A story that reminds readers that beauty, wonder, and good in the world, can be seen using more than just our eyes. Always stay positive and keep searching.
What is this story about?
Every Sunday, a young boy named CJ and his grandmother take the city bus across town. On one particular Sunday, CJ is questioning why they must go, why they have to wait in the rain, and why they don't have a car. On their journey, his grandma continues to point out the beauty in the world and reminds him to always have a positive outlook on life. In the end, CJ learns to be grateful and find beauty in unlikely places.
Meet the Author:
Matt De La Peña
Matt De La Peña is a New York Times bestselling, Newbery Medal winning author from Brooklyn, New York. He is the author of five critically acclaimed novels: Ball Don't Lie, Mexican WhiteBoy, We Were Here, I Will Save You, and The Living. He is also the author of A Nation's Hope: The Story of Boxing Legend Joe Louis, an award-winning picture book. Aside from writing books, Matt teaches creative writing and frequently visits and speaks at schools across the country. Visit the author's website, https://mattdelapena.com/ to find out more about him!
Meet the Illustrator:
Christian Robinson
Christian Robinson is an award-winning illustrator living in San Francisco, California. His books have won awards such as: the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor, New York Best Illustrated Children's Book of the Year award, Sibert Information Book Award, Boston Globe-Horn Book Nonfiction honor, Parents Choice Gold Medal for Poetry, and a place on Wall Street Journal's 10 Best Children's Book of the Year List. Aside from illustrating children's books, he is an animator and has worked with The Sesame Street Workshop and Pixar Animation Studios. Visit his website at, https://www.theartoffun.com/ to find out more about his work!
My Critique/Review:
After seeing that this book was so critically acclaimed and a winner of so many awards: 2016 Newbery Medal, Caldecott Honor Book, Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Book, and New York Times Bestseller, I was so excited to read it. This book was such a beautiful story reminding readers to always keep searching for the good in the world. It is such a touching story, followed by beautiful illustrations, that capture the beauty of the world around. This book definitely meets my expectations of a good children's book because it is engaging, relatable, and depicts a great message about community, giving back, diversity, and the value of being grateful and finding beauty in your surroundings. I can't wait to read this book to my future students!
Thoughts:
The book, Last Stop on Market Street, touches on many different themes and messages throughout. Some important themes I derived from the book were: defining beauty and finding it in unlikely places, diversity, the importance of community and giving back, and the importance of family. Throughout the book, the author focuses on finding beauty, good, and wonder in the world around. He hints at the idea that these can be seen using more than just our eyes. On page 16, CJ closes his eyes and listens to the sound of the music, visualizing the beauty he hears (De La Peña, 2015). CJ "saw sunset colors swirling over crashing waves. A family of hawks slicing through the sky. The old woman's butterflies dancing free in the light of the moon" (De La Peña, 2015, pg. 17-18). This casts the message to readers that there is beauty all around us, but we must be open and searching for it. Furthermore, when CJ and his nana are on the bus, the reader is able to see diversity and a sense of community, through the illustrations. On page 10, CJ and his nana have just got on the bus and are greeting the others. We can see a variety of people who are different genders, different races, have on different clothing, and are holding different things that are important to them. From this scene, the reader witnesses the importance of diversity and being kind to one another, creating a sense of community that the author is trying to portray. Lastly, the author incorporates the importance of family and giving back. Throughout the book, CJ's grandma is opening CJ's eyes and teaching him how to find beauty in the world. The author uses this relationship between grandma and grandson to portray the importance that family has and how much you can learn from them. In the end, CJ and his grandma arrive at the soup kitchen, adding the importance of giving back to the community (De La Peña, 2015, pg. 27-28).
The artistic media of this book was created with acrylic paint, collage, and digital manipulation. I think the illustrations in this book were beautiful. I loved how the end-pages of the book incorporated everything beautiful they noticed during their bus ride journey. When I first opened the book, I noticed the beginning end-page and wondered, what do these images represent? Throughout the book, I questioned certain scenes and their relation to the end-pages. However, once I reached the back end-page, I was able to realize just what the illustrator was representing with the end-pages and their connection to the story. Furthermore, I loved the illustrators use of colors and realness. My favorite image is the one where CJ and his nana are walking along the street with the rainbow in the background. The illustrator incorporated so many real-life landmarks and styles, making this scene jump out of the page and look so real. Lastly, I think the illustrator's connection to the book is so intriguing. After reading the book and researching more about Christian Robinson, I realized that the characters in the book could be a depiction of his life. He mentions that growing up, he used to ride the bus with his nana, just like CJ. Learning that Christian was able to illustrate a book that was a representation of his experiences through the characters, makes it so much more touching and personal.
