Sophia's War
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40 free Sophia's War trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Sophia's War: A Tale of the Revolution is Avi's historical thriller about Sophia Calderwood, a New York girl who grows from a frightened witness of the British occupation into a spy. The novel threads one invented narrator through two true stories: the brutal treatment of American prisoners, and the plot by Benedict Arnold and John André that nearly changed the course of the Revolution. This quiz covers the whole book: the opening scene, Sophia's search for the missing William, her dangerous work inside British headquarters, and the race to stop a traitor. It also tests the real people and places behind the story, and a little about Avi himself. It suits students reading the novel in class, teachers who want a quick comprehension check, and anyone who likes Revolutionary War history told as an adventure. Every answer comes with a short explanation.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Sophia's War opens as Sophia watches the British hang which young American spy in occupied New York?
Nathan Hale
Nathan Hale was a 21-year-old Continental officer caught gathering intelligence behind British lines. Watching him die shows Sophia what spying can cost, years before she takes the same risk.
Q 02John André, the British officer hanged as a spy in Sophia's War, is now buried in which English church?
Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey received his remains in 1821, moved from beneath the American gallows at a royal duke's request. The enemy spy now rests among kings and poets under a marble monument.
Q 03In Sophia's War, how does British Lieutenant John André first enter Sophia's life in occupied New York?
He boards in their home
He boards in their home because the occupying army makes the Calderwoods house British officers. Sophia, whose soldier brother is missing, finds herself charmed by an enemy under her own roof.
Q 04In Sophia's War, Benedict Arnold plots to hand the British which American stronghold on the Hudson?
West Point
West Point sat on high ground above a tight bend in the river, so its guns could stop British warships sailing upriver. Losing it would have split New England from the other states.
Q 05In the second half of Sophia's War, Sophia spies inside British Army headquarters while working as what?
A maid
A maid is the cover her spy handlers arrange inside the British commander's own house. There she finds André, now a major, at work on a secret that could wreck the whole American war effort.
Q 06In Sophia's War, William Calderwood is held in a notorious British prison converted from what?
A sugar house
A sugar house was a warehouse or refinery for Caribbean sugar and molasses, and the British packed several with rebel prisoners. One on Liberty Street held 400 to 500 men at a time.
Q 07In Sophia's War, Sophia first seeks her brother at King's College, a New York school known today as what?
Columbia University
Columbia University began in 1754 as King's College under a royal charter. War shut its classes for eight years while armies used its only building as a barracks and military hospital.
Q 08Condemned as a spy, John André of Sophia's War asked George Washington to let him die by what means?
A firing squad
A firing squad was a soldier's death, while hanging was kept for spies, so André pleaded for bullets. His request was not granted, and he went to the gallows in full British uniform.
Q 09Sophia's War mentions which Thomas Paine pamphlet that urged the colonies to break from Britain?
Common Sense
Common Sense appeared anonymously in January 1776 and became an immediate sensation. Its plain case for a republic with a written constitution helped rally colonists behind a clean break.
Q 10What hid George Washington's river escape after the defeat that leaves William missing in Sophia's War?
A thick fog
A thick fog settled over the East River at daybreak, just as the boats were running out of darkness. All 9,000 trapped soldiers reached Manhattan without a single life lost.
Q 11In Sophia's War, William Calderwood goes missing after George Washington's army loses which battle?
Brooklyn
Brooklyn was the largest battle of the whole war, and losing it handed New York to the British until the peace. Avi grew up on the old battlefield, which first drew him to the Revolution.
Q 12In Sophia's War, Sophia's parents keep their house by posing as Loyalists, known by which nickname?
Tories
Tories were also called Royalists or King's Men, and one modern estimate makes them only 15 to 20 percent of white colonists. Posing as one lets Sophia's parents stay on in occupied New York.
Q 13Sophia's father signs which document for King George after the British occupy New York in Sophia's War?
An oath of allegiance
Q 21In Sophia's War, which British sloop takes André up the Hudson before American cannon drive it off?
HMS Vulture
HMS Vulture took several hits in a two-hour cannonade and slipped away, stranding André on shore with no way back by water. Days later it carried the fleeing Benedict Arnold to safety.
Q 22Which militiaman in Sophia's War helped seize Major André days after escaping a British prison himself?
