March 4, 2026

Newbery and Pura Belpré Author Honor Book, A Sea of Lemon Trees: The Corrido of Roberto Alvarez, by María Dolores Águila, is a novel in verse about an incident from 1930 when American citizens of Mexican descent were segregated from the white kids at school and some were even deported. All too resonant today, this is from the perspective of a boy in the middle of it all.

Happy Reading!

—Sondra Eklund