Last Stop on Market Street is a 2015 children's book written by American author Matt de la Peña and illustrated by Christian Robinson, which won the 2016 Newbery Medal, a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor, and a Caldecott Honor. The book follows a young boy named CJ as he learns to appreciate the beauty in everyday things during a bus ride. De la Peña and Robinson both drew on personal experiences when working together to create the book. Through its story and illustrations, Last Stop on Market Street tackles issues of race and class as they may be seen through the eyes of a young teen. Last Stop on Market Street was met with widespread acclaim after its release, receiving positive reviews from Kirkus Reviews and the New York Times Book Review amongst many others. Last Stop on Market Street'''s Newbery win was monumental, as it is extremely rare for picture books to be awarded this medal. In 2018, the children's book was adapted into a children's musical which has been performed by various children's theater groups across the country.
Plot
This illustrated children’s book follows a young Black-American boy named CJ as he accompanies his grandmother, (nicknamed Nana) on the city bus to volunteer at a soup kitchen. The book begins with the pair exiting a church during a rainstorm. As they walk to a bus stop, CJ asks Nana why they have to walk in the rain, and Nana replies that trees, too, need water. When they arrive at the bus stop, CJ witnesses his friend, Colby, riding home in a car with his father and asks his Nana why they do not have a car. Later, the bus pulls up outside of them and CJ, along with his Nana, walks up to the front seat. After encountering a blind man and witnessing two boys with iPods a man plays a song on his guitar, causing CJ to finally feel true beauty. The book ends with Cameron and Nana working at a soup kitchen.
Background
De la Peña’s experiences growing up with a white mother and first generation Mexican American father in the border town of National City, California, informed his writing of this book. As a teenager, de la Peña realized how students were constantly grouped by their social class and race, creating a “forgotten group” of kids from marginalized backgrounds who were not expected or encouraged to succeed. He now strives to make these kids visible through his writing, as he was once one of them. De la Peña himself did not realize his love for reading until college, and during his Newbery Medal acceptance speech, described his desire to expose kids to “the magic of books at a younger age.” He pondered, “What if I can write a story that offers that tough, hoodied kid in the back of the auditorium a secret place to feel?”
Years before writing Last Stop on Market Street, de la Peña was first introduced to illustrator Christian Robinson's art and was immediately blown away. The piece that moved him the most was an illustration of a boy on a bus with his grandmother, which became the inspiration for Last Stop on Market Street. The story was extremely personal for both Robinson and de la Peña as they both had close relationships with their grandmothers and spent many years taking the bus. Robinson in particular took the bus with his grandmother throughout his childhood.
Analysis Last Stop on Market Street utilizes the picture book format to discuss the influence that race and class have in the lives of urban teens and their identity formation. Literary scholar Katherine Slater argues that, in Last Stop on Market Street, Black mobility is portrayed as an empowering force of resistance against marginalization. She explains how mobility is always influenced by the larger power structures at play, and in the United States, the movements of black people tend to be directed towards punitive ends. Slater particularly focuses on how the bus in Last Stop on Market Street represents mobility, first describing how it evokes the long history of civil rights activism that has involved busses. She asserts that de la Peña's use of metaphors and personification portray the bus as a space of possibility and flexibility instead of limitation. Additionally, she states that Robinson's illustrations of the bus utilize diagonal lines to symbolize mobility.