Sylvia & Aki is an award winning, historical fiction novel written in 2015. It tells the true story of an unexpected friendship between Sylvia Mendez and Aki Munemitsu, who found themselves at the center of two different systems of injustice in the United States in the 1940s. Engage and educate students with Storyboard That premade activities!
Having students choose a favorite quote or scene from the book allows them to express which parts of the story resonated with them on a personal level. In this way, students are making a text-to-self connection that demonstrates their understanding of the characters and their development or the themes of the novel. Students can share their storyboards afterwards and have a short discussion about what the quotes mean to them.
Storyboard Text
FAVORITE SCENE from SYLVIA AND AKI by Winifred Conkling
Sylvia's father turns down the superintendent's offer for the Mendez children to attend Westminster school because the offer is for only the Mendez children, not to end segregation. Sylvia realizes that her father turned him down so that all children could have a chance, not just herself and her brothers. She realizes that, "something bigger was happening. Her father wasn't doing this just for his family: he was thinking about kids she would never meet, who went to schools she would never see."
"I think what you're doing is ... brave."
"There cannot be justice for one unless there is justice for all."