Distilling a Story Down to Its Very Essence. María Dolores Águila Talks About A Sea of Lemon Trees

The verse novel never really went away, but its appearance in 2025 has been interesting. It never seems to show up in the same book twice. One minute you’re reading a serious contemporary tale of grief and recovery, the next a loving Jewish ghost story filled with regrets, and the next a bit of historical fiction based on true events.

That last description I just mentioned pertains to María Dolores Águila’s much lauded A Sea of Lemon Trees. With two starred reviews (to say nothing of its appearance on the National Book Award’s longlist in the Young People’s Literature category) the book follows a landmark court case. In 1931, twelve-year-old Roberto Alvarez became, “the lead plaintiff in a landmark school desegregation case against the Lemon Grove School Board, challenging the enforced segregation of Mexican children into a retrofitted barn school during the Great Depression. The courageous struggle by the Mexican community, risking everything with the backing of the Mexican Consulate and the Comité de Vecinos, paved the way for the first successful school desegregation case in the U.S., two decades before the pivotal Brown v. Board of Education decision.”

In a time when this book feels horrendously timely, I thought it made a lot of sense to talk to María:

Betsy Bird: María! Thank you so much for answering my questions today (and congratulations on your National Book Award nomination!). Let’s start at the very beginning. This would be your debut novel, and it’s based on the true story surrounding Roberto Alvarez and what happened with the Lemon Grove Grammar School. How did you first hear about Roberto’s story and what made you decide to turn it into a work of historical fiction?

María Dolores Águila: Thank you! I first learned about Roberto’s story close to ten years ago, when I decided I wanted to seriously pursue writing for young people. At the time, another book about the Lemon Grove Incident came out, so I remember thinking, well, there goes that idea, and I pivoted to Barrio Rising. But the story never left me, and I ended up writing a picture book manuscript anyway.

It was difficult to put the story into a picture book format because of the limitations of that form, to fit everything I wanted to say into 32 to 40 pages. Someone suggested that I should try it as a middle grade novel, and the first line, I live in a sea of lemon trees, flew right into my mind. I chose the historical fiction route because I wanted the freedom to add and create things to braid together an engaging and vivid experience for young readers.

BB: Reading this book, one can hardly imagine what a picture book version would resemble. Your previous book, BARRIO RISING, was also a work of historical fiction based on a very true event. Your specialty, it seems, is to make history more alive in this way. Do you consciously pursue historical events and then give them their own moment to shine in the sun or does it just happen?

María: Yes, I do look for historical events, constantly! Researching Mexican American history is a special interest of mine. As a child, I longed to see Mexican Americans in history books, so it satisfies something deep inside me to bring these moments to light for young readers. I love discovering an interesting piece of history, stepping back to see the larger context in which it exists, and then wondering what it must have been like to live through it. Eventually, I find something that speaks to me and practically begs to become a story.

BB: And as you mentioned, this story could easily have been a nonfiction picture book or even a mildly fictionalized picture book like BARRIO. Instead, you opted to turn it into a middle grade verse novel. You’ve kind of answered this but what appealed to you about this format and why verse specifically?

María: I love novels in verse. Some of my favorite authors in this format are Aida Salazar, Margarita Engle, and Elisabet Velasquez. What appeals to me most about the form is how it distills a story down to its very essence, the most important bits. And it’s almost like a puzzle, figuring out what those pieces are. I also feel that novels in verse make reading more accessible to readers who might be put off by pages of long paragraphs.

BB: Tell us a little bit about the research you conducted for this book. You have a truly lovely and impressive Bibliography at the back that is worth celebrating. Where did you go to find your sources and how did you prefer to use them?

María: I started by reading the articles from the San Diego History website and traced many of those sources down. Fortunately, Roberto’s son, Roberto Alvarez Jr., wrote extensively about the case and his family, so I read all of that. I also spent a lot of time in the special collections area of the San Diego Public Library, using their microfiche to look up what had been written at the time about the case. I spent time looking at Spanish-language newspapers to see how it was covered, and I was also able to look at archives from different colleges. For me, that’s the most enjoyable part. I love going down the rabbit hole of research.

BB: On a personal note, you make mention of your maternal grandmother and how she inspired you to get interested in your own family’s history. Can you tell us a little bit about that, and how it connects to Roberto’s story?

María: Yes! As a child, I remember my grandmother taking the U.S. citizenship test and passing the first time, which surprised everyone because she hadn’t gone to school (while my grandpa, who had some schooling, didn’t pass at all). At the time, I didn’t think much about it, but later, after she passed away, I started looking into family history and discovered that my great-grandmother (who had died when my grandma was a toddler) was a U.S. citizen, as were her other siblings. It made me wonder why. Eventually, I learned about the Mexican Repatriation and made the connection…is this why my grandmother was born in Mexico? By the time I put it all together, there was no way of asking her, but that’s what I’ve come to believe.

BB: Finally, what’s next for you? What else are you working on these days?

María: I just finished writing another historical fiction novel in verse, a YA this time about the 1968 East LA Blowouts and the 1970 Chicano Moratorium. I wanted to challenge myself, so I wrote it with a dual POV. It’s about a budding poet and a young artist who are swept into the flames of the Chicano movement, where friendship, family, and identity collide. I’m really excited about it!

It was delightful to talk to María and so I thank her for taking the time to answer my questions today. Thanks too to Sara Elroubi and the team at Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group for putting this all together. A Sea of Lemon Trees is out now, so take a look and check it out!

Filed under: Interviews