Short Form (All Genres)

Your Name: Daisy Lugo

Title: Seprate is Never Equal Author: Duncan Tonatiuh

Illustrator: Duncan Tonatiuh Publisher/Year: Abrams Books for Young Readers/ 2014

Genre: Multicultural

Summarize the content of the book –

A. For Fiction Form Genres—Explain the characters, the setting, theme and plot of the
book.
The characters in the book Seprate is Never Equal are Sylvia, her parents, her two younger brothers,
Aunt Soledad, Alice and Virginia, secretaries, superintendents and a judge. The setting of the book
takes place in Westminster in which Sylvia’s parents owned a farm and Sylvia and her brother went
to school. The theme of the book is to never give up on something you fought for, this because
Sylvia’s parents fought hard long hours and years to make sure that she had equal opportunities as
the other children. She was Mexican American and was told she couldn’t attend the school nearby
because Mexicans weren’t allowed. Sylvia’s parents went to court and earned the right for an
education for children of all backgrounds. The book begins with Sylvia getting bullied by her
classmates, she goes home and tells her mom she no longer wants to go to that school. Her mom
reminds her of all that they went through to make sure all children had an equal opportunity at an
education. Sylvia and her brothers were denied access to the nearest school because they were
Mexican, so her dad acted and talked to the leaders at the school. Everyone ignored him and
eventually he went on to file a lawsuit against the school. It took a year to deliberate and at the end
children of all ethnic backgrounds were allowed in the school.

Explain how the book appeals to children, their interests, developmental levels, fun
illustrations etc. Give specific examples from the book:

The book appeals to children because it tells a story about discrimination and treating
other unfairly. This appeals to them because in their classrooms they might notice that
their friends and classmates have different skin colors or they dress differently or speak a
different language. In the book Sylvia was bullied for her hair and skin color because she
was a different race from the rest of the children in the school. This book appeals to
childrens interests because it tells the story of a girl who could be around their age and
they could relate and understand what is happening to the girl. For example, when the
book shows the emotions and thoughts of the characters. This book appeals to the child’s
developmental levels because it includes lots of vocabulary words that they might not have
heard of before. It also introduces a new language, Spanish and there are a few points in
the book where things are said in Spanish and then translated to English. For example, “No
sabes que por eso luchamos? “Don’t you know that is why we fought?”. The book is full of
fun and bright illustrations that go along well with the text which makes it easy to make
connections and identify what is happening in the story.

Rate the book 3

Explain your rating.

Overall, I give this book a three because it talks about something that happened in real life
and it shows the efforts and struggles that a family went through to support Mexican
children. The book has a great storyline and everything flows together very well. I think
that this book can be very educational and can be enjoyed by children of all ages.