Woodsrunner
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40 free Woodsrunner trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Gary Paulsen's Woods Runner, often searched as Woodsrunner, drops a thirteen-year-old hunter into the first full year of the American Revolution. Samuel knows the Pennsylvania forest better than anyone in his settlement, and when a raid carries off his parents he sets out alone to track them, past burned farms and enemy patrols, toward the heart of British power. This quiz follows that journey from the opening chapter to the epilogue: the raid, the people who shelter and guide Samuel, the rescue, and what becomes of the family afterwards. A handful of questions step outside the story to the author's life and other books, and to the real weapons, soldiers and events behind the plot. It suits readers who have just finished the novel, classes checking comprehension before a test, and book clubs looking for a round of questions. Every answer comes with an explanation, so a miss still teaches something.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In Woods Runner, a British officer spares Samuel's father because he wants a partner for which game?
Chess
Chess saves the family: an officer in the raiding party finds a board in the cabin and takes the couple along as prisoners because he misses having an opponent.
Q 02Which soldiers fighting for Britain kill Annie Clark's parents in Woods Runner?
Hessians
Hessians were hired German troops, named for Hesse-Kassel and Hesse-Hanau, the states that sent most of them. At least 30,000 fought in the war, about a quarter of Britain's land forces.
Q 03Which weapon strikes Samuel in the head when rebels attack the redcoat camp holding his parents in Woods Runner?
A tomahawk
A tomahawk blow leaves Samuel senseless for days, and he wakes to learn that the rebels have carried him twelve miles from the fight.
Q 04When redcoats near his wagon in Woods Runner, what does old Abner tell Samuel and Annie to pretend to be?
His grandchildren
His grandchildren is the story Abner gives, and the patrol passes them by. The old man turns out to have plenty of practice at fooling soldiers.
Q 05In Woods Runner, Samuel learns his captured parents are being taken to the British headquarters in which city?
New York
New York stayed in British hands until 1783, so reaching his parents means walking straight into the enemy's strongest base.
Q 06What is Samuel about to steal from a farm when he first meets Annie Clark in Woods Runner?
A chicken
A chicken is his target until Annie offers him one herself, choosing a bird she calls mean. Her parents then lay out a feast for the stranger.
Q 07In Woods Runner, warriors of which Native American people join the British raid on Samuel's settlement?
Iroquois
Iroquois unity broke over the Revolution: four of the six nations sided with Britain, while the other two fought beside the patriots.
Q 08Woods Runner author Gary Paulsen is best known for which survival novel about a boy stranded by a plane crash?
Hatchet
Hatchet leaves 13-year-old Brian Robeson alone in the Canadian wilderness with a single tool, and Paulsen went on to write four more books about him.
Q 09What do Samuel's parents open at the end of Woods Runner to take in children orphaned by the war?
A school
A school fits the couple, who were always more at home with their books than with the forest around their cabin.
Q 10What does 13-year-old Samuel supply to most of the families in his Pennsylvania settlement in Woods Runner?
Fresh meat
Fresh meat from Samuel's hunting feeds the settlement, because his parents came to the frontier from the cities and have little skill at tracking game.
Q 11After the rescue in Woods Runner, Samuel leads his family on a dangerous trek to settle in which city?
Philadelphia
Philadelphia is where Samuel earlier offered to leave Annie for safety, when a signpost put it 41 miles to the south, but she refused to be parted from him.
Q 12In Woods Runner, Samuel's starving father is locked up with dozens of other men in what kind of building?
A sugar mill
A sugar mill holds him, as in real life: the British turned three of the city's sugar houses into makeshift jails for captured Americans.
Q 13Abner McDougal, the old patriot spy of Woods Runner, travels the roads posing as which kind of craftsman?
Tinker
Q 21After freeing his parents in Woods Runner, Samuel crosses the river by boat to the safety of which colony?
