A nine-year-old girl learns what it costs to keep 400 acres of land in 1933 Mississippi.
Who drives the story
The nine-year-old narrator, strong-willed and quick to fight any insult. She learns to pick her battles, outsmarts Lillian Jean with a fake friendship, and ends the book crying for T.J. and the land.
The twelve-year-old eldest brother who feels responsible for the family while Papa is away. He takes the blame for T.J.'s cheat notes, then hides T.J. from the mob.
A seventh-grade teacher who glues paper over racist textbook charts, teaches the truth about slavery, and leads the Wallace boycott. T.J.'s revenge gets her fired.
The children's father, a railroad worker who warns them about the Wallaces and the Berrys. Shot in an ambush, he later sets fire to his own cotton to stop a lynching.
A giant railroad worker Papa brings home after both lose their jobs. His family was killed by night men when he was six; he fights off the Wallace ambush.
A foolish, manipulative fourteen-year-old who gets Mama fired, then is used and beaten by the Simms brothers and blamed for Barnett's murder. Papa's fire saves him from the mob, not from trial.
The white girl who forces Cassie into the road in Strawberry. Cassie poses as her servant, learns her secrets, beats her, and holds the secrets over her.
The powerful white landowner whose family once owned the Logan land. He pressures sharecroppers to break the boycott and the bank to call the mortgage.
The white lawyer who backs the boycotters' credit and stands up to the lynch mob, insisting T.J. get a trial. He takes custody of T.J. after the fire.
Kaleb, Thurston, and Dewberry, the racist store owners behind the Berry burnings. They help get Mama fired and ambush Papa on the road.
The youngest Logans: six-year-old Little Man, who stomps his insulting textbook, and seven-year-old Christopher-John, the careful rule-follower who digs the bus trap anyway.
Also in the story
Papa's sixty-year-old mother, who still works the fields and passes down family history. In Strawberry she makes Cassie apologize to Charlie Simms to survive.
Papa's hot-tempered brother who left Mississippi for Chicago. He sells his beloved silver Packard to pay off the mortgage and save the land.
Lillian Jean's brother, a white boy who befriends the Logan children and is harassed at home and school for it.
How they are connected
Cassie LoganLillian Jean Simms
She learns to pick her battles, outsmarts Lillian Jean with a fake friendship, and ends the book crying for T.
Stacey LoganPapa (David Logan)
The twelve-year-old eldest brother who feels responsible for the family while Papa is away.
Papa (David Logan)The Wallaces
The children's father, a railroad worker who warns them about the Wallaces and the Berrys.
Big Ma (Caroline Logan)Papa (David Logan)
Papa's sixty-year-old mother, who still works the fields and passes down family history.
Big Ma (Caroline Logan)Cassie Logan
In Strawberry she makes Cassie apologize to Charlie Simms to survive.
Uncle HammerPapa (David Logan)
Papa's hot-tempered brother who left Mississippi for Chicago.
Mr. MorrisonPapa (David Logan)
A giant railroad worker Papa brings home after both lose their jobs.
A foolish, manipulative fourteen-year-old who gets Mama fired, then is used and beaten by the Simms brothers and blamed for Barnett's murder.
Papa's fire saves him from the mob, not from trial.
Jeremy SimmsLillian Jean Simms
Lillian Jean's brother, a white boy who befriends the Logan children and is harassed at home and school for it.
They help get Mama fired and ambush Papa on the road.
The full story act by act, the ending explained and a quick quiz.
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