Characters / The Tillerman Family Series

The Tillerman Family

Dicey Tillerman

The oldest of the four Tillerman children. When their momma abandons them and their car in front of a shopping mall on the way to Bridgeport, it's up to her to finish the rest of the journey and keep the children together. Is the character in focus for Homecoming, Dicey's Song, and Seventeen Against The Dealer with strong supporting roles in the other books.

• Berserk Button: Anyone insulting her family no matter who or what.
• Big Sister Instinct: Explored very thoroughly with all its good and its bad points. Dicey is fiercely protective of her siblings, and with good reason. After Homecoming it gets increasingly clear that their hardships and her constant worry that she'll lose her siblings has made her somewhat overprotective. She winds up heavily anxious that she's separated from her brothers and sister for even small moments like school. To Maybeth, especially, she tries to speak for and over her to the point that she doesn't realize that her younger sister needs to stand up for herself. She learns in time to let Gram shoulder most of the weight of responsibility and that her siblings are able to start living independent lives but growing up doesn't always mean that they're growing apart.
• Birds of a Feather: She and Abigail are very much alike: stubborn and protective with a strong love for those they've opened up to.
• Brainy Brunette: She gets As and Bs for the most part in her classes but sees herself as more practical rather than intelligent. Despite being smart enough to get good grades, however, Dicey doesn't seem to like school and considers college a waste of time and money for what she really wants to do (build boats).
• Defrosting Ice Queen: While devoted to her family and a loving older sister, Dicey is a very guarded person who has problems opening up to others, to the point where she can often come across as aloof and standoffish — but it's largely because all her life she's been viewed as an outsider and weirdo who people made fun of. It actually takes some time for her to even catch on that Jeff and Mina are trying to be friends with her, because it never even occurs to her that someone might actually like her. Dicey's Song largely centers around her trying to overcome this side of herself and learn to be more trusting and accepting of others.
• Determinator: Dicey. She shepherds the other three children (aged 10, 9, and 6) from Peewauket, Connecticut to Bridgeport— about 80 miles— on foot, finds places to sleep and ways to earn money, to keep her family together. She's only 13.
• Fatal Flaw: Pride. Her stubborn and judging nature has Dicey unwilling to ask for help when she needs it which leads to making poor decisions, especially in Seventeen Against The Dealer.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Choleric. A good leader but very quick to judge others.
• Growing Up Sucks: Dicey's Song has her starting puberty whether she likes it or not as well as trying to accept the fact that her brothers and sister are also beginning to live independent lives.
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: The masculine girl to Jeff's feminine boy. She's more at ease being outside and on the water and bemoans the fact that she can't take Mechanical Drawing (an all boy class).
• Promotion to Parent: After Liza leaves the children behind, Dicey takes on this role and has a hard time letting go of it even when they're living with their grandmother.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: The tomboy to both Maybeth and Mina's girly girl. Dicey is practical and physical, likes to work with her hands, usually dresses like a boy, and got into a lot of fights when she was younger. During Homecoming she passes herself off as a boy several times, and in Dicey's Song she has very little interest in traditionally feminine things like knitting and housekeeping. When Mina tells her it's nice to have someone around who wants to talk about other things than boys and clothes, Dicey doesn't even understand why anyone would want to talk about such boring things.

James Tillerman

The second oldest, James is thoughtful and very intelligent but often pragmatic compared to his more idealistic siblings. He and Sammy become the main protagonists in Sons From Afar.

