Summary

Part Three is titled “December 1942, Southern California, U.S.A.” The section opens with the words and numbered notes to Auld Lang Syne. In Chapter One, Ivy Lopez has not yet told her parents that she has been chosen to play a harmonica solo when her class performs on a broadcast performance. Ivy is in the fifth grade and her parents think the harmonica is “frivolous.” Her mother, Luz, sends Ivy to pick up the mail. Ivy knows they hope there will be a letter from Fernando, her brother who is in the military. Instead, her father, Victor, receives a letter from his cousin with a job offer.

In Chapter Two, Ivy goes to meet her best friend, Araceli. They have lived here for a year which is unheard of among the mainly migrant Hispanic families. Araceli gives Ivy a crocheted...