Gangsta Granny KS3 Quiz (With Answers)

Q1 of 30

Why does Ben not want to spend Friday nights with his granny?

• Her house is spooky and dark
• She seems completely boring
• She never speaks and he finds the silence uncomfortable
• She is strict and makes him do homework

Q2 of 30

What does Ben find hidden in Granny's kitchen?

• Bags of jewels that lead him to discover her secret past
• A gun and a disguise
• Old photographs of herself as a young woman
• A collection of spy equipment

Q3 of 30

What was Granny's secret past?

• She was an assassin working for various governments
• She was an international jewel thief who had stolen gems from across the world
• She was a diamond smuggler who is now in hiding
• She was a spy for the British government

Q4 of 30

How does Ben feel once he discovers Granny's secret?

• Frightened and unsure whether to tell his parents
• Disappointed because he expected something more impressive
• Thrilled — his whole view of her changes and she becomes the most exciting person in his life
• Conflicted between admiration and worry about the law

Q5 of 30

What is Ben's dream that he shares with Granny?

• To visit all the places Granny stole from
• To become a professional dancer like his parents want
• To become a plumber
• To become a famous jewel thief himself one day

Q6 of 30

What do Ben and Granny plan to steal together?

• The mayor's ceremonial chain
• The Duchess of Cambridge's engagement ring
• The Crown Jewels from the Tower of London
• The Koh-i-Noor diamond from a museum

Q7 of 30

What serious health issue does Granny keep hidden from Ben?

• She has cancer but has hidden it to protect Ben from worry
• Her eyesight is failing and she can no longer drive
• She is going deaf
• She has had several small strokes

Q8 of 30

How does Ben's view of spending time with Granny change over the story?

• It transforms completely
• He only values the time once Granny is gone
• He remains reluctant but learns to accept it
• He enjoys it more but never fully changes his view

Q9 of 30

What does Walliams suggest about how young people see old people?

• That elderly people often have extraordinary inner lives that younger people fail to notice or ask about
• That most old people are hiding remarkable secrets
• That young people are always rude and selfish
• That grandparents are always more interesting than parents

Q10 of 30

Why does the ending of this story move many readers?

• Because Ben fails to save Granny and must live with regret
• Because Ben's parents are revealed to have always known the truth
• Because the police catch them and Ben must lie to protect Granny's memory
• Because Granny dies having finally connected with Ben and achieved their dream

Q11 of 30

What does Granny make for dinner every Friday that Ben hates?

• Liver and onions
• Mushy peas on toast
• Cold tinned sardines
• Something made with cabbage

Q12 of 30

How does Granny communicate her love for Ben without saying it directly?

• She lets him win at Scrabble every week and bakes his favourite biscuits
• She tells his parents how proud she is of him
• She saves newspaper clippings about things he is interested in
• She writes him long letters

Q13 of 30

What is significant about Granny agreeing to help Ben with the Crown Jewels plan?

• It gives her a reason to stay active and healthy
• It shows she wants to use her old skills one last time
• It is the first time she has ever fully entered Ben's world and taken his dreams seriously
• It shows she is still mentally alert enough to plan a heist

Q14 of 30

How does Ben's attitude to plumbing reflect a wider theme of the story?

• That children should be encouraged to follow unusual interests
• That parents should not push their own ambitions onto children
• That what you love matters more than what others think is impressive
• That practical skills are undervalued in modern life

Q15 of 30

What does the guard dog subplot in the Tower of London sequence add to the story?

• It proves that their plan was never going to work and they were naive to try
• It provides slapstick comedy that lightens the most tense part of the story
• It creates genuine danger in what might otherwise be purely comic
• It shows Granny's expertise

Q16 of 30

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

Q17 of 30

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

Q18 of 30

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

Q19 of 30

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

Q20 of 30

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

Q21 of 30

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

Q22 of 30

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

Q23 of 30

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

Q24 of 30

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

Q25 of 30

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

Q26 of 30

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

Q27 of 30

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

Q28 of 30

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

Q29 of 30

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

Q30 of 30

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