Last Stop on Market Street, by Matt de la Peña

Has it really been nearly three months since the last post on this blog?  It's seriously time to get moving.

I actually read this title last week with no intention of blogging it; my children borrowed it from the library and I just assumed from its dimensions that it was a Caldecott medalist and not a Newbery.  Silly me!

It's such a brief story that there isn't much to say that won't give away *everything*.  But here is the nutshell version.

CJ and his grandmother leave church on Sunday, and CJ starts to notice some differences between himself and others.  His friend gets to ride home in a car with his dad instead of waiting for the bus in the rain. He doesn't have an MP3 player like some of the older kids on the bus.  Every Sunday after church he doesn't get to go home; he has to go. . . to the location disclosed at the end of the book.  But  Nana's perspective on the things CJ complains of is completely different, and soon he starts seeing things her way, too.

My kids were a little young to appreciate this one, but it's a great story for kids who have a little more exposure to an urban environment than my own, or are old enough to stretch their imaginations just far enough to join CJ in his world.