One aspect of the book that really stood out to me was the author's use of rhyming and great vocabulary words. In the book the author writes: "the bus rounding the corner out of sight and the broken streetlamps still lit up bright" (De La Peña, 2015). Furthermore, the author uses phrases like: "which freckled CJ's shirt", "watched rain patter against the windshield", "the bus creaked to a stop" (De La Peña, 2015). By the author using nice, descriptive vocabulary words and rhyming, he made the story more engaging. Using unfamiliar words like this, makes the readers have to practice using more context clues or relying on the pictures for information. Incorporating low frequency vocabulary words, requires readers to take the initiative and look up what the words mean, as well as, having good starting points for class discussions.
Making Connections:
Matt de la Peña's Newbery Medal acceptance speech is a resource that I could use in the classroom (De la Peña, 2016, Newbery Speech). I think this speech is an interesting read, offering many new viewpoints. For instance, I learned from this speech that the quote "Surrounded by dirt, you're a better witness for what's beautiful" is describing that when you grow up "outside of the American Dream, you're in a better position to record the truth." Here, the author is connecting his experiences growing up to the book. Furthermore, Matt states that he wanted to write a book with diverse characters, but not a book about diversity. To me, this was interesting. When reading, I saw the diversity of the characters in the book and automatically thought, a theme is diversity and how communities are diverse. However, after reading the author's speech, I was introduced to a whole different perspective and learned the author's intentions are not always what stand out to readers. So, I think having students read or listen to this speech after reading, will engage students, create new viewpoints, and ideas in students, allowing them to be more critical when reading.
Another connection I made to this book is how I would use it in the classroom. In the article, "Teaching Critical Literacy", I could incorporate the strategy "Read-Pause-Bookmark" to have students focus on vocabulary (McLaughlin & DeVoogd, 2004, pg. 42). One thing I noticed about this book is its use of great verbs and descriptive words. So, by having students read, pause, and write down words that they come across to discuss, students can better connect with the reading and meaning. Some words that I think are great words to discuss are: freckled, lurched, patter, sagged, zip, and arcing (De La Peña, 2015).
Furthermore, another strategy that I think would be fun for students is the strategy, "Character substitutions" (McLaughlin & DeVoogd, 2004, pg. 50). This approach focuses on students choosing a character in the book and changing them out with a new character. For instance, one could imagine what the book would be like if SpongeBob were in place of CJ's nana. This would allow students to put themselves in the character's perspective and decide how the story would unfold, creating a new text. Allowing students to write a new story of events and/or share their new story orally, would be a fun twist for students.
Useful Links:
The Author and Illustrator discussing the book: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-m6mIZY8aI
Teaching Resources: https://www.teachingbooks.net/tb.cgi?tid=42323
Teaching Resources: http://www.theclassroombookshelf.com/2015/03/last-stop-on-market-street/
Book Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKWyXcA8bIU
Read Aloud: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zk6CWvW_5-s
Matt de la Peña's Newbery Medal Acceptance Speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1_7_cw4MkQ
Soup Kitchen information near me: https://www.homelessshelterdirectory.org/cgi-bin/id/cityfoodbanks.cgi?city=Boone&state=NC
10 things you can do to end hunger: https://ysa.org/10waystoendhunger/
Sources:
Christian Robinson. Photo of Illustrator Christian Robinson. Reprinted from Art of the Picture Book, 2015. Retrieved from https://www.artofthepicturebook.com/-check-in-
De La Peña, M. (2015) The Last Stop of Market Street. New York, New York: Penguin Group LLC.
De La Peña, M. (2016) Newbery Medal Acceptance Speech. Retrieved from
Matt De La Peña. Photo of Author Matt De La Peña. Reprinted from The Washington Post, by Author N. Krug, 2018, Retrieved from
McLaughlin, M., & DeVoogd, G.L. (2004). Critical Literacy Comprehension of Text. New York: Scholastic.