About the Authors and Illustrators
The author and illustrator of Separate is Never Equal is Duncan Tonatiuh (right image). Duncan is Mexican-American, and he grew up in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. He graduated from Parsons School of Design in New York City, and was inspired by PreColumbian art for his work. One thing interesting I found about him was that he aims to create images and write stories that honor the past, but are still relevant to the people, especially children. For more information about Duncan Tonatiuh's work, check out his website. I also included a picture of Sylvia Mendez (left image) getting awarded with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nations highest civilian honor, by President Barack Obama in 2010. Sylvia Mendez was the inspiration of the story Separate is never equal. The book was written based on the Mendez's experiences of the case and time period. It was about the injustice that they fought so hard against. Sylvia has an amazing experience and story to share as an immigrant about her experiences of social injustice, so to read more about her and her story, check out her website. It's a piece of history that was forgotten in history, but is now being retold by people such as Sylvia and Duncan, so it's worth checking it out. A Critical View of the two literature...Check out my vlog below on critically viewing the two books with a friend of mine, and check out Sylvia Mendez's short clip on talking about her story. Loading Videos... These images below were some of the images that were discussed in the video from both of the books. For closure of this post, I wanted to include a quote from Emily Smith-Buster's article Social Justice Literature and Writing: The Case for Widening our Mentor Texts stating that "If all children had the opportunity to challenge conversations, write as citizens of society, and compare historical and contemporary forms of text and media, then image what they would grow up to accomplish". I think this ties in well with both of the children's book I discussed in this post. If children are given the opportunity to make their own judgement and beliefs, then image the wonders that they would create from it. If children were taught to challenge every thought, opinion, and statement people told them, imagine how powerful they would become in shaping their world and this idea of "racism". As mentioned in my blog, I believe a lot of children's beliefs comes from their parents and the people they are surrounded with, and they don't always take the time to even question if that's their belief or not. They automatically act upon it without thinking about their consequences or reasons until really thinking about their actions. Therefore, "imagine what they would grow up to become, if becoming anything was taught to be a default, not the exception" (Smith-Buster, Emily, 2015). Latham, I. & Waters, C. (2018). Can I touch your hair?: Poems of Race, Mistakes, and Friendship. Minneapolis: Carolrhoda Books. Smith-Buster, E. (2016). Social Justice Literature and Writing: The Case for Widening our Mentor Texts . Language Arts Journal, 94(2), 108–111. Tonatiuh, D. (2014). Separate is never equal: Sylvia Mendez & her familys fight for desegregation. New York: Abrams Books for Young Readers. Images from Google
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AuthorI love books, writing, and music. Life's too dull without books. Archives
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