• Big Brother Instinct: Toward Maybeth and Sammy, especially when he and the latter get into a brawl in Sons From Afar where the normally bookish James is the one defending his brother.
• Big Eater: Especially in Homecoming. Of the four Tillerman siblings, he's by far the biggest eater, the first one to get hungry and the last one to be full. The trait is toned down for subsequent books, probably because when food is plentiful his appetite is far less of a problem.
• Brainy Brunette: James has dark brown hair and is the smartest of the Tillerman siblings, constantly getting into advanced classes and with a constant desire to learn more.
• Child Prodigy: James is unusually intelligent for his age. Especially in the earlier books he sometimes comes across as a lot older than he really is because he's so sharp... though there are plenty of instances where both Dicey and the reader is reminded that, super-smart or not, he is still a kid.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Phlegmatic. He's incredibly intelligent but often tries too hard to please others above himself.
• The Glorious War of Brotherly Rivalry: In Sons from Afar. Sammy is the popular jock, James is the insecure intellectual. This serves to create friction between them throughout most of the story.
• Ivy League for Everyone: In Seventeen Against The Dealer, it's revealed that James is just starting Yale as a pre-med major thanks to scholarships.
• Little Big Brother: By Sons From Afar, he has a slimmer build than his younger brother Sammy.
• Noodle Incident: At the beginning of Sons from Afar James reveals that he's lost a finger at some point between this story and Dicey's Song. It is never revealed how this happened, though it's implied to be a recent event.
• Older Than They Look: In Sons From Afar, he looks younger than fifteen.
• Red Right Hand: A heroic version. James is missing the smallest finger on his left hand from Sons from Afar onward.
• The Smart Guy: James is without a doubt the most intelligent of the Tillerman siblings and is always curious and eager to learn more. At times, especially in Homecoming, he can come across as a Know-Nothing Know-It-All, but then he's only ten years old at this point.

Maybeth Tillerman

The prettiest and kindest of the Tillerman siblings, Maybeth is a musical genius often mistaken for being an idiot due to her painful shyness causing her to withdraw from others.

• Brainless Beauty: Maybeth undeservedly has this reputation; she's very pretty, but her learning difficulties combined with her crippling shyness means that she does poorly in school and is labeled "stupid" by teachers and kids alike. Though how they treat her varies between the places they stay:
  • While we don't actually get to see much of the Tillermans' life in Provicetown, from conversations and descriptions we can put together that Maybeth was essentially treated as a dunce and an idiot; the teachers had no time for her and the kids made fun of her, which just increased her shy and timid nature.
  • During the children's stay with Cousin Eunice in Bridgeport, Maybeth's beauty is brought up a lot more by Cousin Eunice and her friends who unintentionally build up under the "brainless beauty" image by treating Maybeth as little more than a pretty doll, causing her to withdraw further into herself and resemble more and more the empty-headed doll she's being treated as.
  • Maybeth is clearly treated better at the school in Crisfeld than anywhere else; she actually gets along with the other kids and the teachers even praise her sweet nature and emotional maturity, but they don't know what to do with her learning difficulties, and no matter how hard Maybeth works she can't seem to understand the lessons... until, around halfway through Dicey's Song, she breaks down in tears, claiming that she's too stupid to learn.
  • It's very early on made clear that Maybeth isn't stupid. She's insightful and very emotionally mature for her age, she's got a gift for seeing people's true natures (Dicey has learned that of Maybeth likes someone, that person is trustworthy), and she has a gift for music that few others can match. At the same time, it's clear both to her family and the reader, that there is something about Maybeth. She has problems learning how to read, and is unable to understand fractions, which Sammy who is three years younger than her manages with ease. Due to her eventually being Out of Focus, however, these problems aren't properly addressed so it's uncertain just what Maybeth's problem actually is.
• Child Prodigy: Discussed and averted. While Maybeth is a poor student when it comes to the normal school subject, she has an incredible talent for music and art. Her piano teacher, Isaac Lingerle, tells the family that while Maybeth isn't a prodigy, she does have a gift.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Melancholic. Artistic and thoughtful but often prone to sadness and is painfully shy.
• Gut Feeling: Maybeth struggles academically to the point where she's labeled an idiot by the meaner outsiders and a Brainless Beauty by the more forgiving ones — but she's an almost infallible judge of character who can tell within minutes of meeting someone whether they can be trusted or not. She seems mildly surprised when Dicey points out that most people can't.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Despite her painful shyness, she's very sweet and kind.
• "L" Is for "Dyslexia": Maybeth's learning difficulties are especially bad when it comes to learning how to read. She remembers what the letters look like, but struggles with connecting them to sounds and putting them together to make words. In Dicey's Song James and Dicey discuss if she might be dyslexic, but they never really come to any clear conclusions other than the learning techniques the school in Provicetown uses don't work for Maybeth.
• Out of Focus: Maybeth in Seventeen Against the Dealer. Somewhat justified in that the main plot concerns Dicey, but at that point we hadn't seen her much since Dicey's Song, (she appears in Sons From Afar, but only in a secondary role). This trope leaves a lot of unanswered questions about Maybeth, such as how or if she continued to cope with school and if her musical talents blossomed into anything significant. It doesn't help that out of the four Tillermans, Maybeth is the only one without a plot focused on her at all.
• Shrinking Violet: Maybeth, to the point where in Homecoming she's mistaken for mentally retarded due to her silence. The problem is that she regards literally everyone that isn't a member of her family as a stranger so she won't open up to them unless they have something that draws her in (particularly music).
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: The girly girl to Dicey's tomboy.
• Turn Out Like His Father: A variant with Maybeth. Of the four Tillerman siblings, Maybeth is the most like their mother, and Dicey and James do on occasion worry that she might end up just like Liza — unable to cope with the world. Luckily, as she gets older, she doesn't seem to be heading down that path.

