Gangsta Granny GCSE Quiz (With Answers)

Q1 of 15

What does the novel suggest about how young people judge and underestimate the elderly?

• By making Granny a secret adventurer, Walliams challenges the assumption that old age means boredom and irrelevance
• Young people are always right about the elderly
• Ben is wrong about everything, and
• Old people are always boring

Q2 of 15

How does the relationship between Ben and Granny change across the novel, and what drives this change?

• It stays the same
• Adventure is the thing that connects them, and
• Shared adventure transforms reluctant obligation into genuine love
• Ben always loved his granny

Q3 of 15

How does Walliams use Ben's parents' obsession with Strictly Come Dancing to make a satirical point about celebrity culture?

• The parents are comic, and
• He supports celebrity culture, a reading that locates the novel's meaning in its historical and personal context rather than in its literary structure
• Their shallow obsession with celebrity and entertainment means they miss the extraordinary adventure happening in their own family
• Strictly Come Dancing is criticised as harmful

Q4 of 15

What does the Crown Jewels heist represent symbolically for Granny?

• A chance to embarrass the Royal Family
• A real plan to steal them
• She genuinely wants the jewels, a reading that locates the novel's meaning in its historical and personal context rather than in its literary structure
• One final act of aliveness

Q5 of 15

How does Walliams handle the theme of death in Gangsta Granny in a way that is appropriate for young readers?

• The novel ends before Granny dies
• Death is treated with honesty and gentleness
• Death is treated as a joke
• He avoids death entirely, a reading that locates the novel's meaning in its historical and personal context rather than in its literary structure

Q6 of 15

What does Ben's passion for plumbing — dismissed by his parents — suggest about authenticity and following your own path?

• Plumbing is a bad ambition
• Ben should become a dancer
• His overlooked passion for plumbing symbolises the importance of staying true to yourself even when your dreams are ridiculed
• His parents are right to dismiss his dream

Q7 of 15

How does the structure of the heist adventure allow Walliams to explore the theme of unlikely heroism?

• By placing an elderly woman and a reluctant boy at the centre of a heist, Walliams suggests that heroes come in unexpected forms
• The adventure is the whole point
• Heist stories always have unlikely heroes, a reading that locates the novel's meaning in its historical and personal context rather than in its literary structure
• The heist is for excitement, and

Q8 of 15

What does Granny's secret past as a jewel thief suggest about the gap between how people present themselves and who they really are?

• Old people are all secretly criminals
• People are always what they seem
• The revelation of Granny's secret life suggests that the people closest to us contain depths we never imagine
• Granny is dishonest

Q9 of 15

How does Walliams balance comedy and emotional depth in Gangsta Granny?

• It is purely sad
• The comedy undermines the emotion
• Comic set-pieces
• The novel is funny, and

Q10 of 15

What might the image of the sewers — literally going underground — represent in the heist narrative?

• Going underground represents entering a hidden world beneath the respectable surface
• The sewers are disgusting, and
• It is just a practical route
• It represents pollution

Q11 of 15

How does the novel present the relationship between grandparents and grandchildren as uniquely important?

• All family relationships are the same
• Grandparents and grandchildren are not close in the novel
• Granny is not a good influence
• The novel suggests that grandparent-grandchild relationships can transcend the pressures that complicate parent-child bonds

Q12 of 15

What is Walliams saying about the nature of adventure and where it can be found?

• Granny's adventure is unrealistic
• The greatest adventure can be found in the most unlikely companion
• Adventure requires youth and strength
• Adventure is for the young, and

Q13 of 15

How does Walliams use the contrast between Ben's boring suburban life and Granny's secret history to create dramatic irony?

• The reader's growing sense that Granny is extraordinary while Ben remains unaware creates dramatic irony that makes Ben's eventual discovery more joyful and makes the reader reflect on their own assumptions
• Ben already suspects the truth
• Dramatic irony is too complex for this book
• There is no dramatic irony

Q14 of 15

What does the ending — with Ben mourning Granny but treasuring their adventure — suggest about how we should approach time with elderly relatives?

• Old people will always disappoint us
• The ending is too sad
• We should not get attached to elderly people
• The ending suggests that investing time, attention and love in elderly relatives creates memories and connections that give meaning and comfort after death

Q15 of 15

Gangsta Granny was published in 2011. How does it reflect contemporary British anxieties about ageing, isolation and intergenerational connection?

• It has no social relevance
• The novel addresses growing concerns about elderly isolation and the failure of families to genuinely connect across generations
• It is set in a timeless world
• These concerns are exaggerated