locking his painful feelings inside which everyday object?
A suitcase
A suitcase is where Rob stuffs every painful thought, and he scolds himself whenever a memory of his mother makes him open it. Meeting Sistine slowly loosens the lid.
Q 02What happens to the tiger moments after Rob and Sistine set it free in The Tiger Rising?
It is shot dead
It is shot dead by Rob's father, who feared the animal would hurt or kill his son. The loss finally gets the two of them talking about Rob's mother.
Q 03Which singer and actress plays wise Willie May in the film adaptation of The Tiger Rising?
Queen Latifah
Queen Latifah plays Willie May, who warns Rob that letting the animal loose is not an option. The film was made in late 2019 but did not reach cinemas until January 2022.
Q 04The Tiger Rising's Sistine is named after a chapel ceiling painted by which Renaissance artist?
Michelangelo
Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel ceiling in fresco between 1508 and 1512. Rob stuns his new classmate on the bus by being the only kid in town who knows what her name means.
Q 05Which English poet wrote the tiger poem that Sistine recites beside the cage in The Tiger Rising?
William Blake
William Blake published 'The Tyger' in 1794 in his collection Songs of Experience. Sistine recites its opening the first time she sees the caged animal pacing.
Q 06Which actor plays Beauchamp, the tiger-keeping motel owner, in the film of The Tiger Rising?
Dennis Quaid
Dennis Quaid plays Beauchamp, a boss who is openly critical of his staff and not especially friendly to the motel's guests either.
Q 07In The Tiger Rising, what does Willie May say Rob is holding in his legs that causes his rash?
His sadness
His sadness is the cause, Willie May says, and the rash will not heal until he lets it rise up. Her words echo the book's title.
Q 08In The Tiger Rising, what does principal Mr. Phelmer tell Rob to do until his leg rash clears up?
Stay home from school
Stay home from school is the order, because parents fear the rash is contagious. Rob is secretly thrilled: he believes his legs will never heal, so he thinks he is free for good.
Q 09Which debut novel about a girl and a stray dog did Kate DiCamillo publish before The Tiger Rising?
Because of Winn-Dixie
Because of Winn-Dixie came out in 2000 and won a Newbery Honor. The Tiger Rising, her second book, followed just a year later.
Q 10What job does Willie May do for Beauchamp at the Florida motel in The Tiger Rising?
Housekeeper
Housekeeper Willie May works for Beauchamp at the motel, and she is the one adult Rob and Sistine trust enough to show the tiger.
Q 11In The Tiger Rising, Sistine insists her father will soon take her back to which northern city?
Philadelphia
Philadelphia is the home Sistine swears she will return to, and it is also the city where Kate DiCamillo herself was born.
Q 12In The Tiger Rising, what illness killed Rob's mother six months before the story begins?
Cancer
Cancer took Rob's mother six months before the story opens. His father responds by never speaking of her, which is why Rob has so much grief packed away.
Q 13In The Tiger Rising, what does Sistine promise on the bus to bring Rob the next day?
His homework
His homework is her excuse to step off the bus at the motel the next afternoon, and that visit is when Rob blurts out his secret about the tiger.
Q 21What is the name of the Florida motel where Rob and his father live in The Tiger Rising?
Kentucky Star
Kentucky Star is the run-down motel where Rob's father works for Beauchamp, and its neon sign glows outside their room. Sistine wants to know how a Florida motel got that name.
Q 22How did motel owner Beauchamp come to own a live tiger in The Tiger Rising?
As payment on a debt
As payment on a debt is how the tiger arrived, and Beauchamp cannot decide whether to show it off as a roadside attraction or kill it for its skin.
Q 23Where does Rob stumble upon the caged tiger early one morning before school in The Tiger Rising?
In the woods
Q 14What job does Beauchamp secretly pay Rob to do for the caged tiger in The Tiger Rising?
Feed it meat
Rob is hired to feed it meat, which Beauchamp hands over in a heavy, bloody grocery bag. The job comes with a keyring that also opens the locks on the cage door.
Q 15The Tiger Rising by Kate DiCamillo was a finalist for which major American literary prize?
National Book Award
National Book Award judges shortlisted it for Young People's Literature in 2001, when the prize went to Virginia Euwer Wolff's True Believer.
Q 16Which hobby, learned from his late mother, does Rob practise alone in The Tiger Rising?
Whittling wood
Whittling wood is the skill Rob's mother taught him. When Sistine sees his little wooden figures in the motel room, she tells him he is clearly an artist.
Q 17In The Tiger Rising, what was the name of the pet bird Willie May set free as a child?
Cricket
Cricket was a parakeet whose singing she loved, yet she let him go. Her father was furious, sure the bird would only end up eaten by a snake.
Q 18In The Tiger Rising, Rob and his father start over in which small Florida town?
Lister
Lister is the small town where the pair move into a motel, and where newcomer Sistine loudly announces that she will not be staying.
Q 19In The Tiger Rising, Sistine's father broke up the family by running off with whom?
His secretary
His secretary is the woman he left with, Sistine tells Rob on the walk to the cage. She then demands to hear about Rob's mother in return.
Q 20After his mother's death in The Tiger Rising, what does Rob's father urge Rob never to do?
Cry
Rob's father tells him not to cry, and the two never talk about his mother at all. Rob gets so good at holding back tears that he thinks of it as a skill.
In the woods behind the motel, at an abandoned gas station Beauchamp owns, Rob finds the cage. Thinking about the animal helps him get through another miserable day at school.
Q 24In The Tiger Rising, what does Sistine decide wise Willie May must be after first meeting her?
A prophetess
A prophetess is Sistine's verdict after hearing Willie May's blunt advice. Willie May has already told Rob exactly why his legs will not heal.
Q 25What is new girl Sistine wearing when she first boards the school bus in The Tiger Rising?
A party dress
A party dress makes Sistine an instant target, and the bullies who usually torment Rob turn on her instead. She fights back every time.
Q 26What does Rob say at the cage that makes Sistine yell that she hates him in The Tiger Rising?
Her father isn't coming
Her father isn't coming for her, Rob says, and he somehow knows it is true. Sistine storms off, and Rob chases after her ready to do what she has wanted all along.
Q 27Which Newbery-winning novel about a mouse did Kate DiCamillo publish next after The Tiger Rising?
The Tale of Despereaux
The Tale of Despereaux was her third book, and it won the 2004 Newbery Medal. She wrote it after a friend's child asked for a story with an unlikely hero.
Q 28From which large Florida city do Rob and his father move away in The Tiger Rising?
Jacksonville
Jacksonville is the city Rob's father uproots them from after his wife dies, and the pair end up sharing one messy motel room with no phone.
Q 29What job does Rob's father do for Beauchamp at the motel in The Tiger Rising?
Maintenance man
Maintenance man is his role, and Rob pitches in with chores such as weeding the sidewalk. Beauchamp gloats that he gets the boy's labour for free.
Q 30On her first day in class in The Tiger Rising, Sistine announces that she hates which region?
The South
The South gets a blast of Sistine's anger almost as soon as she arrives. She promises her new classmates she will not be staying long.