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.

Roller Girl, by Victoria Jamieson

Twelve-year-old Astrid and her best friend Nicole have been inseparable since first grade.  They do everything together, including getting dragged to "cultural enlightenment" events by Astrid's mother.  But it turns out that the newest event is actually kind of fun- they get to watch Roller Derby!  Astrid learns that there is a youth Roller Derby camp over the Summer and is immediately sold on the idea.  Nicole, however, isn't so much.  While Astrid is making plans for the two of them, Nicole is instead enrolling in the camp she actually wants to attend.  Ballet camp (eww).  With Astrid's arch-nemesis, Rachel.

Suddenly Astrid is left on her own at camp with girls who are more experienced and tougher than she is.  She can barely stand up on her skates.  And she can't tell her mother how she feels; she assumes that Astrid is catching rides home with Nicole, and she'd never be permitted to attend the camp otherwise.

Astrid stinks at Roller Derby, but she keeps coming.  She makes a new friend, and seeks some help by slipping anonymous notes into the locker of her favorite skater, Rainbow Bite.  She is just barely able to keep things together. . . until she overhears Nicole and Rachel talking about her at the amusement park.  And then her mother finds out that Nicole isn't actually attending camp with Astrid after all.  Will Astrid be able to redeem the Summer?

What a fun graphic novel!  I breezed through it in one sitting.  Highly recommend!