No Talking characters

Appears from the start

A fifth grader at Laketon Elementary who is bright, argumentative, and fascinated by an account of Gandhi's disciplined periods of silence. After trying not to speak for a day, he turns the experiment into a contest between the boys and girls in his grade.

First appears in chapter 3

A confident fifth grader and the most visible leader among the girls. A lunchtime argument with Dave helps inspire the no-talking contest, and she becomes his counterpart in negotiating its rules and keeping her team committed.

First appears in chapter 6

The principal of Laketon Elementary. Accustomed to the unusually noisy fifth-grade class, she initially treats its sudden silence as another form of disruption and worries about students using the contest to resist adult authority.

First appears in chapter 7

One of the fifth-grade teachers. He is intrigued by the students' strict limit on speech and begins adapting classroom work to explore how much can be communicated with very few words.

First appears in chapter 7

A fifth-grade teacher whose lessons are complicated by the contest. Like the other adults, she must decide whether the students' silence is defiance, a distraction, or an unusual chance for them to learn.