Last Stop on Market Street

I love this beautiful ride on a bus through the child’s inner city neighborhood. With grandma, the little boy encounters the colorful people that make up his community.

It’s a gentle and sweet reminder to me that diversity is beautiful. And though people may not seem as monetarily wealthy as others, love and care make them rich.

I return to this book countless times. The text and illustrations combined elicit so much heart.

CJ doesn’t understand why he and his nana have to ride the bus across town. And today he is full of questions for Nana. When Nana encourages CJ to engage with the world around him, it becomes less about the destination and more about the journey.

This may not strike you as an adventure book but I think you’d be wrong.

Our Hero goes out with his Nana on a quest, encounters magic, meets a colorful cast of characters along the way and learns a valuable lesson by the end of it. Adventures can happen anywhere even in the city! I love that about this book. It challenges the readers to look at the world around them differently.

This is another one of my favorite duos making picture books today.

This is another one of those stories where a familial bond strengthens the character of a young child and I like to read about those relationships. Although it is not about bullying, children are often teased because they don’t wear the latest fashions or have the newest gadget, and this book highlights finding beauty in all things. CJ learns that, even though his family is not rich, there are others worse off than he. It teaches empathy – plus showing kindness, helping others, celebrating the mundane, being joyful, and other core values.

CJ begins his weekly bus journey around the city with disappointment and dissatisfaction, wondering why he and his family can't drive a car like his friends. Through energy and encouragement, CJ's nana helps him see the beauty and fun in their routine.

This is a stunning book about a Nana who creatively teaches her grandson to look deeper than face value – to see the beauty in every element of the world around them. It’s a rich story of humility and gratitude. Beautifully illustrated by Christian Robinson with bold, graphic shapes in a lovely retro style.  

This beautifully illustrated, emotive… show more.

The wonderful thing about living in a big city is the wide variety of people you’ll see and meet every day, and a bus ride can help you discover this, just like Nana shows CJ. This book is heartwarming and you’ll fall in love with Nana and the way in which she sees the world. She is one of those people who finds the good and the beauty in everything. The illustrations by Christian Robinson are wonderful as always and add an extra layer of warmth to this story.  

Although this picture book tells the story of a single bus journey, it somehow contains the whole world. A child makes a very ordinary trip with his grandmother, but along the way, we meet all kinds of people. People without homes, people with tattoos and those in wheelchairs, buskers, teenagers, a blind man, and a lady with some butterflies in a jamjar. We see beauty in the every day and see the world through other people’s eyes. Not only one of my favourite books, but one of my son’s too.

This story follows a grandma (Nana) and her grandson (CJ) as they take the bus to a lower income neighborhood in order to work/volunteer at a soup kitchen. At first CJ doesn’t understand why they do the things they do but his Nana shows him by example all of the beautiful things out there when you open your eyes and listen. She has a brilliant line which I think might go over some kid’s heads, “Sometimes when you're surrounded by dirt, CJ, you're a better witness for what's beautiful.” But that’s ok. Hopefully, they'll figure it out later. 

Every week, CJ and his Nana take the bus after church to help serve food at a shelter. The joy Nana finds in the diverse population on the bus, in the community, and at the shelter encourages him to seek out the beauty in others and celebrate everyone. This incredibly sweet and simple story of a boy and his grandmother is filled with warmth and encourages us to really see the people around us and notice the rainbows we might not otherwise see.