Last+Stop+On+Market+Street+by+Matt+de+la+Peña

By: Matt de la Peña //Book Review by: Lindsay Gagnon//
 * Last Stop on Market Street **

Title: Last Stop On Market Street Author: Matt De La Peña Illustrator: Christian Robinson Originally Published: January 8, 2015 ISBN: 9780399257742 Publisher: Penguin Random House Publishing Pages: 32 Grade Level: 3-5
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 * __ Summary: __**

// Last Stop On Market Street // by Matt De La Peña is a book about a little boy named CJ and his Nana. In the book, CJ and Nana take a ride through the city together on the bus and CJ wonders why he doesn’t have some things in his life that other people around him have. For example, he asks his Nana why they don’t have a car of their own and she shows him that they don’t need a car because they have a perfectly good city bus to bring them right where they need to go. Along the way on their adventure through the city, CJ and Nana meet many people and Nana helps CJ to appreciate the little things in life instead of wondering why he doesn’t have certain luxuries that other people have. At first, CJ doesn’t see that these “extras” in life are not as important as taking advantage of the things that are offered to him and that he is lucky enough to actually have.


 * __ Review: __**

I really enjoyed reading the book //Last Stop On Market Street//. I have never read this book before but I have heard from several recommendations that this is a very good, award-winning children’s book and I was definitely not disappointed. First of all, I thought this book had such great illustrations. Each picture was wonderfully detailed and portrayed exactly what the story was trying to explain to the reader. Not only did the illustrations aid in making such a great story for children, but the author did a great job of showing the reader how to appreciate the little things in life through the adventure of CJ and his Nana. This book shows all different aspects of a community and exposes the reader to a lot of diversity that surrounds us in our world today. This aspect of the book alone is so great for young children to experience so that they can see a world in a text that is similar to what they may see everyday and it allows them to easily connect the book to their everyday life. I would recommend this book for all teachers to incorporate into their classrooms because it is an engaging and interesting books for students to read and can be used in a variety of ways to teach different lessons in the classroom.


 * __ Author Bio: __**

The author of //Last Stop On Market Street// is Matt De La Peña. He is a New York Times Best-Selling author and his book //Last Stop On Market Street// has just recently won the 2016 Newberry Medal Award. De La Peña has written a total of eleven books that are a mixture of young-adult and picture books. Before this book, Matt De La Peña was most widely-known for his book //Ball Don’t Lie// which was turned into a major motion picture in 2008. De La Peña currently lives in Brooklyn, New York where he teaches creative writing and he also visits high schools and colleges around the country to talk about his books. Finally, he graduated with a BA from the University of the Pacific and he graduated with an MFA in creative writing from San Diego State University.


 * __ Analysis of a Literary Element: __**

One of the most striking aspects of Matt De La Peña’s book are the illustrations that he incorporates into them. The illustrator, Christian Robinson, was able to perfectly capture the message that De la Peña was trying to convey to his readers through his detailed and colorful illustrations. This book is very much so about the diversity within a community and tries to get readers to be able to see the similarities and connect to the world we live in today. With that being said, the illustrations in this book are extremely important in helping this message to be conveyed to readers. For example, on page ten of this book, there is a wonderful illustration of the main characters, CJ and his Nana, on a city bus with many different people surrounding them. This picture captures exactly what someone might see if they stepped on a city bus in real life today. There is a man with tattoos, a blind man with a seeing-eye dog, and elderly lady with a jar of butterflies, a man playing a guitar, and many more. These are all different kinds of people that someone might see on a city bus today and I thought the colorful and detailed illustration of this bus environment captured exactly what De La Peña wanted his readers to visualize when reading his story. Also, one of young children’s favorite things about reading stories if being able to look at the pictures. This along with the story itself are usually how children are engaged in the book so these illustrations are perfect for capturing a child’s attention and they are able to really make the child listen to the moral of Matt De La Peña’s story which is to appreciate the things we are lucky enough to have in our lives and don’t take them for granted. I believe that without these wonderful illustrations, the story would not have such a strong message.


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- Here is a link to a video that allows you to see the illustrations and read along to Matt De La Peña’s children’s book. []

- The following website has ideas on lessons that teachers can use in the classroom for grades 2-8 as well as digital resources that can be utilized. []