Seperate Is Never Equal

Separate is Never Equal
Author: Duncan Tonatiuh
Medal: Pura Belpre
Genre: NonFiction
Grades: 3- 5

This book is about the childhood of Sylvia who is a Puerto Rican girl during the times of segregation. At school all the other kids would tell her that she does not belong there. When she came home upset, her mom told her that she fought for desegregation. Three years before they moved from Santa Ana, California to Westminster to become farmers. While driving, they saw nice neighborhood with pretty parks and good schools. Sadly when they went to go enroll in the school, they were told that they had to enroll in the Mexican school. Even though, she spoke perfect English and was a U.S. citizen. The next day, Sylvia's father went to go to the school to handle the issue but was once again told that his children had to go to the Mexican. So in fall Sylvia and her brothers went to the Mexican school that was in terrible condition compared to the white school. This caused the Mendez family to make a petition to fix the segregation of the schools. Sylvia's father hired a lawyer named David Marcus to fight for the Mendez family. Soon many more Mexican families joined the cause to fight segregation. Their fight ended up going to court to find the reason for sending the kids to the Mexican school. It took almost a year but the judge ruled in favor of the Mendez family. It was appealed by the school board but this time the Mendez family had even more support. The Mendez family won again with all the support behind them. This would be a good book to have in class because it shows that African Americans were not the only ones who went through struggles of segregation.