Separate Is Never Equal

3rd grade teacher read this aloud in parts to the class. When I was young and learning about civil rights in grade school I was always curious – but nervous to ask about– about how people other than black people were treated in the US. This book does a good job addressing part of that question.

However, many of the kids were a bit confused and thought that the kids depicted were black/African American. The teacher did her best to try to explain that they were of Mexican/Latino heritage. As an adult I wish that this book had touched on some of the larger issues such as it being illegal in certain states to speak Spanish at school...until the 1990's in some areas. It is a good introduction to the topic and it might have more informative text in the back after the story.