One important character in the novel is the teacher Mrs. Olinski. She has recently returned to the middle-school classroom after a devastating accident that left her legs paralyzed but killed her husband. When she is charged with selecting and training a group of students who can win the rigorous academic competition, her choices are not those her principal would have made. Her classroom has its share of rowdy, disrespectful students, and she must tap her deep reserves of patience to channel their energy, not just discipline them. Resilience is another key trait she demonstrates, as well as creativity in interacting with the children as well as helping them work through the project plans.

The students in The Souls group help her focus and renew her belief in the importance of her work. As they also gain confidence and throw themselves into the competition, their efforts even more than their eventual victory help her see what this experience means to them and sometimes their parents, as well.

Nadia Diamondstein is a red-headed girl of immense beauty but also of incredible intelligence. Not only is she described as possessing the kind of looks that would have made her a model for Raphael, but she is introduced to turtles through her grandfather, and this gives her a keen understanding of the natural world and her place in it. Yet in addition to her intelligence and looks, she possesses a sensitivity to her own situation and that of her father. Note the comparison that she draws between the stranded turtles that need rescuing and the struggles she is having with her father:

The storm in our private lives had picked him up and put him out of place. Me, too. I, too, had been picked up from one place and set down in another. I, too, had been stranded. We both needed help resettling.

Nadia then is distinguished from her peers because she possesses a degree of sensitivity that is unusual in one so young and she is able to reflect both on her own situation and that of those around her.