Student Information

Author: Benjamin Alire Saenz Title: Sammy and Juliana in Hollywood
Genere: Multicultural Publishing Info: Cinco Puntos pp. 291

Summary: Sammy Santos is a young boy just like any other 17 year old boy except he lives in Hollywood. It’s not Hollywood California but a small town in southern New Mexico. He faces many different situations the war in Vietnam, dress codes, racism, death, and violence. Before the summer of his senior year he falls in love with Juliana. In one year he learns the essence of growing up.

Rating: ****

Rationale: Well written, serious, tearful and suspenseful plot, complex and believable adolescent characters and problems.


Teacher Information

Reading Level: 2.8 Interest Level: 5th-12th

Thematic Areas: friendship; family; belonging; survival; racism; death; courage; values; hatred; identity

Content Areas: Morales; social studies; history; psychology; segregation; culture

Potential Problems or Difficulties: There is a lot inappropriate language, swearing continually throughout book in Spanish and English and there are a couple of scenes of explicit sexual overtones.

Possible use in the classroom: Have the student’s brainstorm some ideas on how it would feel to have someone die that they really loved, have them write those ideas down. Compare and contrast those ideas to how Sammy felt when someone he loved died. Divide the students into groups and have the students act out a scene from the book that they liked the best. After they acted out the scene they must tell why they picked that particular scene. Have a speaker come and talk to the class about violence and how to do with death. This book could introduce a lesson on Vietnam War and how people reacted to the war.


Angie Blair