Title: Last Stop on Market Street
Author: Matt De La Pena
Newbery Award Year: 2016
Time: early 21st century
Place: in an unspecified American metropolitan city
Don’t get me wrong — I loved this picture book. But I still think it’s pretty incredible that it won both the Newbery Medal and the Caldecott Medal! The story chronicles the city bus ride of a young African-American boy with his grandmother, who is always seeing the best in every situation. The small “twist” at the end implies that we must be grateful for all we have because someone usually always has it worse.
While I generally would have picked out this book for my 2- and 5-year-olds, it really was my 7- and 9-year-olds who gleaned the most from listening to it. It is sweet and poignant and very relevant, and it masters the art of saying a lot in just 32 pages.
Our rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️