Sylvia Patterson is the protagonist in this story. She is 15 years old and beginning to question the world around her. She has a good relationship with her family, but she is not sure how she feels about the idea of growing up to keep a house like her mother or being a devout Christian like both of her parents. Sylvia is an excellent eighth-grade student who looks forward to high school and someday going to college. She astutely notices that TV shows and magazines do not feature people who look like her, and when they do, the representations are limited and stereotypical. She also observes the separateness of a racially segregated country that divides musical groups, church members, neighborhoods, and schools. She spends her days in the company of a loving family, a solid church, and a nurturing school. When she hears that her school wants her to represent them in the racial integration of Central High School in the fall, Sylvia is both excited and scared: “Integration! Here in Little Rock. Finally. And she and her friends could be the ones chosen to do it. What a terrible, horrible, wonderful decision this would be” (38).