News of the World characters

Appears from the start

An elderly former soldier who travels through northern Texas in 1870, earning his living by reading newspaper reports aloud to paying audiences. Widowed and separated from his grown daughters by the aftermath of the Civil War, he is formal, observant, and accustomed to navigating divided communities. He reluctantly accepts responsibility for returning a rescued child to her surviving relatives hundreds of miles south.

Also known as Cicada

Appears from the start

A ten-year-old girl born Johanna Leonberger and known as Cicada during the four years she lived with a Kiowa family. Recently recovered by the authorities, she speaks little English, rejects unfamiliar clothing and customs, and wants to return to the only home she clearly remembers. Captain Kidd is asked to take her to an aunt and uncle near San Antonio.

Appears from the start

A Black freight hauler who has brought Johanna from the Indian agency to Wichita Falls. Because continuing south would put him in grave danger, he asks Captain Kidd to complete the journey and provides the official papers and payment attached to the task.

First appears in chapter 5

A trader who recognizes that an unprotected child can be sold for profit. He approaches Captain Kidd under a pretense of legitimate interest in Johanna, but his questions and persistence make him an immediate threat to both travelers.

First appears in chapter 10

A widowed woman associated with a Dallas printing office, practical and independent in a city unsettled by war and occupation. She gives Captain Kidd useful help and offers Johanna a rare interval of safety and female companionship during the journey.

First appears in chapter 11

A young musician and wagon driver traveling south. Sociable and adaptable, he becomes part of the small circle of trustworthy people Captain Kidd and Johanna meet on the road.

First appears in chapter 11

A young woman traveling with Simon Boudlin. Her steady presence gives Johanna another model of ordinary domestic life while the travelers share the risks of the southward route.

First appears in chapter 20

Johanna's surviving aunt, a German immigrant living near Castroville. She and her husband are the relatives named in the papers Captain Kidd carries, though they know Johanna only as the child who disappeared years earlier.

First appears in chapter 20

Johanna's uncle by marriage and the farmer to whose household Captain Kidd has been ordered to deliver her. He regards the returned girl chiefly in terms of the labor and obedience expected within his home.