It All Comes Down to This

English, Karen. It All Comes Down to This. 2017. 368p. ISBN 978-0-544-83957-1. Available as an eBook from Overdrive.

In 1965, the Civil Rights movement is in full swing in the United States. The Civil Rights Act was just passed the year before, but Jim Crow laws remain on the books in much of the country. California is more free than most states, but even there being African-American is to be part of the struggle for equal rights. For twelve-year-old Sophie, however, these issues are nothing but background noise.

As a member of the only African-American family in her neighborhood, she will be entering 9th grade along with her best friend Jennifer, who also happens to be twelve also as well as white. Her older sister Lily, meanwhile, will be moving to Atlanta to attend Spelman College, a black college. Sophie will find herself alone with her mother, who owns an art gallery, and her father, who is lawyer. Sophie dreads the countdown to August.

A trio of sisters down the road from Sophie have a pool, but she cannot swim there as their parents forbid colored people. Sophie is often reminded that she is African-American, but she doesn’t see what race has to do with it. Interested in writing and acting, Sophie and Jennifer seize the chance to audition for a community play, but she knows she will be the only African-American kid to audition. She plans on memorizing not only her part but all of the play, just to get a fighting chance.

With her parents’ marriage falling apart and a mistress in the picture, Sophie finds herself spending more time alone with Mrs. Baylor, the new housekeeper. Lily, meanwhile, finds herself attracted to Nathan, Mrs. Baylor’s son, who’s blacker than night while Lily could almost pass as white. This attraction is frowned upon by their mother, through the bias that lighter skin is better.

As Sophie experiences racism and as the summer days slowly drain away, the racial tensions in Los Angeles near the boiling point. Can Sophie learn to cope with the cards she’s been dealt? For a boy’s perspective on a similar theme, read Armstrong & Charlie, taking place a decade later in Los Angeles.