John Paulding
John Paulding was the only one of the three captors who could read, so it fell to him to study the hidden papers. André offered his horse and watch as a bribe and was turned down.
Q 23John André is caught in Sophia's War after mistaking a militiaman in which soldiers' coat for a friend?
Hessian
An oath of allegiance marked a colonist as a loyal subject, whatever he privately believed. It teaches Sophia that under occupation, private beliefs and public words have to part ways.
Q 14Sophia's affection for John André in Sophia's War is shaken when the British officer refuses to do what?
Aid her captive brother
Aid her captive brother is all Sophia asks, and André, for all his charm, chooses not to. She is left to try to save William by herself, and her opinion of the officer never recovers.
Q 15In Sophia's War, Sophia's long search for William ends aboard which British prison ship in the harbor?
The Good Intent
The Good Intent is the last stop in a search that takes Sophia from a college to a warehouse jail to the harbor. Its kindly name hangs over a hold where rebel prisoners are left to die.
Q 16In Sophia's War, Sophia is planted in the New York house of which British commander-in-chief in America?
Henry Clinton
Henry Clinton led British forces in America from 1778 to 1782, with John André as his favourite aide. He did all he could to save André from the gallows, yet declined to hand Benedict Arnold over.
Q 17In Sophia's War, Sophia joins which secret Patriot spy network that served George Washington in New York?
The Culper Ring
The Culper Ring took its name from Culpeper County, Virginia, where Washington had worked as a young surveyor. Its two chief agents signed their reports as Samuel Culper Senior and Junior.
Q 18Which real spy in Sophia's War sent George Washington reports under the code number 723?
Robert Townsend
Robert Townsend was so guarded that he made a fellow agent promise never to reveal his name, even to Washington. His orders were to mix with British officers in the city's coffee houses.
Q 19In Sophia's War, Major André carries a pass from Benedict Arnold made out in which false name?
John Anderson
John Anderson was the name meant to get him past American sentries. It failed when three militiamen searched him anyway and found the plans of the fort hidden in his stocking.
Q 20What is Major John André's reaction in Sophia's War on meeting Sophia again at headquarters three years on?
He does not know her
He does not know her, because the twelve-year-old he once flirted with is now fifteen and working as a servant. Being overlooked stings Sophia, yet it is what lets her watch him.
Hessian troops were Germans hired out to fight for Britain, so André seems to have taken the wearer for an ally. The coat was a disguise the man had used to slip out of occupied New York.
Q 24In Sophia's War, which American major urges Colonel Jameson not to send the captured André to Arnold?
Benjamin Tallmadge
Benjamin Tallmadge ran Washington's military intelligence and suspected treason at once. He lost the argument over warning Arnold, but won enough to have André turned back and held.
Q 25In the history behind Sophia's War, John André was tried in a church and hanged in which New York village?
Tappan
Tappan was the Continental Army's headquarters, across the Hudson from the road where André was caught. He was tried in its Reformed Church and buried beside the gallows.
Q 26The hanging that opens Sophia's War took place one day after which disaster struck British-held New York?
A great fire
A great fire burned as much as a quarter of the city's buildings overnight. British leaders blamed rebels hiding in the city, while Washington and Congress denied any part in it.
Q 27In Sophia's War, what does Sophia do when she cannot pass her discovery to her spy contacts?
Travels north alone
Travels north alone is the bold answer: a fifteen-year-old sets out for the American lines to stop the plot herself. She knows that being caught could mean a hanging of her own.
Q 28Besides stopping the treason, which personal motive drives Sophia against John André in Sophia's War?
Revenge
Revenge for William's death in British hands sits beside her patriotism, and she knows it. Sophia keeps checking whether her motives for spying are pure.
Q 29In Sophia's War, what does John André write for young Sophia that later contributes to his undoing?
A poem
A poem fits the real André, a charmer who could draw, sing and write verse. A religious poem was found in his pocket after his execution.
Q 30Where in New York stands the monument and crypt for the prison-ship dead whose ordeal Sophia's War depicts?
Fort Greene Park
Fort Greene Park holds a 149-foot column above a crypt for some of the 11,500 prisoners who died on the ships. Their bones had been washing out of the nearby shoreline for years.