Bright and talkative, Dave Packer is a natural leader among the fifth graders at Laketon Elementary and the novel’s primary protagonist. Like most boys his age, Dave is suspicious of girls, and he finds Lynsey Burgess especially irritating for her talkativeness on topics he considers inane. He’s quite unaware of the irony of one chatty person telling another to shut up, and his challenge to her and the other girls to refrain from talking is his last big attempt to prove, boyishly, that the entire female gender is bad. Dave serves as the story’s chief representative of boys his age who struggle with their feelings about girls. He learns what many or most boys finally discover that girls are more like them than they expect. Much to Dave’s surprise, he discovers that he admires Lynsey, and this drastically changes his perspective on girls. Dave also matures in his relationships with figures of authority. In the opening chapter of the novel, Dave tricks his way out of giving an oral presentation that would jeopardize his personal vow of silence. Later, Dave’s deepening understanding of Gandhi’s philosophy empowers him to stand up to Mrs.