The Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Pena has earned many awards: Caldecott Honor, Newberry Medal, Coretta Scott King, honors that have been granted to a simple story of a CJ getting on the bus with his nana after church. Every Sunday, this is their habit. CJ questions why they ride the bus. He questions why they have to go to their final stop. He questions things about all the people on the bus with them – a man with a guitar, teenagers with iPods, a blind man who gets on the bus with his seeing dog. Each question is painted with a child’s curiosity and innocence while the nana handles each question with kindness, patience, and wisdom.
CJ questions why they don’t have a car. His nana says, “Boy what do we need a car for? We got a bus that breathes fire and old Mr. Dennis, who always has a trick for you” (de la Pena, 2015). The side of the bus has a fire-breathing dragon on the side and when CJ and his nana enter the bus, the driver pulls a coin from behind CJ’s ear in an old, simple magic trick.
Each question is treated with the same hints of humor and truth. When CJ expresses his desire to have the iPods like the teenagers, his nana tells him to ask the man with the guitar to play him a song.
“To feel the magic of music”, the blind man whispered, “I like to close my eyes” (de la Pena, 2015).
They all close their eyes – the dog, too – CJ feels like he is flying over the city with the beautiful music giving him wings.
When they arrive at their stop, nana and CJ walk through an impoverished neighborhood and get into the line at the soup kitchen – behind the table where they give food to several of the people Nana and CJ talked about in their walk to the bus and their ride through the city. “When he spotted their familiar faces in the window, he said ‘I’m glad we came” (de la Pena, 2015).
Diversity and kindness carry the simple story through the underlying message of acceptance and caring. “Author and artist create a microcosm of society in that bus, and the serendipitous interactions of unlikely companions” (Shelf Awareness, 2015). Varying races, with CJ and nana being Hispanic, the disabled (the blind man, a man in a wheel chair), and people that look vastly different (a little old white woman with a jar of butterflies seated next to a bald, tattooed white man) help illustrated the message of diversity and acceptance. Kirkus felt the illustrated, Christian Robinson “Painted in a warm palette, this diverse urban neighborhood is imbued with interest and possibility” (Kirkus, 2015).
Last Stop on Market Street deserves the multiple awards and honors it has received.
Pena, Matt de la (2015). Last Stop on Market Street. New York: G. P Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers.
Ingram (2015). [Digital Image – Last Stop on Market Street]. Retrieved on October 5, 2018 from https://ipage.ingramcontent.com/ipage/servlet/ibg.common.titledetail.pd1000?queryString=H4sIAAAAAAAAABXKsQrCQBCE4Vc5pk6RtFuGWNlYnCCEIAdZQXK6x-0GUfHd3eu-f5gvdAXdUlbuoCIgq7uzGAijyAa3fkBD37uyr4dLnNDO7tN5nGKLAprnoYP7yO-X1PUa75bZOye1oCYlyDM8Ut24ZWU2LMvvD_BKgUOBAAAA&R=27519276&dNo=6
Graphic Mama-team (2018). [Digital Image – dragon_green_hola_sign]. Retrieved on October 7, 2018 from https://pixabay.com/en/dragon-green-hola-sign-spanish-1597583/
Kirkus (2015). [Book Review – Last Stop on Market Street]. Retrieved on October 5, 2018 from https://ipage.ingramcontent.com/ipage/servlet/ibg.common.titledetail.pd1000?queryString=H4sIAAAAAAAAABXKsQrCQBCE4Vc5pk6RtFuGWNlYnCCEIAdZQXK6x-0GUfHd3eu-f5gvdAXdUlbuoCIgq7uzGAijyAa3fkBD37uyr4dLnNDO7tN5nGKLAprnoYP7yO-X1PUa75bZOye1oCYlyDM8Ut24ZWU2LMvvD_BKgUOBAAAA&R=27519276&dNo=6
Shelf Awareness (2015). [Book Review – Last Stop on Market Street]. Retrieved on October 5, 2018 from https://ipage.ingramcontent.com/ipage/servlet/ibg.common.titledetail.pd1000?queryString=H4sIAAAAAAAAABXKsQrCQBCE4Vc5pk6RtFuGWNlYnCCEIAdZQXK6x-0GUfHd3eu-f5gvdAXdUlbuoCIgq7uzGAijyAa3fkBD37uyr4dLnNDO7tN5nGKLAprnoYP7yO-X1PUa75bZOye1oCYlyDM8Ut24ZWU2LMvvD_BKgUOBAAAA&R=27519276&dNo=6
Ramblings of Jhenry 