"Last Stop on Market Street" by Matt de la Peña

"Last Stop on Market Street" by Matt de la Peña is a children's picture book that follows the story of CJ, a young boy traveling through the city with his grandmother. He questions the differences between the richer and poorer areas of the city throughout the book, but his grandmother teaches him to see beauty in everything. This book explores themes like diversity, community, and finding beauty in the small things. The illustrations of this book are bold and vibrant with simple but expressive shapes. Christian Robinson uses a combination of clean lines and playful textures to create a dynamic world that feels both contemporary and timeless. The use of flat color blocks and geometric patterns gives the images an almost collage-like feel, blending realism with the abstract. I think these illustrations add to the richness of themes presented within the book and demonstrate the overall message of finding beauty in everything. 

For use in a classroom, this book could be paired with a community walk and drawing exercise. Students would first discuss the themes of the book and then walk through the community or school and draw on paper the things that they find beautiful about what they see. They can also write a description of what they see and their reasoning behind the drawing. This activity teaches them to view things from a different perspective and engages multi-sensory activity which is crucial for development.