De la Pena, M. (2015). Last stop on market street. NY: Penguin
What do a grandson and a Nana have in common? Perhaps absolutely nothing...at first sight, that is! When CJ rides the bus with Nana every Sunday from the church to the market, and although it's not one of his favorite things to do, we see a child becoming of age in the sense that within this one particular bus ride, he begins to undertand the importance of this experience of sharing a bus seat with his Nana. He is full of questions and the answers that Nana provides for him are so thought provoking. How come we gotta wait for the bus in all this wet? And the typical answer would probably be something like,"because it's raining and we can't control it," but instead she responds with, "Trees get thirsty, too. Don't you see that big one drinking through a straw?" Her response to his question about the blind man and her implication that he is lucky to get to experience this every sunday finally sink in. Beautifully written and so thought provoking, this is definitely a book you don't want to miss out on.
I think of my son with my dad. My dad and my son go everywhere together and his teacher is always telling me that she loves all the stories he has to share about his grandpa and that just warms my heart. See, I never met my grandmothers and my grandfathers both died when I was one so I never got to experience this. Knowing that my son will have all these memories to cherish when he is older warms my heat.
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