Samuel "Sammy" Tillerman

The youngest of the Tillerman children, Sammy is stubborn and unwilling to budge but has a good heart and understands more than what he lets on. He and James share the protagonist role in Sons From Afar.

• Adaptation Dye-Job: In the books he's blond like Maybeth, but in the 1996 TV movie he has dark brown hair.
• Berserk Button: Sammy does not like it if his family is insulted and will fight anyone who dares to say so whether they're bigger than him or family.
• Big Little Brother: Eventually grows into this thanks to his stocky athletic build, becoming over six feet tall by the time he's fifteen years old in Seventeen Against The Dealer.
• Boisterous Bruiser: Even at a young age, Sammy can hold his own and even win against older and bigger boys.
• Bratty Half-Pint: Sammy has strong shades of this in Homecoming with his his stubborn nature and short temper and frequent tantrums... though he is only six years old in that book and in a really bad situation. Dicey at one point reflects that Sammy actually used to be a Cheerful Child, but grew moodier, more short-tempered and harder to handle as he grew older, frequently getting into fights at school because the other kids picked on him (either for his home life or because he came after Maybeth, who was considered an idiot due to her shyness). He starts to grow out of it in Dicey's Song, though not without a couple of hiccups on the way. Later in the series he grows into a good-natured and popular Lovable Jock, even if he can't quite shake his stubbornness.
• Chick Magnet: Has a lot of girls fawning over him in Sons From Afar much to his dislike.
• Dead Guy Junior: Named after his uncle Samuel "Bullet" Tillerman.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Sanguine. He has the most energy and is protective but is also short-tempered.
• The Glorious War of Brotherly Rivalry: In Sons from Afar. Sammy is the popular jock, James is the insecure intellectual. This serves to create friction between them throughout most of the story.
• Grease Monkey: By Seventeen Against The Dealer, he proves to be good at working on engines and maintaining the family's pickup truck despite being the only one without a license.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Not quite as obvious as Maybeth but Sammy does have a big heart buried under his stubbornness.
• Hot-Blooded: Intense and boisterous even at six years old.
• Lovable Jock: He grows into one of these; the older Sammy is athletic and physical, but good-natured and popular with his peers.
• Mama's Boy: Sammy in Homecoming and Dicey's Song. Justified because he's six. This doesn't go well either; Dicey observes that when Sammy and Momma interact, they sound like two six-year-olds talking, not a six-year-old and his mom.
• Parental Favoritism: In Homecoming, Liza starts drifting away from the children for the most part but still keeps closest to Sammy despite their interactions devolving into something more like two six-year-olds talking rather than a six-year-old and his mother. Abigail is also rather fond of him because of how he reminds her of Bullet.
• Younger Than They Look: In Sons from Afar, Sammy's stocky athletic build has him looking older than twelve.

Abigail Hackett Tillerman

The grandmother of the four Tillerman children and the mother of John Tillerman Jr., Liza Tillerman, and Samuel "Bullet" Tillerman.

