Todos iguales: Un corrido de Lemon Grove/ All Equal: A Ballad of Lemon Grove

by Christy Hale, Christy Hale (Illustrator)

Overview

The empowering true story of the 1931 Lemon Grove Incident, in which Mexican families in southern California won the first Mexican American school desegregation case in US history.

Twelve-year-old Roberto Álvarez loved school. He, his siblings, and neighbors attended the Lemon Grove School along with the Anglo children from nearby homes. The children studied and played together as equals.

In the summer of 1930, the Lemon Grove School Board decided to segregate the Mexican American students. The board claimed the children had a language handicap" and needed to be "Americanized." When the Mexican families learned of this plan, they refused to let their children enter the small, inferior school that had been erected. They formed neighborhood committee and sought legal help. Roberto, an excellent student who spoke English well, became the plaintiff in a suit filed by the Mexican families. On March 12, 1931, the case of Roberto Álvarez v. the Board of Trustees of the Lemon Grove School District was decided. The judge ruled in favor of the children's right to equal education, ordering that Roberto and all the other Mexican American students be immediately reinstated in the Lemon Grove School.

The Lemon Grove Incident stands a major victory in the battle against school segregation, and a testament to the tenacity of an immigrant community and its fight for educational equality.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780892394272
Publisher:	Lee & Low Books
Publication date:	08/13/2019
Edition description:	Bilingual
Pages:	40
Sales rank:	1,067,329
Product dimensions:	9.00(w) x 10.40(h) x 0.50(d)
Lexile:	1100L (what's this?)
Age Range:	9 - 12 Years

About the Author

Christy Haleis the author and illustrator of several acclaimed children's books, including four published by Lee & Low, and she has illustrated numerous other award-winning picture books as well. Hale also works in the children's book field as an art director, a designer, and an educator, offering programs at schools, libraries, and museums. She lives with her husband in Palo Alto, California. You can learn more about her at christyhale.com.

Christy Haleis the author and illustrator of several acclaimed children's books, including four published by Lee & Low, and she has illustrated numerous other award-winning picture books as well. Hale also works in the children's book field as an art director, a designer, and an educator, offering programs at schools, libraries, and museums. She lives with her husband in Palo Alto, California. You can learn more about her at christyhale.com.

Editorial Reviews

★ 09/23/2019

In the summer of 1930, the school board of Lemon Grove, Calif., made a radical decision: to build a separate school for the community’s Mexican-American students. The “two-room, barnlike building,” filled with “castoff school supplies,” galvanized Lemon Grove’s Mexican American community. Their organizing resulted in 12-year-old Roberto Álvarez becoming the plaintiff in the “first successful school desegregation case in United States history.” Opening with a corrido, a traditional Mexican story-song, the bilingual text in Spanish and English presents a lesser-known chapter of U.S. civil rights history in clear, compelling prose, centering the story in immigrant community action. Vivid illustrations, created with gouache and relief-printing inks, combine crisp edges and soft textures, conjuring the feeling of looking back into time. Concluding spreads delve further into the history and impact of the case, the major players involved in the action, and the structure ofcorridos. Essential and enlightening. Ages 8–12. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

* "This work sensitively and accurately depicts the racist repercussions of segregation and also shines a light on the power of unity and community in action. Extensive back matter, including photos, reproductions, source notes, and quotations, will encourage further study. This court case should be celebrated alongside Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. A must-have, illuminating gem." — Booklist, starred review

* "Opening with a corrido, a traditional Mexican story-song, the bilingual text in Spanish and English presents a lesser-known chapter of U.S. civil rights history in clear, compelling prose, centering the story in immigrant community action. . . Essential and enlightening.

" — Publishers Weekly, starred review

* "Bilingual text and eye-catching illustrations join a treasure of additional resources to create this significant text. Highly recommended for nonfiction collections for young readers." — School Library Journal, starred review

"An essential springboard for further meaningful discussion of this relevant and divisive topic." — Kirkus Reviews

"Hale skillfully uses visual techniques- large halo shapes, split panels, and views from behind- to depict the unfolding events, while also drawing attention to aspects of everyday life in this small agricultural town. Sheet music for the 'Ballad of Lemon Grove' begins the book and sets context, while photographs, notes, and a rich bibliography flesh out the back matter." — The Horn Book

ALSC Notable Children's Books - American Library Association (ALA)
Best Children's Books of the Year - Bank Street College of Education
Junior Library Guild Selection
Notable Books for a Global Society - International Literacy Association (ILA)
Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction Recommended - National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE)

From the Publisher

★ 08/01/2019

Gr 3–6—It is 1930, and young student Roberto Álvarez loves school in Lemon Grove, where Mexican and Anglo children learn and play together. When Roberto's family and neighbors discover the school board is planning to create a separate school for the children of Mexican families, they create the Lemon Grove Neighbors Committee, meet with the Mexican consul, and file a lawsuit against the school board. Roberto is chosen to show that the claims the school board is making—that the students were being sent to the second school to receive special attention because they needed additional help—are untrue. Roberto's concise and educated answers (shown to be spoken in complete English) help to convince the judge that separating the children is unjust. Beautiful, stylized illustrations depict the events and individuals' personalities clearly. Text in both English and Spanish accompanies the illustrations, making this a nonfiction book that will be widely accessible to readers of one or both languages. The book includes a corrido, or ballad, of the events of Lemon Grove, as well as pages with more information about the case and the participants, what happened after the case, and additional details about corridos. A source page brings these elements together to create a deeply knowledgeable text about an important time in our history. VERDICT Bilingual text and eye-catching illustrations join a treasure of additional resources to create this significant text. Highly recommended for nonfiction collections for young readers, and perfect for use alongside titles such as Separate Is Never Equal by Duncan Tonatiuh.—Selenia Paz, Harris County Public Library, Houston

School Library Journal

2019-06-23
Twenty-three years before Brown v. Board of Education, the first successful desegregation case in the United States, Roberto Álvarez v. the Board of Trustees of the Lemon Grove School District, was decided in California in 1931.

In 1930, Lemon Grove school board members secretly decided to provide a segregated education to U.S. citizens of Mexican descent who had, up to that time, enjoyed equal education with the "Anglo" children. Hale's bilingual text, Spanish printed above English, accompanies her illustrations and describes how the school's white principal disobeyed the board's orders and alerted the families. The Latino community boycotted the inferior school and sought legal recourse with the help of the Mexican consul. The board members argued that a separate education was necessary in order "to give special attention to students who spoke poor English and had other ‘deficiencies.' " The plaintiff, 12-year-old Roberto Álvarez, responded to the white judge's questions in perfect English—and the judge ruled in favor of the 75 Mexican American students. Hale bases much of her account of this important but little-known case on primary sources and interviews with many of the principal participants. However, the backmatter regarding the history of Mexican immigration and the mass deportations of the 1930s is both inaccurate and oversimplified, so educators should seek out additional information when using this text. (A revision to this backmatter will appear in the book's second printing.)

An essential springboard for further meaningful discussion of this relevant and divisive topic. (Informational picture book. 8-12)

Kirkus Reviews