The Pigman
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
6correct to beat the crowd
50 free The Pigman trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Paul Zindel's The Pigman has been handed out in English classes for more than half a century, and it still stings. Two restless teenagers, John and Lorraine, dial a number as a joke and end up befriending Mr. Pignati, a lonely widower who gives them the warmth their own homes lack, until one bad decision costs all three of them dearly. This quiz walks through the whole story: the phone game, the trips to the zoo, the secrets hidden in the old man's house, the party that goes wrong and the ending readers remember for years. It also covers the people around the two narrators, from John's exasperated parents to the classmate who does the most damage, along with the real people and places Zindel drew on and what he wrote next. It suits anyone revising for a class test, teachers after a quick comprehension check, and readers who met the book years ago and want to see how much stuck. Every answer comes with a short explanation.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In The Pigman, what kind of animal is Bobo, the zoo resident Mr. Pignati calls his best friend?
Baboon
Bobo is a baboon, and a nasty one: the zookeeper dislikes him, while Mr. Pignati sees only a loving friend who has earned his treats.
Q 02In the prank phone call that begins The Pigman, Lorraine pretends to be calling from what?
A charity
A charity is her cover story, and the trusting old man promptly offers a ten-dollar donation that John insists on collecting in person.
Q 03In The Pigman, John types symbols such as @#$% throughout his narration in place of what?
Curse words
Curse words become typed symbols whenever John tells the story: he warns readers he has one string for a mild curse and a longer one for a truly revolting curse.
Q 04Which gift does Mr. Pignati buy for John, Lorraine and himself on a shopping spree in The Pigman?
Roller skates
Roller skates for all three turn his house into a rink, and a game of tag on them ends with the old man's first heart attack.
Q 05The Pigman author Paul Zindel taught which subject at a New York high school for ten years?
Chemistry
Chemistry was his day job at Tottenville High School, and he mined the classroom: Lorraine was modelled on a student in one of his chemistry classes.
Q 06Norton, the bully of The Pigman, earned his mocking nickname after being caught shoplifting what?
Marshmallows
Marshmallows made him the Marshmallow Kid for good, and John, who knows him well, reckons the taunted thief could grow up to be a killer.
Q 07In The Pigman, what does John squeeze into the lock his father fits on the family telephone?
Glue
Glue jams the lock so his father cannot dial either, and John then works out a way to place calls anyway, leaving himself the only user.
Q 08Which major award did The Pigman author Paul Zindel win in 1971 for his play about marigolds?
Pulitzer Prize for Drama
The Pulitzer Prize for Drama went to The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds, a play he had written back in 1964 as a teacher.
Q 09The Pigman is set in which part of New York, where author Paul Zindel was born and raised?
Staten Island
Staten Island was home turf: Zindel was born in its Tottenville neighbourhood, taught at Tottenville High School and set many of his books there.
Q 10How do narrators John and Lorraine divide the storytelling in Paul Zindel's novel The Pigman?
They alternate chapters
They alternate chapters, John taking the odd numbers and Lorraine the even, and each often goes back to correct the other's version of events.
Q 11What drink does Mr. Pignati offer teenagers John and Lorraine on their first visit in The Pigman?
Wine
Wine comes out as soon as they arrive, along with food and an invitation to the zoo, a warmer welcome than either teen gets at home.
Q 12What career does John dream of in The Pigman, an ambition his father dismisses as a foolish fantasy?
An actor
An actor is what John longs to be, but his father, a Wall Street trader, expects him to put on a suit and join the family business.
Q 13Which career does Lorraine hope for in The Pigman, an ambition she keeps secret from her mother?
A writer
A writer is what she means to become, and she already observes people like one: her thoughtful half of the story balances John's impulsive half.
Q 21Which find in Mr. Pignati's house tells John and Lorraine the truth about his wife in The Pigman?
Funeral documents
Funeral documents turn up while they explore the house, including the bill, and Zindel reproduced some of them in the book as the teens see them.
Q 22Who do John and Lorraine claim to be so the hospital lets them visit Mr. Pignati in The Pigman?
His children
His children is the lie they tell, and it is nearly true: by then they have become the family the lonely, childless widower never had.
Q 23In The Pigman, Lorraine's mother distrusts all men after her husband did what while she was pregnant?
Cheated on her
Q 14In The Pigman, which unflattering nickname does John use for his father whenever he mentions him?
The Bore
The Bore is his label for a father who thinks only about trading, while John's mother gets the equally fond title of the Old Lady.
Q 15Which of John's habits does Lorraine keep urging him to quit throughout Paul Zindel's The Pigman?
Smoking
Smoking is the one she nags about, yet John carries on, feeling his home life is too bleak to make a long life worth protecting.
Q 16In the telephone game the teens play at the start of The Pigman, what wins a round?
Keeping a stranger on longest
Keeping a stranger on longest is the goal, using any outlandish story, and Lorraine's turn happens to land on a lonely widower glad to chat.
Q 17On the final zoo trip in The Pigman, what greets John, Lorraine and Mr. Pignati at Bobo's enclosure?
An empty cage
An empty cage is all they find, and an indifferent attendant's news that Bobo has died brings on the heart attack that kills Mr. Pignati.
Q 18What is the first name of Mr. Pignati's late wife, whose clothes still fill her closet in The Pigman?
Conchetta
Conchetta has been dead for months, yet her husband tells visitors she is merely away, because he cannot bear to admit she is gone.
Q 19Which snack does Mr. Pignati feed Bobo on his regular zoo visits in Paul Zindel's The Pigman?
Peanuts
Peanuts are Bobo's favourite, he insists, and a rude vendor selling them is the first of the bad omens Lorraine counts on that trip.
Q 20In The Pigman, Mr. Pignati claims his wife is away visiting his sister in which US state?
California
California is the story he repeats even to himself, because pretending she is on a trip hurts less than admitting she has died.
He cheated on her while she was expecting Lorraine, and the bitterness now pours out as constant warnings to her daughter about boys.
Q 24In The Pigman, what job lets Lorraine's mother pocket light bulbs and food from the homes she works in?
A nurse
A nurse to the terminally ill, she feels underpaid and evens the score by taking supplies, even steering families to an undertaker who pays her.
Q 25In The Pigman, John's father works on a Wall Street exchange trading which commodity?
Coffee
Coffee rules his life: his mood depends on how many lots he sells in a day, and he expects John to take over half the business.
Q 26John's mother in The Pigman escapes every family argument by throwing herself into which activity?
Cleaning
Cleaning is her refuge: she keeps the house as neat as a museum, with furniture under plastic, so that nobody inside it can relax.
Q 27In The Pigman, what did John once set off in the boys' bathroom at his high school?
Firecrackers
Firecrackers in the bathroom head John's list of pranks, the work of a clever, restless boy with parents who never try to understand him.
Q 28What does John get his whole class to roll across the floor on substitute-teacher days in The Pigman?
Apples
Apples, bruised and rotten ones, go rolling the moment the substitute turns her back, a stunt John organises for the entire room.
Q 29Where did Lorraine first meet John in The Pigman, when he sat down beside her and burst out laughing?
On the bus
On the bus he simply started laughing; the lonely new girl took offence, then caught the giggles herself, and they were friends from that day.
Q 30Paul Zindel's The Pigman opens with what, signed by both John and Lorraine, before the story starts?
An oath
An oath to record only the facts comes first, complete with both signatures, one of several handwritten extras printed in the book.