To Kill a Mockingbird Trivia
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95 free To Kill a Mockingbird trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
This To Kill a Mockingbird trivia quiz covers Harper Lee's 1960 novel from the first summer with Dill to Scout standing on the Radley porch. It asks about the people of Maycomb (Atticus, Calpurnia, Miss Maudie, Mrs. Dubose, the Ewells and the Cunninghams), the mad dog, the knothole gifts, the lynch mob Scout talks down, the trial of Tom Robinson and the Halloween night that ends the book. It also asks where the mockingbird of the title comes in. Beyond the pages it covers what fed the story: Lee's father the lawyer, her childhood neighbour Truman Capote, the Walter Lett case her father's newspaper reported, the editor who turned Go Set a Watchman into the book we know, the Pulitzer, the bans and the 2015 release of that early draft. The 1962 film gets its share too, from Gregory Peck's Oscar to Robert Duvall's silent debut. Roughly a third of the questions are easy for anyone who read it in school, a third need a careful reader's memory, and the rest reward people who know their Lippincott from their Lamb. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the novel, its author and its adaptations before publishing, and each question carries the sentence that establishes it. If you think one is wrong, use the report button and we will look again.
30 of 95 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What is the name of the fictional Alabama town where To Kill a Mockingbird is set?
Maycomb
Maycomb is the fictional town, and it still draws readers from around the world to Lee's real hometown, Monroeville.
Q 02What is the real first name of Scout, the narrator of To Kill a Mockingbird?
Jean Louise
Jean Louise is her name, and at a family Christmas she beats up her relative Francis after he insults Atticus.
Q 03Which member of the Finch household is a Black cook who has helped raise the children for years?
Calpurnia
Calpurnia helps raise the children, and at her church Scout is startled to hear her speak one way at the Finch home and another among her Black neighbours.
Q 04What is the nickname of Charles Baker Harris, the boy who visits each summer?
Dill
Dill is Charles Baker Harris, the summer visitor from Meridian, Mississippi, who one night runs away from home and hides under Scout's bed.
Q 05Which famous writer was the real-life model for Dill?
Truman Capote
Truman Capote, born Truman Persons, spent childhood summers next door to Harper Lee in Alabama, living with his mother's relatives; Lee drew the character of Dill from him.
Q 06What is the first name of the reclusive neighbour known as "Boo" Radley?
Arthur
Arthur Radley, shut indoors for years and the subject of the children's scary rumours, turns out to be the man who saves them from their attacker.
Q 07Who is Atticus Finch appointed to defend in To Kill a Mockingbird?
Tom Robinson
Tom Robinson is convicted by an all-white jury despite a strong defence, and he is later shot dead while trying to escape from prison.
Q 08Which To Kill a Mockingbird character pretends to be a drunk so white townsfolk can explain his life with a Black family?
Dolphus Raymond
Dolphus Raymond carries a paper sack that seems to hold liquor, but he lets the children in on his secret: it's only Coca-Cola.
Q 09How does Scout break up the lynch mob outside the jail?
By chatting to a classmate's father
By chatting to a classmate's father, Mr. Cunningham, Scout moves him so much that he leads the would-be lynchers home.
Q 10From where do Jem and Scout watch the trial in To Kill a Mockingbird?
The colored balcony
The colored balcony is where Reverend Sykes seats them, and from there they watch the all-white jury convict the defendant.
Q 11Which animal must Atticus Finch shoot in the street in To Kill a Mockingbird?
A rabid dog
A rabid dog comes down the street, and the children are stunned when Atticus drops it, though Miss Maudie says he was once the county's best shot.
Q 12Which elderly neighbour fighting a morphine addiction gives Jem a lesson in courage?
Mrs. Dubose
Mrs. Henry Lafayette Dubose makes Scout's brother read to her every afternoon as punishment for wrecking her camellias; she dies free of morphine, which their father calls real courage.
Q 13After the trial, who vows revenge and spits in Atticus's face?
Bob Ewell
Bob Ewell, the accuser's father, spits in the lawyer's face and swears revenge; he later prowls around Judge Taylor's house and harasses the dead defendant's widow, Helen.
Q 21Which actor originated the role of Atticus Finch in the 2018 Broadway adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird?
Jeff Daniels
Jeff Daniels originated the role, and when Broadway reopened after the pandemic shutdown, he came back to play Atticus again.
Q 22Which award did To Kill a Mockingbird win in 1961?
The Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize went to a book Lee had expected to die 'a quick and merciful death at the hands of the reviewers.'
Q 23In a 1964 interview, Lee said she aspired to be the Jane Austen of which place?
South Alabama
Lee told Roy Newquist in 1964 that all she wanted was to be 'the Jane Austen of south Alabama', a chronicler of small-town life in her own corner of the state.
Q 14Jem and Scout are attacked while walking home from what event?
A school pageant
A school pageant on Halloween night is the event, and the wire ham costume Scout wears home keeps her from seeing much of the attack.
Q 15What injury does Jem suffer in the attack?
A fractured arm
Jem suffers a fractured arm and is knocked unconscious, and the man who carries him home turns out to be Boo Radley.
Q 16How does Sheriff Tate report the attacker's death to protect Boo?
He fell on his own knife
He fell on his own knife, Tate insists, so the shy man who saved the children never has to face a trial or the town's attention.
Q 17Why, as Miss Maudie explains to Scout, is it a sin to kill a mockingbird?
They just sing for people's enjoyment
They just sing for people's enjoyment, and at the end Scout compares punishing Boo to killing a mockingbird.
Q 18Where did Harper Lee take the surname Finch from?
Her mother's maiden name
Her mother's maiden name was Finch, yet Lee insisted To Kill a Mockingbird was not an autobiography.
Q 19Besides practicing law, Harper Lee's father, the model for Atticus, also served in which body?
The Alabama State Legislature
The Alabama State Legislature was one of his posts, and he hoped Harper would join his law firm like her sister Alice, but she left to write.
Q 20Scholars link To Kill a Mockingbird's trial to which notorious real-life case?
The Scottsboro Boys
The Scottsboro Boys were convicted again and again by all-white Alabama juries, even after one of their accusers took back her story.
Q 24Which US president awarded Harper Lee the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2007?
George W. Bush
President George W. Bush presented Harper Lee with the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House on 5 November 2007, citing the novel's influence on American character.
Q 25Go Set a Watchman, published in 2015, was what in relation to To Kill a Mockingbird?
An earlier draft
An earlier draft, it was first promoted by its publisher as a sequel before readers learned it had been written before To Kill a Mockingbird.
Q 26The title Go Set a Watchman comes from which book of the Bible?
Isaiah
Isaiah 21:6 supplies the title, and that novel shows a grown-up Scout discovering that Atticus defends segregation.
Q 27Who played Atticus Finch in the 1962 film of To Kill a Mockingbird?
Gregory Peck
Gregory Peck won the Best Actor Oscar for the role, and he and Lee became so close that his grandson Harper is named after her.
Q 28Which future star made his big-screen debut as Boo Radley in the 1962 film?
Robert Duvall
Robert Duvall made his film debut as the silent Boo Radley in 1962; he stayed out of the sun for six weeks and dyed his hair blond to look as though he had never left the house.
Q 29Who directed the 1962 film of To Kill a Mockingbird?
Robert Mulligan
Robert Mulligan directed it, and it was shot in Hollywood because Monroeville, Lee's hometown, had changed too much since the Depression.
Q 30Who wrote the Oscar-winning screenplay for the 1962 film?
Horton Foote
Horton Foote won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for the 1962 film, one of its three Oscars from eight nominations; the others were Best Actor and Best Art Direction.