Characters

Jeannette Walls
The main character/author who we're told about from her earliest flashback at age 3 to adulthood. Jeanette is very intelligent and does anything possible to prevent growing up as her parents did...and making sure she doesnt end up on the streets or looking for food out of a garbage can like she did when she was a child. She is smart and brave.

Rex Walls
Jeanette's father. A smart, but impulsive man who can't stop drinking and when he does, it's not for long... This leads him to be angry, violent, and abuse, and to do things like steal from his children and use Jeanette as his sexual toy in a bar-room while he gambles.

Rose Mary Walls
Jeanette's mother, whose dream is to be an artist. She takes jobs as a school teacher when things are going bad. She is a loyal person. She is tolerant of Rex despite his destructive, drunken behavior, and agrees to many other ideas that you would find questionable to say at the least. She doesn't believe in proper punishment-that kids should learn from their own mistakes. She is addicted to chocolate and ends up eating more chocolate than the kids have eaten in days.

Jeanette's younger brother. He is closest to Jeannette. He would do anything for her, he would risk his life for her. He matures enough to become a police officer and eventually a detective.
 * Brian Walls **

Lori Walls
Jeanette's older sister, an artist who wants to get away from her family and living situation. Lori and Jeannette create a plan to getaway from the family-mostly their parents...Which leads them on a journey from West Virginia and land them New York city.

Maureen Walls
She's youngest of the Walls children. Maureen barely gets payed attention to until the book's end when she is a very attractive but disturbed, almost mental young woman.

She lives in Welch, West Virginia. She is Rex's Mother, he despises her even though she has one thing in common with him-alcohol. At some point in the book, Jeannette and Brian accuse her of sexual abuse.
 * Erma Walls **

He lives with Erma and is the brother of Rex, the children's father. Rose Mary feels sorry for him.
 * Uncle Stanley Walls **

A juvenile delinquent from Battle Mountain. He is obsessed with Jeannette, he gives her a ring that belonged to his mother. His father is a drunk too. When He and Jeannette play hide and seek he tries to rape her and tells her he did.
 * Billy Deel **

**Dinita Hewitt** A black girl from Welch who gets into fights with jeannette-until she see's her bring her neightbor home safely after a wild dog tries to attack the boy, after that she befriends her as much as possible becuase they live in a segregated town. Dinitia supposedly killed her mom's boyfriend later, so Jeannette has no more contact with her.

Would have been the second oldest Walls child, but she died of "Crib Death". Rex is the one most affected by her death.
 * Mary Charlene **