Free to learn How Alfredo Lopez fought for the right to go to school

Alfredo doesn't understand why he can't go back to second grade at his elementary school. Every morning he watches all the other neighborhood kids pass by while he stares out the window and frets about being left behind. Then one morning his parents wake Alfredo, and they go to a big building downtown. Alfredo wonders if they're all going to jail or back to Mexico, but it turns out they've come to the federal courthouse for a hearing, and a judge rules that Alfredo and other kids like him can go to school after all. Set in 1975, Alfredo's fictional experiences offer a child's version of what happened when the state of Texas passed legislation that prohibited the use of state money to fund education for non-citizens, legislation that was eventually determined to be federally unconstitutional. The simple language, accessible summations of both sides' legal arguments, and engaging illustrations, especially those portraying characters with sad and worried expressions, effectively capture Alfredo's viewpoint. The narrative effortlessly conveys Alfredo's longing to be at school and his parents' desperate hope for a better life for their family. While ample back matter fills in adult-level detail, this is a well-documented, age-appropriate introduction to a very emotional, divisive, and still-controversial subject.

A family works to ensure their son can attend school in the U.S. in this fictionalized account of a 1970s educational battle to secure education for undocumented students in a Texas district. Alfredo Lopez (b. 1949) is looking forward to second grade, but on the first day of school, he does not find "migas for breakfast, fresh laces for his sneakers, or a sharp number two pencil." Instead, he's kept home, waving to peers each day. In a flashback, the text outlines the protagonist's birth in Mexico, his parents' departure to find work in Texas and his eventually joining them there, and, after a year of classes in the U.S., a new state law: "If you do not have proper documents,/ you are illegal./ So,/ You cannot go to school." Without telling Lopez, his parents risk deportation for a court case claiming the law as unconstitutional. In Ortega's digital illustrations, inviting schoolroom images give way to the subdued brown palette of an intimidating courtroom setting. Background characters are portrayed with various skin tones. More about those involved, an author's note, and additional information conclude. Ages 4--8. (Apr.)

A tribute to a courageous family of undocumented immigrants who went to court to secure their child's right to a free public education. Basing her account on a 1977 case in Texas and adding dialogue but using real names, Levinson tells the tale from 9-year-old Alfredo's point of view. Traveling north from Zacatecas, Mexico, with his tío, Alfredo slips past the Border Patrol and joins his loving Amá and Apá at last in Tyler. But he's forced to watch sadly from his window as other children go to school--until the morning his parents pack up the car (in case they have to flee afterward) and sneak into the local federal courthouse to testify before a judge. There the Lopez family hears their lawyer argue that a new state law barring undocumented children from free public schooling is neither fair nor, according to the 14th Amendment's guarantee that everyone is subject to equal treatment under the law, legal. As the author notes in her more detailed afterword, the latter argument not only convinced the judge but also held all the way through multiple appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court, giving Alfredo and millions of other undocumented students since then the right to attend school in every state. Most of the figures in Ortega's warm illustrations (the judge and lawyers excepted) are brown-skinned; Alfredo, bright-eyed and usually smiling, looks equally comfortable in both Mexico and the U.S. and (at last) in school. Frank and sympathetic in presenting a lesser-known landmark in the struggle for human rights. (notes, bibliography) (Informational picture book. 6-8) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.