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A Dazzling New Children’s Book Honors an Indigenous Teen Heroine From California

‘Alice Piper Speaks Up’ tells of one girl’s legal fight for a fair education in 1920s California.
Rae Alexandra

An illustration of an Indigenous child looking gleefully upwards towards a new school. Her parents watch her proudly.
An illustration by Morgan Thompson from ‘Alice Piper Speaks Up’ by Sage Andrew Romero and Loralee Sepsey. (Heyday Books)

All Alice Piper wanted was a well-rounded education. But for an Indigenous girl growing up in the 1910s and ’20s, accessing one was no easy feat. Piper’s family lived in Soha-witü in Inyo County, and her earliest education was at a Native school in Big Pine, 40 miles from her home. At the government institution, Piper was trained in little more than laundry duties and canning vegetables. Understandably, she yearned for more.

When Big Pine public school opened in 1921, Piper jumped at the chance to attend. After she was refused entry based on her race, she fought back. With the assistance of San Francisco lawyer J. W. Henderson, and alongside the families of six other Indigenous children, 16-year-old Piper and her parents filed a petition directly with the California Supreme Court, arguing that her exclusion from Big Pine violated the 14th Amendment.

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In June 1924, the court unanimously decided in Piper’s favor, forever changing the education opportunities available to Indigenous Californians. (Piper’s case was also cited as a precedent during Brown v. Board of Education in 1954.)

Now, a new book charts Piper’s victory in ways specifically designed to teach kids not just her heroic story, but also the long history of prejudice against Indigenous communities across the West. Alice Piper Speaks Up combines beautiful illustrations by Morgan Thompson with emotive prose written from Piper’s perspective.

The book — the third in Heyday’s Fighting for Justice series for children — is particularly successful in portraying Piper’s story in ways that are relatable for all ages. Her love for her family and for the traditions she shares with her people, the Numu, are portrayed vividly. So too are her longings for a better life and the fear and confusion she experiences during her court battle.

One section reads:

Alice studies the judges, silent and focused.

She wonders:
Do they see me and think I’m dirty?
Don’t they know that I’m the same as they are?
Don’t they know how badly I want to learn?

Her father’s hand,
rough and scarred,
grips hers tight.

At the end of each short chapter are additional pages of facts and photos that place Piper’s story within a wider historical context. These more overtly educational pages are tailor-made for the classroom and clearly explain the clashes between settlers and Indigenous communities. They also feature simple timelines of events, as well as sidebars with useful word definitions.

A book page featuring text blocks, photos of Owens Lake and a war memorial, a timeline of events and a side bar with definitions for certain terms used in the main text.
Moments from Indigenous history in California, as seen in ‘Alice Piper Speaks Up’ by Sage Andrew Romero and Loralee Sepsey (Heyday Books)

The book’s handy juxtaposition of kid-friendly storytelling and educational content makes Alice Piper Speaks Up an essential purchase for any parents looking for accessible ways to teach their kids about civil rights. The first two books in the Fighting for Justice series — one about Biddy Mason’s fight for freedom from slavery; another about Fred Korematsu, who railed against Japanese internment — offer similarly valuable lessons.

A statue of Alice Piper was erected outside Big Pine High School in June 2014. It stands as a permanent reminder that ordinary people like her can make extraordinary differences. It’s refreshing now to see Alice Piper Speaks Up impart that powerful message to a wider audience.

‘Alice Piper Speaks Up’ by Sage Andrew Romero and Loralee Sepsey is out on June 2, 2026, via Heyday Books.

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