Sumac

Sumac, a nine-year-old and the fifth oldest of the Lottery children, is the protagonist and narrator of the novel. She is depicted as precocious and intelligent, taking her home-schooled studies seriously: for the duration of the novel, she focuses intently on a study of Ancient Mesopotamian customs and languages, and engages in her own citizen-science projects, such as analyzing the conditions for growing butterflies in a particular lot of earth. Sumac pursues these projects independently and in lieu of playing: when PopCorn becomes distracted by his difficulties with his father and abandons the Mesopotamian language project, Sumac continue with it even when she is relaxing with her friend Isabella. She also completes her citizen-science project after the Lotterys decide not to go to the beach, thus creating productive ways to fill the extensive free time which the Lottery children are generally granted.

Sumac is also depicted as being...