New Jersey
New Jersey is where Annie is waiting on the far bank, and Samuel's parents embrace her as their daughter as soon as they land.
Q 22In the rescue plan of Woods Runner, what does Samuel use to knock out the guard at his father's prison?
A brick
A brick does the job while the guard is distracted by a bundle that Samuel and Abner claim is food for a prisoner.
Q 23In the opening chapter of Woods Runner, which animal does Samuel take aim at but decide not to shoot?
A deer
A deer wanders up to him and he lets it go, his mind on the stranger who reached the settlement the night before with news of a war.
Tinker was a handy cover: these travelling menders of pots and pans went from farm to farm, so nobody questioned an old man with a wagon of odds and ends.
Q 14What does Gary Paulsen place between the chapters of Samuel's story throughout Woods Runner?
Short history notes
Short history notes follow the chapters, on subjects such as spy networks, weapons and war orphans, so readers see the real events behind Samuel's journey.
Q 15What does Annie Clark become to Samuel by the end of Woods Runner?
His adopted sister
His adopted sister is how Samuel comes to see Annie on the road, and his parents accept her as their daughter the moment he tells them about her.
Q 16The Pennsylvania long rifle of Samuel's frontier world in Woods Runner is better known by the name of which state?
Kentucky
Kentucky rifle is the nickname that stuck, taken from a popular song about Andrew Jackson's victory at the Battle of New Orleans, decades after the Revolution.
Q 17The war that reaches Samuel in Woods Runner began near Boston in 1775 at Lexington and which other town?
Concord
Concord was the target of the British march, which set out to destroy militia supplies stored there and ended as a running fight all the way back to Boston.
Q 18Before writing Woods Runner, Gary Paulsen drove a dog team across Alaska in which famous long-distance race?
The Iditarod
The Iditarod took Paulsen more than 17 days in 1983, when he finished 41st of 54 mushers on the 1,150-mile trail.
Q 19Which young rebel, on his way to join the American forces, nurses the wounded Samuel in Woods Runner?
Coop
Coop, whose full name is John Cooper, feeds Samuel back to strength, and their friendship is a large part of why Samuel later returns to help the rebels.
Q 20Which British king were American patriots fighting in 1776, when Samuel's settlement is raided in Woods Runner?
George III
George III reigned from 1760 until his death in 1820, so he stayed on the throne for decades after losing the American colonies.
Q 24What do Samuel's parents do together every night in their frontier cabin in Woods Runner?
Read aloud
Read aloud to each other is what they do, and the books and stories of the couple are how Samuel pictures the towns far to the east.
Q 25In Woods Runner, what does the old spy Abner use to send a message some forty miles ahead of his wagon?
A carrier pigeon
A carrier pigeon covers the distance in about an hour, and Abner marvels at the thought of anything travelling through the air that fast.
Q 26What nickname did redcoats, like those who raid Samuel's settlement in Woods Runner, give their musket?
Brown Bess
Brown Bess was the standard British service musket from 1722 until 1836, more than a century, and American revolutionaries used it as well.
Q 27Which document, issued in 1776 as Woods Runner begins, condemns the king for hiring foreign mercenaries?
Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence lists 27 grievances against the king, and the 25th attacks his use of hired foreign troops like those who terrorise farms in Woods Runner.
Q 28Kirkus paired Woods Runner with Gary Paulsen's earlier novel Soldier's Heart, set during which war?
The Civil War
The Civil War is seen through Charley Goddard, a real farm boy who lied about his age to enlist at 15 and came home haunted by what he had seen.
Q 29What do the rebels who rescued Samuel feed him first as he recovers from his head wound in Woods Runner?
Broth
Broth comes first, then more solid food once he can manage it; by then the group has spent six or seven days covering just twelve miles.
Q 30What has Samuel made for his weakened father to wear on the forest escape in Woods Runner?
A pair of moccasins
A pair of moccasins lets his father move quietly through the forest; Samuel counts himself lucky when his own last a month on the trail.