The Nickel Boys

This flexible-use quiz is designed for reading comprehension assessment and activity needs in classroom, home-schooling and other settings. Questions connect to the text’s plot, characters, and themes — and align with the content and chapter organization in the rest of this study guide. Use quizzes as pre-reading hooks, reading checks, discussion starters, entrance/exit “tickets,” small group activities, writing activities, and lessons on finding evidence and support in a text.

Depth of Knowledge Levels: Questions require respondents to demonstrate ability to: 

1. Recall and Understand Content (e.g., who, what, where, when) 
2. Apply and Analyze Ideas (e.g., how and why)

1. Who are the Nickel Boys?

A) a group of teens who live in Nickel, Florida

B) former students of Nickel Academy

C) members of an archaeology club

D) the teachers at Nickel Academy

2. What does Elwood win after participating in the dish-drying “contest” at the hotel?

A) the album Martin Luther King at Zion Hill

B) a chocolate bar

C) a set of encyclopedias

D) a toy horse

3. Who is Elwood’s parental guardian at the start of the novel?

A) the head of the hotel kitchen staff

B) his older brother

C) his grandmother

D) his grandfather

4. What 1954 event causes Elwood to wonder if more Black guests will soon visit the hotel?

A) the Civil Rights Act