Sylvia Mendez’s family is renting an asparagus farm owned by a Japanese American family sent to an internment camp in the months following the bombing of Pearl Harbor. When Sylvia finds a traditional Japanese doll in her closet, she compares it to her own beloved doll and begins to wonder about the girl who once lived in her room. Flashbacks tell how that girl, Aki Munemitsu, came to be living in the Poston Relocation Center in Arizona. In alternating chapters, author Winifred Conkling follows the two girls, who eventually meet when Sylvia accompanies her father to Poston to pay the rent on the farm. Sylvia and her brothers are not able to attend the well-funded elementary school closest to their home because the district insists they go to the one designated for Mexican American children, which is clearly inferior. Eventually, Sylvia’s family sues. The court case— Mendez vs. Westminster School District —ultimately desegregated California schools. Meanwhile, Aki and her family face the difficulties of separation (her father was arrested before they left home and is being held elsewhere), internment camp life, and questions about their loyalty to America. The narrative, firmly grounded in each girl’s experience, is woven with childlike details and feelings, creating a compelling portrait of two warm, loving families in a fictionalized account of real people and events. (Ages 9–12)

Sylvia never expected to be at the center of a landmark legal battle; all she wanted was to enroll in school.
 
Aki never expected to be relocated to a Japanese internment camp in the Arizona desert; all she wanted was to stay on her family farm and finish the school year.
 
The two girls certainly never expected to know each other, until their lives intersected in Southern California during a time when their country changed forever.
 
Here is the remarkable story based on true events of Sylvia Mendez and Aki Munemitsu, two ordinary girls living in extraordinary times. When Sylvia and her brothers are not allowed to register at the same school Aki attended and are instead sent to a “Mexican” school, the stage is set for Sylvia’s father to challenge in court the separation of races in California’s schools. Ultimately, Mendez vs. Westminster School District led to the desegregation of California schools and helped build the case that would end school segregation nationally.
 
Through extensive interviews with Sylvia and Aki—still good friends to this day—Winifred Conkling brings to life two stories of persistent courage in the face of tremendous odds.