Victor Vollmer
Victor is the central character in the novel, and everything is narrated through his point of view. Victor is eleven years old, smarter than the average kid, and a far better baseball pitcher than most of his peers. His main problem in life is his stutter. Victor has an extremely debilitating stutter that makes his speech un-initelligible and also makes people assume he is mentally backward in some way. This takes rather a toll on his confidence, making it even harder to speak to people. Victor likes to read, and is a good poet, surprisingly passionate about words even though it is his inability to express them that makes his life difficult. Victor is a sensitive and loving boy who comes to his own conclusions with great thought. After finding out his father is not his father, he does not get angry, or resentful about the man who acts as his dad, but appreciates him even more because he know he is a great father because he wants to be not because he is obligated to be. Victor is quite a lonely child.
When he takes over Rat's paper route, Victor meets more people than he has in his life, and although he barely knows them starts to consider them friends. He also has his first infatuation, although he cannot name it as such, he develops rather a crush on Faye Worthington and cannot stop thinking about how pretty she is. Victor is a boy who judges on character, not on appearance. This is not surprising since he hates to be judged by his stutter. His favorite person in the world is Mam, the colored housekeeper who looks after the family, and he does not believe that anyone should be judged by color, or race, but by their soul instead. He is a plucky, courageous kid who manages to face his stuttering head-on as he starts a new grade at school, taking the bull by the horns instead of letting it be something that the other children can tease him about throughout the year.
Rat
Rat is Victor's best friend and it is his paper route that Victor takes over whilst Rat is visiting family in the country. He is an active, rambunctious boy who loves hurling mud clods and joke fighting with his cousins. He is not as sensitive as Victor, or as intuitive, but he is a very good friend, and he helps Victor express himself. He is also extremely proud of him when he does so. Rat is known for his funny, both-eyed wink which he tries to make into a single-eye, all-knowing wink but never manages to.
Mam
Mam is the Vollmer's colored housekeeper and is a loving influence over Victor who is just as protective of her as she is of him. Mam does not shy away from confrontation or from doing the right thing despite its dangers to herself. She is pragmatic about segregation, hating it, but not wanting to make a stand by sitting at the front of the bus instead of the back, or by trying to go to places she is not allowed to go to without her white charge in tow. Mam grew up near Ara T and has known him most of her life. She has also hated him most of her life, having no doubt that he killed her brother, and confronting him about this. He beats her up for challenging him but this does not make her too afraid to go back and challenge him again in order to get the things back that he stole from Victor. Mam is a moral barometer for Victor, and is the main influence in his young life.
Victor's Father
Although Victor's birth father is listed on his birth certificate as "unknown", the man he calls Dad is a kind, generous father who spends as much time with his son as he is able to, often going straight into the yard to throw a baseball with him after a trip, or a hard day at work, wanting to show Victor that however tired or busy he might be, their father/son relationship is his priority. Victor's dad is something of a cheer squad when it comes to his stutter. He will not let it put him off bringing Victor out with him when he is taking friends or clients to dinner and he is proud of him for trying to overcome his impediment.
Victor's Mother
Although easily able to express words clearly, unlike her son, also unlike her son Victor's mother has a terrible grasp of what words mean and her vocabulary is very limited. She is constantly using the wrong word or wrong phrase, changing the context of whatever she is saying. She is a gentle mother, but not particularly hands-on, and enjoys socialising with friends more than spending time with her son. She is a little embarrassed by his stutter and would prefer he not say too much when they are in the company of others.
Ara T
Ara T is a huge, muscular man whose physique is hidden underneath the enormous overcoat he wears all the time. He is a homeless man, but has made himself a shelter where he keeps his food, a cart and all of the things he has stolen. He gives the impression of being a man who scratches a living together by dumpster-diving out of garbage cans filled with the things people have thrown away, but this belies the fact that he makes money by stealing wallets, billfolds, money and whatever else he can get his hands on. Although never tried for it he is believed to have killed Mam's brother and would quite happily have killed her and Victor had he been able to. He is a violent man without sentimentality or love for others. However, he is also important in the sudden increase in Victor's self-esteem as helping Mam to stand up to him at last gives Victor great confidence in himself and the things he can achieve.
Mr Spiro
Mr Spiro is an educated man who loves wordplay and who appreciates this quality in Victor. They meet as he is one of the people on Victor's paper route. He is sensible, only invites Victor into the house when he knows there is a trust there, and quite understands if Victor prefers to wait outside; he is encouraging and tries to share his love of books and words with Victor. He builds a friendship that promises to grow over time, rather than ending when the paper route does. He is a great teacher for Victor without seeming to teach him anything.
Mrs Worthington
Faye Worthington is the prettiest woman Victor has ever seen and he cannot seem to stop thinking about her and her beautiful red hair. She also has a serious drinking problem which seems to be at its worst when she is feeling at her most lonely. She is slightly uncontrolled as a drunk and slurrs her words, always acting a little overly-flirtatious with Victor when she has had a drink too many. She and her husband fight a great deal and their shouting can be heard from the street. They also seem to have a "love to hate each other" kind of relationship because they are very demostrably happy when they have made up again. She is the first woman Victor notices and develops a crush on.
TV Boy (Paul)
Victor sees TV Boy every day on his route, staring at the television intently and seemingly oblivious of the wonderful things going on in the world outside. However, TV Boy, who is called Paul, is similar to Victor in that he has a problem that he is trying to deal with that makes him a little different from his peers; he is deaf, and watches the television so intently because he is learning to lip read. Paul and Victor become very close friends even after the paper route has ended.