• Abusive Parents: Not intentionally but because she stubbornly insisted on letting her husband believe he was right, she winds up being the one to tell both Johnny and Liza that they shouldn't bother coming back after leaving because that was what he wanted to hear. This winds up haunting her until her grandchildren come into her life.
• Broken Bird: After losing all her children thanks to an emotionally abusive husband's influence.
• Birds of a Feather: With Dicey. They're both stubborn and hard to open up to but fiercely protective of those that they love.
• Cool Old Lady: Abigail definitely counts when she starts coming out of her shell, especially when she comes to Sammy's school and shoots marbles with all the second graders.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Starts showing shades of this in Homecoming before finally becoming one in Dicey's Song.
• Domestic Abuse: Abigail's marriage to John was a painful and bitter experience that affected her greatly, especially in The Runner.
• Foil: Eunice Logan and Abigail Tillerman. Eunice is self-centered and weak-willed, only taking in the kids because she feels like it's her duty but not so secretly resents this and really doesn't seem to care about the children save for Maybeth. Abigail is a strong-willed and stubborn woman who often butts heads with the kids but truly loves them and wants to take them in despite her fears that they'll end up going away forever the way that her children did due to her abusive husband. The children make the right choice in staying with Abigail.
• Loners Are Freaks: She starts withdrawing more after the death of Bullet but eventually pulls out of this when she starts raising her grandchildren.
• Parents as People: And Grandparents As People, too. Abigail wasn't the best mother, and it takes some time before she really manages to get into the role as grandmother, but the books make it clear that she's had her own struggles to deal with, and that she made a lot of mistakes, but in the end she's willing to learn from those mistakes, when given a new chance after her grandchildren come into her life.
• Practically Different Generations: Her older sister Priscilla (better known as Aunt Cilla) was twelve years older than her.

Samuel "Bullet" Tillerman

The youngest of Abigail Tillerman's children and the protagonist of The Runner.

• The Hero Dies: Bullet dies in Vietnam.
• Hot-Blooded: Very stubborn and angry, particularly toward his abusive father
• Only Known by Their Nickname
• Politically Incorrect Hero: When the high school starts integrating African-American students, Bullet's prejudices start to show when he's personally disdainful of Tamer Shipp due to him being a better runner as well as finding out his boss/friend Patrice is an octoroon. A good part of Bullet's Character Development is recognizing his prejudices and learning how to let go of them.
• The Un-Favourite: Not that John Tillerman, Sr. was fond of his children but Bullet was never regarded as anything more than an inferior version of his older brother Johnny.
• The Vietnam War: Threats of being drafted loom over his classmates and Bullet eventually decides to enlist in the Army after dropping out of high school which eventually leads to him being drafted. He doesn't make it home.

Elizabeth "Liza" Tillerman

The mother of the four Tillerman children and Abigail Tillerman's only daughter who shows up only in the beginning of Homecoming yet her presence has left a powerful impact on her mother, younger brother, and children.

• Break the Cutie: Poor Liza spent thirty-six years dealing with an abusive father and an unfaithful partner who ran out on her and left her destitute as well as raising four kids more or less on her own. She is unable to go on any further and leaves her children behind at a mall on the way to find her aunt. Eventually she's found in a Boston hospital in a catatonic state that kills her near the end of Dicey's Song.
• Death By Newberry Medal
• The Ghost: Despite not being physically there in The Runner, her presence is very strong.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Had lovely long blonde hair and was nothing short of kind to everyone she knew even if they tried to hurt her.
• Heroic BSoD: We don't get to see the moment it happens, or the event that triggers it, but Liza is apparently hit by one at the beginning of Homecoming, which causes her to abandon her children. She is later found in a hospital, completely catatonic, and she never recovers.
• No Accounting for Taste: Her relationship with Francis Verricker, especially with what we've seen of him in The Runner. He abandons her constantly to leave for long distances and is hardly faithful to her but she still remains faithful to him even after he leaves for good just before Sammy is born.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Liza only appears on the first page of Homecoming, but her leaving is what drives the entire story. In The Runner she never appears on-page, and in Dicey's Song she only appears very briefly in a non-speaking role ( Abigail and Dicey visit her in the hospital, but she's catatonic and unresponsive, and she dies without ever having spoken or even given any sign she knew they were there), but in both books her absence is heavily felt. Particularly in Dicey's Song she's like an invisible presence who's never far away from Dicey's thoughts, and a lot of Dicey's decisions are informed (consciously or subconsciously) by her mother's fate.

