Separate is Never Equal

Separate is Never Equal

Author: Duncan Tonatiuh

Illustrator: Duncan Tonatiuh

Genre: Historical Fiction

Award: Bluebonnet Award

Grade Level: Pre-K to 5^th grade

This is a real story that the Mendez family that fought for justice with the school system. The story is told by Sylvia, a Mexican student who came to the US with their family at a very young age. She is daunted in school by a young white boy who yells “Go back to the Mexican school You don’t belong here!” To this poor Sylvia runs off home with tears in her eyes telling her mother that she does not want to go back to school. Her mother then starts to tell her the fight they had to go through in order for Sylvia and the rest of the Latino children to attend side by side with white children. The fight starts with Sylvia and her siblings not being able to be admitted to a school where her cousins are accepted. Her cousin who shares a French surname, so they can be enrolled but Sylvia surname (Mendez) is unacceptable and is asked to enroll in school for Mexicans which is further away from her neighborhood. When Sylvia aunt asks the school why the school only answers “rules are rules.” Sylvia’s family sends her to the Mexican school which the condition is really poor. Upon seeing this, Sylvia’s father, Mr. Mendez takes it upon himself to deal with the situation. He gathers his coworkers, friends, and other parents to talk about the unfair school system for their children. But not everyone is supportive at first since they fear that they will lose their job if they support Mr. Mendez. Mr. Mendez hears about David Marcus, a lawyer that helped integrate the public pools. Mr. Marcus and Mr. Mendez take the case to supreme court in hopes of integration in a school system. The court takes up to a year in making a decision but is finally able to grant a win in favor of Mr. Mendez. Integration wins!

This is a picture storybook with the equal amount of illustration and an equal amount of words laid out perfectly on the pages. The illustration is remarkable. It is very much influenced by Egyptian arts in which the characters have two-dimensional body shapes. At the end of the story, there is an author’s note which gives a history of Mendez v. Westminster School District case. The opposite side of the page is dedicated to Sylvia and her family photos followed by glossary and bibliography page.

Thoughts:

This book was an eye-opener. I have never heard about the case of Mendez family nor was I aware of the Mexican and White segregation. I felt ignorant on my part for not knowing the history that Latino family had to go through. It is a mixture of historical and realistic fiction which I think will be a terrific book to read-aloud in Pre-K as it will help them to understand that segregation was not, is not and will never be acceptable. This book was educative for me and I am sure it will be for the students as well. An excellent book!