“The air outside smelled like freedom, but it also smelled like rain,”
Each week C.J and his grandma ride the bus across town to Market Street for a visit to a local shelter. All along the way, CJ wonders why he isn’t spending his time playing, why his grandma doesn’t have a car, why he doesn’t have an Ipod, or why they go each week to Market Street. His grandmother lovingly replies to each of CJ’s queries with heart-widening observations about the gifts they encounter on their weekly routine. Expert of nuanced tenderness, Newbury award winner, Matt De La Peña, writes readers into the eavesdropping of a lifetime.
“How come that man can’t see?”
“Boy, what do you know about seeing?” Nana told him. “Some people watch the world with their ears.”
“Boy, what do you know about seeing?” Nana told him. “Some people watch the world with their ears.”
The illustrations by Christian Robinson are warm and beautifully crafted without feeling regal, like the long work of love it took to shape the grandmother’s wisdom making Robinson's world (and ours) sacred, but grounded by the relational.
For those who love wisdom, and birdsong, and the righteousness of ordinary kindness, this book's for you.
For those who love wisdom, and birdsong, and the righteousness of ordinary kindness, this book's for you.
“Sometimes when you’re surrounded by dirt, CJ, you’re a better witness for what’s beautiful.”
For the Toolkit:
This thoughtful book is a springboard for a number of discussion with children on up to adults. Questions surrounding happiness and what one needs to be happy is a great starting point for older children and grown ups in a mixed age book club. How does the narrator's grandmother, "see beauty where he never thought to look?" What do we need to be happy?
The use of metaphor and similie is rich throughout the story and would be a great addition to 5th or 6th grade work with figurative language. What does the grandmother mean when she notes the tree is drinking through a straw, and what does the narrator mean when he says the air smelled like freedom?
With smaller children, a drawing activity that involves exploring how the book makes one feel is a good place to start with students and young readers who are just beginning to think about others in the world-widening development of K-2nd grade.
This thoughtful book is a springboard for a number of discussion with children on up to adults. Questions surrounding happiness and what one needs to be happy is a great starting point for older children and grown ups in a mixed age book club. How does the narrator's grandmother, "see beauty where he never thought to look?" What do we need to be happy?
The use of metaphor and similie is rich throughout the story and would be a great addition to 5th or 6th grade work with figurative language. What does the grandmother mean when she notes the tree is drinking through a straw, and what does the narrator mean when he says the air smelled like freedom?
With smaller children, a drawing activity that involves exploring how the book makes one feel is a good place to start with students and young readers who are just beginning to think about others in the world-widening development of K-2nd grade.
You may also like:
Love by Matt De La Peña, pictures by Loren Long is a notable read alike for its' promotion of reflective emotional work. For all ages to explore ideas surrounding diversity including ageism, race, economy, and domestic life, Long draws pictures less playful than Robinson, but soft and still with space for the reader to think deeply about ones' place in the human barnyard.
The Journey, story and pictures by Francesca Sanna, like Last stop and Love, draws readers into an exercise in empathy following a family escaping their war torn homeland as refugees looking for shelter in a new country. What dangers will the family face? Will they find welcome in a new land to call home? Sanna draws pictures and creates text that takes readers into the vulnerability.
Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson, pictures by E.B. Lewis is a thoughtful tale about inclusion and the timeliness of a good deed. What we do matters and sometimes what we don't do makes what we should do clearer. This is an older read (ages 8 and up) that encourages young readers and old alike not to miss out on any opportunity to be kind. You may not get that opportunity back after all!
Last stop on Market Street
Words by Matt De La Peña
Pictures by Christian Robinson
Unpaged. Putnam. $16.99. (Ages 2 and up)
Love by Matt De La Peña, pictures by Loren Long is a notable read alike for its' promotion of reflective emotional work. For all ages to explore ideas surrounding diversity including ageism, race, economy, and domestic life, Long draws pictures less playful than Robinson, but soft and still with space for the reader to think deeply about ones' place in the human barnyard.
The Journey, story and pictures by Francesca Sanna, like Last stop and Love, draws readers into an exercise in empathy following a family escaping their war torn homeland as refugees looking for shelter in a new country. What dangers will the family face? Will they find welcome in a new land to call home? Sanna draws pictures and creates text that takes readers into the vulnerability.
Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson, pictures by E.B. Lewis is a thoughtful tale about inclusion and the timeliness of a good deed. What we do matters and sometimes what we don't do makes what we should do clearer. This is an older read (ages 8 and up) that encourages young readers and old alike not to miss out on any opportunity to be kind. You may not get that opportunity back after all!
Last stop on Market Street
Words by Matt De La Peña
Pictures by Christian Robinson
Unpaged. Putnam. $16.99. (Ages 2 and up)