Jacob Have I Loved (1980) is the seventh book published by acclaimed American author Katherine Paterson. Set in the 1940s on a tiny crab-fishing island in the Chesapeake Bay, the coming-of-age novel tells the story of teenager Sara Louise Bradshaw as she navigates her contentious relationship with her twin sister, Caroline, and seeks identity and purpose in her village. The novel explores the theme of sibling rivalry and religious struggles. Jacob Have I Loved won the Newbery Medal in 1981, the top honor for children’s and young adult literature, and is highly regarded as a classic of middle grade coming-of-age fiction. It was also adapted into a television movie starring Bridget Fonda in 1989.

This study guide uses the paperback Harper Trophy edition published in 1990. Bible quotations discussed come from the King James Version.

Content Warning: The novel depicts a 14-year-old girl developing romantic feelings for a man in his seventies. While these feelings are entirely one-sided, some readers may find this aspect uncomfortable.

Plot Summary

Jacob Have I Loved is the first-person, coming-of-age account of Sara Louise—who goes by “Louise,” and, much to her chagrin, “Wheeze” Bradshaw. Louise is a 13-year-old girl from the tiny community of Rass Island in Chesapeake Bay, Maryland. The novel opens with a brief prologue where the now-adult Louise anticipates her final visit to Rass before recalling in more detail the summer of 1941.

During that summer, Louise and her only friend McCall “Call” Purnell go crab fishing to earn extra money for their families. Louise gives the money to her mother to help support her twin sister Caroline’s music lessons on the mainland. Louise is torn between pride in her sister’s musical talent and jealousy and resentment that Caroline has stolen all the attention in their family. Though Louise is older by a few minutes, Caroline is pretty and fragile, making her the darling of the family and the whole island.

Shortly after the residents of Rass Island are—like the rest of America—shocked by the attack on Pearl Harbor, a stranger arrives on the island: Hiram Wallace, “the Captain,” is returning to Rass after decades away. The Captain is in his seventies and lives alone in a house on the water. Louise and Call visit him every day to help repair the old house. When “Auntie” Trudy Braxton—an eccentric old woman with many stray cats in her house—has a stroke and goes to the mainland hospital, the Captain proposes cleaning her house for her return. They plan to dispose of the stray cats by drowning them, but Louise cannot go through with it. Caroline suggests giving them out for adoption among the villagers, and the Captain and Call praise Caroline for saving the cats, ignoring Louise’s initial objection.

A hurricane hits the island, during which Louise’s parents, Truitt and Susan Bradshaw, invite the Captain to stay with them for safety. Louise’s grandmother, a religious woman, objects, calling the Captain a heathen. After the storm, Louise and the Captain discover that his house and surrounding land have been washed out to sea. While comforting the Captain with a hug, Louise feels sudden attraction for him, despite their 56-year age gap, and she fears that God will judge her for her inappropriate feelings.

The Captain stays with the Bradshaws for a few days, and Grandma notices Louise’s feelings and mocks her. The tension between Louise and Caroline reaches new levels when Louise discovers that Caroline has used her hand lotion and reacts by throwing it against the wall. When the Captain laments that he is now unhoused, Caroline suggests that the Captain marry Trudy Braxton when she returns; it will be a marriage of convenience, as Trudy needs someone to care for her and the Captain needs a new home. Louise is horrified by the idea, but the Captain thinks it is a clever solution.

Louise is too upset to visit the Captain and Trudy once they are married, but Caroline and Call visit many times. Caroline often sings to Trudy because she loves music. When Trudy dies following a second stroke, the Captain offers to use the money Trudy left behind to pay for Caroline to study music in Baltimore. Louise feels that the Captain has chosen Caroline over her. Grandma torments Louise by quoting Romans 9:13: “As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.” Identifying with Esau, who loses his birthright to his younger twin brother twice over in the Book of Genesis, Louise comes to believe that God hates her.

Caroline goes to Baltimore. Shortly afterward, Call leaves to join the Navy, and Louise is left to work on her father’s boat to help support the family. She drops out of school, though her mother, once a schoolteacher, homeschools her in the evenings. After the war ends, Caroline is accepted to the Juilliard School of Music in New York, and Call returns from the Navy. Louise hopes Call will take over her job and free her from family obligations; however, Call has proposed to Caroline and is moving to New York with her. 

Louise feels abandoned and hopeless. The Captain asks her what she wants. She says she wants to see the mountains and be a doctor but cannot leave her family. Later, during an argument with her mother, she demands to be allowed to leave. Susan says they never tried to stop her from leaving and confesses that she will miss Louise even more than Caroline, which transforms Louise’s perception of herself and her relationship with her family.

Louise goes to college in Baltimore as a pre-med student. However, when her advisor tells her she will never be accepted to medical school, she transfers to the University of Kentucky to train as a nurse-midwife, with plans to go to the rural mountain communities where such skills are in high demand. After graduating, she finds a job listing in an isolated Appalachian Mountain village. There, she meets a widower with three children, and they marry. In the final scene of the book, Louise works as a midwife during the birth of twins. The firstborn is healthy while the second is small and weak. She is reminded of her own infancy and ensures the mother does not neglect the healthier baby.