Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Peña

Title: Last Stop on Market Street
Author/Illustrator: Matt de la Peña/ Christian Robinson
Genre: Fiction
Major Awards: Newbery Medal (2016); Caldecott Honor Book (2016); Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Book (2016); New York Times Book Review Notable Children's Book (2015); Wall Street Journal Best Children's Book (2015)
Age: 3-5

This book is about how a young boy learns to see the beauty in the world around him like his grandmother does. It was Sunday and after church, CJ and his grandma take the bus home, and they ride all through the town. CJ asked a lot of questions, and was very curious as to why they had to ride the bus, or why he didn't have iPod like these two older boys who got on the bus, and for every question his grandma had a wonderful answer. When he asked about the bus, she told him that the bus breathed life and for one thing it didn't have Mr. Denis, the bus driver, who always had a trick to show CJ. He had asked how come two of his friends didn't have to go there and his grandmother said she felt sorry for them because they wouldn't get to meet some of the amazing people they see on the bus, such as Bobo or the Sunglass Man. They met a blind man on the bus and CJ wondered why he couldn't see and she told him some people see with their ears. When the two older boys got on the bus he wonders why he didn't have an iPod and his grandmother responded why do you need that when he had the real thing right across from him, since there was a man who was tuning his guitar and she told him he should ask him to play a song, but he started singing away. They closed their eyes and let the music move through them, and felt it how the blind man would. CJ closed his eyes and saw many things, he saw sunset colors swirling over waves, family of hawks flying through the sky, and many other things and his chest grew full and became lost in the sound of the music. When the song ended Mr.Dennis called out "Last Stop on Market Street" and CJ and his grandma exited the bus. When they got off the bus CJ asked his grandma why this place they were at was always so dirty, but she didn't focus on that and said "Sometimes when you're surrounded by dirt, CJ, you're a better witness for something beautiful" and they saw a rainbow between the buildings. When they arrived at the soup kitchen, CJ was glad he came, and was able to see familiar faces, and help the people of this community.

This book would be great for students in Preschool-Kindergarten grade. I really enjoyed this book and I think students would too. If I did incorporate this into a lesson, it would probably be about if they do anything special with loved ones every weekend, like CJ went to the soup kitchen with his grandma, and we would talk about what they experience on their way there, and what kind of things they do while they're there.
- Peace. Love. Giraffes

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Childhood Book Memories

Image
     I have had a great experience with reading and keeping my mind active growing up. During the summer, my mom frequently put me in summer reading programs, and I read many different books, genres, and authors, at times it was required for school, other times, she just wanted to make sure that I was being active mentally, and not regressing with my education. She even bought me different work books so that I could do them and she would check them and give feedback on what I had done to help me get better.     Which books I've actually read is a little bit harder to remember because there were a lot. I did get into John Grisham books at a young age, and I frequently read his books ( A Time To Kill , Sycamore Row , The Runaway Jury , just to name a few). Crime and mystery fascinate me a lot and he writes them in such great detail that I feel like I'm there, and I think in some other form I wanted to be a lawyer or something in the legal field, however I don...
Read more

The Rooster Prince of Breslov by Ann Redisch Stampler

Image
Title: The Rooster Prince of Breslov Author/Illustrator: Ann Redisch Stampler/ Eugene Yelchin Genre: Folklore Age: 5-7 years old This book is based off a Yiddish folktale, and deals with a young, spoiled prince, who assumes the likeness and characteristics of a rooster, until one week and old man spends seven days with him and shows him how he can mature. The book starts out with this young prince who essentially had more than he could ever want and need, nice meals, people waiting on him hand and foot. Until one day during his lavish lifestyle he had, had enough and starting acting like a rooster. He had taken off his clothes and started clucking about the palace, he pecked at things like a rooster, hunched over like a rooster and believed himself that he was a rooster. He wouldn't utter a single human word and wouldn't get dressed when his parents asked him to. They had a doctor come see him and he had said he had a case of roosterism which wasn't really real. So s...
Read more

The Three Billy Goats Gruff by Paul Galdone

Image
Title: The Three Billy Goats Gruff Author/Illustrator: Paul Galdone Genre: Fairy Tales; Fiction Age: 4-7 This book is about three goats who walked over this bridge and they each get stopped by this troll who wants to eat these billy goats, and how they outsmarted him. They lived on a hillside and were hungry and wanted to get fat the only way to do so was to cross the bridge, which was over a rushing river and a Troll lived underneath it. The first Billy Goat Gruff was tiny and small and warned that a bigger goat was coming along and that he would fill him up, rather than a tiny goat. So the Troll let him go free. Then came along the second slightly larger Billy Goat Gruff and as he was crossing the bridge the Troll stopped him as well. He said he was going to eat him up, but the second billy goat, like the first one warned that a bigger billy goat was coming along and would fill up the Troll. So the Troll let him go as well. Along comes the third and biggest billy goat and like t...
Read more