Vendor
	Mohrbooks Literary Agency Sebastian Ritscher
Original language
English
Categories
Children’s picture books

LAST STOP ON MARKET STREET

Matt de la Peña Christian Robinson

This energetic ride through a bustling city highlights the wonderful perspective only grandparent and grandchild can share, and comes to life through Matt de la Pena’s vibrant text and Christian Robinson’s radiant illustrations.

Every Sunday after church, CJ and his grandma ride the bus across town. But today, CJ wonders why they don't own a car like his friend Colby. Why doesn’t he have an iPod like the boys on the bus? How come they always have to get off in the dirty part of town? Each question is met with an encouraging answer from grandma, who helps him see the beauty—and fun—in their routine and the world around them.

Matt de la Peña (www.mattdelapena.com) is the author of several critically-acclaimed young adult novels, as well as the celebrated picture book A Nation’s Hope: The Story of Boxing Legend Joe Louis. Matt lives in Brooklyn, NY. Follow him on Twitter @mattdelapena

Christian Robinson (www.theartoffun.com) is the winner of the 2014 Ezra Jack Keats New Illustrator Award, as well as the 2013 Marion Vannett Ridgeway Honor. Christian lives in San Francisco, California.

Available products
Book Published 2015-01-08 by Putnam Juvenile
Book Published 2015-01-08 by Putnam Juvenile

Comments

Matt de la Peña's warmhearted story is musical in its cadences... Christian Robinson's angular, bright illustrations are energetic and vibrant... [A] celebration of the joys of service, the gifts of grandmothers and the tenderness that the city can contain.

Like still waters, de la Peña (A Nation’s Hope) and Robinson’s (Gaston) story runs deep. It finds beauty in unexpected places, explores the difference between what’s fleeting and what lasts, acknowledges inequality, and testifies to the love shared by an African-American boy and his grandmother.

Through de la Peña's brilliant text, readers can hear, feel and taste the city: its grit and beauty, its quiet moments of connectedness. Robinson's exceptional artwork works with it to ensure that readers will fully understand CJ's journey toward appreciation of the vibrant, fascinating fabric of the city.

With the precision of a poet, Matt de la Peña chronicles a boy's heartwarming Sunday morning routine with his nana. Christian Robinson's uplifting palette and culturally diverse cast brightens the rainy-day backdrop.

It's also the warmth of their intergenerational relationship that will make this book so satisfying, for both young readers and the adults sharing it with them.

That material poverty need not mean spiritual or imaginative poverty becomes beautifully clear in the quietly moving pages of 'Last Stop on Market Street," a picture book by Matt de la Peña filled with Christian Robinson's vibrant naïf illustrations.

UK rights to Penguin UK ; Catalan rights to Corimbo ; Complex Chinese rights to Global Kids Books ; Simplified Chinese rights to Citic ; French rights to Des Elephants ; Greek rights to Polaris ; Japanese rights to Suzuki ; Korean rights to BIR ; Portuguese (Brazil) rights to FTD ; Portuguese (Portugal) rights to Almedina ; Romanian rights to Pandora ; Spanish rights to Corimbo ; Vietnamese rights to Crabit Kidbooks

The sharp illustrations - in bold, and cheerful primaries - get CJ's restless energy and curious postures exactly right. The voices of CJ and his grandmother carry the story along in subtle point and counterpoint so that at this book's quiet close you feel like you've been listening to a song.

De la Peña and Robinson here are carrying on for Ezra Jack Keats in spirit and visual style. This quietly remarkable book will likely inspire questions... it will also have some adult readers reaching for a tissue.

LAST STOP ON MARKET STREET is Winner of the 2016 Newbery Medal A 2016 Caldecott Honor Book A 2016 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Book A New York Times Bestseller