Eunice Logan

The second cousin of the Tillerman children, niece of Abigail Tillerman, and the cousin of Liza and Bullet. She is willing to take in the children but her demands prove too much for the children...

• Abusive Parents: While certainly not physically abusive, she is a terrible guardian to the children. She doesn't respect them but demands respect in turn, vents her frustrations to thirteen-year-old Dicey as well as give her a huge list of chores to do every day, and downright resents six-year-old Sammy for being stubborn and getting into fights. Only James and Maybeth seemed to be liked since they both make her look good with the former's academic achievements and the latter's physical beauty which ends up affecting their self esteem heavily.
  • She seems to have had one as well judging by some comments she made about how Aunt Cilla told her that she didn't have it cut out to be a nun.
• Attention Whore: Fitting to her self-centered nature, she relishes in having praise lavished on her which is the only reason why she took in the children.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She acts like she cares about the children but is clearly doing it for the lip service everyone else is giving her and complains about their behavior constantly despite them being rather well behaved for the most part. It's also revealed that she has a substantial savings account which she wants to keep for herself rather than help pay for the children's expenses (which she complains about). After the children rightfully leave, she writes a rather mean-spirited letter to their grandmother (her aunt) complaining about how ungrateful they were to her even though Dicey gave her a letter encouraging her to go for her dream of being a nun.
• Fatal Flaw: Greed and Vanity. Not only does Eunice have a substantial savings account that she wants to keep for herself but she's only taking in the kids because she wants everyone else to think she did the right thing as well as talk only about herself and her public image.
• Foil: Eunice Logan and Abigail Tillerman. Eunice is self-centered and weak-willed, only taking in the kids because she feels like it's her duty but not so secretly resents this and really doesn't seem to care about the children save for Maybeth. Abigail is a strong-willed and stubborn woman who often butts heads with the kids but truly loves them and wants to take them in despite her fears that they'll end up going away forever the way that her children did due to her abusive husband. The children make the right choice in staying with Abigail.
• It's All About Me: She appears generous to take the children in after they suddenly arrive on her doorstep, but it's telling that in the first conversation she has with the children, she's incapable of talking about anything or anyone other than herself. As they stay with her, it becomes clear she's accepted them just so everyone will think she did the right thing. Worse, she makes her plans to separate the children crystal clear despite Dicey explicitly telling her that's the one thing they're trying to avoid! She even says Sammy must be kept in line because his behavior "shames her" rather than for his own welfare. Dicey ultimately makes the right choice by packing up and getting out of there.
• Innocently Insensitive: Eunice seems oblivious to just how badly her comments cut into Dicey when she vents to her about things like Sammy's behavior shaming her and how Liza is an unfit mother. Dicey even notes that rather than feeling better after their conversations, she feels more like crying because the conversations are clearly vents for Eunice rather than any sort of true reassurance for Dicey.
• Neat Freak: Eunice constantly fusses about how "messy" the children are and assigns Dicey to clean the house every single day while she's at work and the younger children are at camp. Considering how neat the kids are for the most part (even six-year-old Sammy), it's really just another sign that she doesn't like having the kids in "her" space.
• Nun Too Holy: She wanted to enter a convent before the Tillermans came into her life and judging by how she treats the kids (especially Sammy), it's clear she'd fall squarely into this category.

Jeff Greene

A young man Dicey meets in her new school in Crisfield who eventually becomes her boyfriend. His story is told in the book A Solitary Blue.

