Lucy, of “My Lucy Friend Who Smells like Corn,” is enchanting to the narrator because she lives in a chaotic household where adults don’t make or enforce rules and children are free to get dirty and run wild. Lucy also represents an identity that seems more authentically Mexican to the narrator, who admires the darkness of Lucy’s skin and the smell of tortillas that clings to Lucy. The child narrator can already tell that some elements of Lucy’s life are not ideal, such as the excessive number of children all sleeping in one bed or the conspicuous signs of their poverty. Still, all these things attract the narrator to Lucy and make the friendship a delight.

Rachel, of “Eleven,” is desperate to be more mature and expects to feel older and wiser on her eleventh birthday. When she is undone by the incident of the red lost-and-found sweater heaped on her desk, Rachel gets a more realistic view of maturity. Rachel comes to see that understanding life and having a firmer grasp on one’s emotions doesn’t magically appear on one’s birthday.