In a neighborhood with only white kids, Sophia and her family are the only ones who are black. She suffers with that, because when she tries to play with the other kids, they do not let her play, because she is black. One example is when she tries to play in the Baker’s swimming pool with Jennifer, Deidre says that she cannot go swimming in her pool, because of her skin color. Francisco is a Spanish-speaker while the other kids only speak English, and he is also excluded because of this, and like Sophie, he is excluded by being different.
The two of them had moved from where they lived, even if that happened for different reasons, they both had been affected. In Francisco’s story, the author tells that he is very poor, he says that his family had moved recently to work in Tent City USA, because there was no more cotton for them to collect. Sophia had also moved, but she had only moved to a new neighborhood. In the beginning of the story Francisco said that classes in English only gave him a headache, but now he has Arthur as a friend and he is also making friends with Curtis, getting better with English, while Sophie has only Jennifer. Because of her skin color, the kids of her neighborhood think that she cannot play with them, and that she is different from the others.
In the book It all comes down to this, Karen says that Sophie lives in a good and rich neighborhood, but she prefers her old house. Because when she goes out to try to play with the kids that live in her new community, most of them judge her because of her skin color. But although all this happens, she is just a normal girl like all the others. Francisco does not have a good financial condition, his parents have to go around a lot of places looking for a job, and like they do not have a house, his whole family also needs to go with them, which makes he and his brother late to the school year. Francisco did not understand what the teacher was explaining in the classes, only because of the English, so if he had came to school earlier, he would understand English and would understand the subject better.
The summer vacation is ending, and now Sophie will need to get friends in the school, but she doesn’t know how she will find them in the school if she only has one in her neighborhood. Her family suffers a lot with racism. Her sister is trying to get a job, but where she really wants to work, they only hire white people. Francisco also suffers exclusion, but he does not speak english, which makes making friends harder, also because he had never gone to a school before. He had never went there because his parents lived by traveling and working where they could to sustain his family. They only went to Tent City because they could not collect cotton anymore and Francisco would need a school, so he had to study there.
Moving to a new place is very difficult, even more if you do not speak the language of that country or if you do not have many friends. But like Sophie, in the end of the book, Francisco tries to make friends with Curtis. Sophia tries to play with a lot of kids in her neighborhood, but none of them want to play with her, only because of her skin color. But in the end of the book, Francisco tries to make friends with Curtis, even though he does not speak his language.