• Book Dumb: Played straight at first with his old school where he kept getting a C average no matter how he tried to study. Melody tries to insist that he really is this way because he has "her brains" but he learns that the school he was in just has ridiculously high standards. It's averted in Crisfield when he gets straight As and back on the high honor roll.
• Disappeared Dad: In an emotional sense, the Professor doesn't take much presence in Jeff's life at first until he starts realizing how much Jeff really does need him and how he also needs Jeff.
• Heroic BSoD: After it's revealed that his once beloved mother, Melody, is nothing more than a selfish runabout, Jeff withdraws heavily from everything to the point where he winds up worrying his father and even is asked to leave his school.
• Mama's Boy: As a child. This doesn't end up going well.
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: The feminine boy to Dicey's masculine girl. He's more drawn to music and keeping house and bemoans the fact that he couldn't take Home Economics (an all girl class) for his eighth grade minor.
• Missing Mom: Jeff's mother, Melody, abandons him and his father when Jeff is eight years old.
• Real Men Wear Pink: He likes cooking and knows things like sewing but also likes to work with his hands.
• Relationship Upgrade: Eventually gets engaged to Dicey at the end of Seventeen Against The Dealer.
• Understanding Boyfriend: Especially in Seventeen Against The Dealer.

Wilhemina "Mina" Smiths

A friendly, boisterous girl who becomes the best friend of Dicey Tillerman. She tells her story in Come A Stranger.

• Establishing Character Moment: When Dicey is accused of plagiarism from her English teacher, Mina doesn't hesitate in standing up in support of her which shows right away that she believes in people who've earned her trust and will support them if they can't support themselves.
• Heroic BSoD: When Mina is asked to leave from her ballet camp early (either due to her early puberty affecting her dancing or prejudice), she starts to doubt herself for the first time and it takes the arrival of the Shipp family to pull her out of it.
• Huge Schoolgirl: Mina looks much older than she is because she's so tall and curvy. This winds up being a detriment to her because her sudden puberty affects her ballet dancing.
• Meaningful Name: Wilhemina means "will-helmet" and Mina has a very strong will and pluck to do what she feels is right.
• Plucky Girl: Optimistic and friendly but determined to do the right thing.
• Preacher's Kid
• Precocious Crush: On Tamer Shipp. Him being old enough to be her uncle means that it doesn't go anywhere but she does help him with his crisis of faith.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: The girly girl to Dicey's tomboy.
• Younger Than They Look: We see her at thirteen already looking like she's at least five years older. Mina even jokes that she could be mistaken for thirty with children of her own.

Millie Tydings

The widowed owner of Crisfield's grocery store and an old friend of Abigail's.

• Book Dumb: Poor Millie kept being advanced in grades despite not being as smart as the other children.
• Happily Married: When Herbie was alive, they had a good marriage and he loved her just the way that she was.
• Hidden Depths: Millie isn't bright but like Maybeth, she's got a good insight on people.
• Simpleminded Wisdom: Millie can seem slow-witted and dull. She often gets distracted from important things and doesn't always get the things that are obvious to everyone else. Both Abigail and Dicey initially don't have a very flattering opinion of her; she's a good person but rather silly and stupid. But over the course of Dicey's Song they both get to know her better and revise their opinion of her: Millie has a wisdom to her that the Tillermans don't; she understands people instinctively and knows exactly when they need someone to reach out a hand... she can also tell when they're up to something.

Isaac Lingerle

A music teacher at the elementary school who admires Maybeth's musical talents and offers to give her lessons as well as eventually befriend all of the Tillermans.

• Big Eater: A case where the trope is both subverted and played straight. On his first dinner with the Tillermans, he barely eats anything and admits that it's often because he gets nervous to eat in public and instead eats a lot at home.
• May–December Romance: It doesn't happen but Abigail considers this for him and Maybeth in Sons from Afar since she's the type who likely needs someone to care for her.
• Put on a Bus: By Seventeen Against The Dealer, Isaac fell in love with a woman who said that she couldn't live anywhere else but Chicago so he went to Chicago to marry her.
• You Are Fat: Many comments are made about his weight both out loud and in narration.
• Younger Than They Look: He's in his twenties but is overweight and prematurely balding.

Tamer Shipp

A minister who is questioning his faith that befriends Mina in Come A Stranger who also makes a strong impact in The Runner.

• Crisis of Faith: Tamer is going through this in Come A Stranger and it takes Mina and the Tillermans, particularly Sammy, to help pull him out of it.
• Good Shepherd
• Happily Married: For the most part, he and his wife have a rather solid relationship.
• Older Than They Look: In The Runner, Tamer is already a husband and father despite being in high school. Considering he's actually twenty years old, this makes a fair amount of sense.
• Reasonable Authority Figure

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