Matt de la Peña is the featured author for this year’s Little Read, Last Stop on Market Street. His portfolio is impressive and diverse, spanning from superhero YA novels to sports, science fiction, and lyrical picture books. It’s easy to see why Last Stop on Market Street’s cover is bedazzled with shiny award and honor stickers, including an unusual recognition as the winner of the Newbery Award, which is typically gifted to an outstanding kids’ chapter book.
The hero’s journey in this story revolves around a young boy riding the public transit bus with his nana after church, a familiar routine for the pair. Over the course of their bus journey, CJ’s perspective gently shifts with the help of nana’s glass-half-full responses to his, “How come?” wonderings about the world. We will be celebrating Last Stop on Market Street with a variety of events along the lakeshore, including a month-long bilingual StoryWalk at Hemlock Crossing in November and featuring de la Peña’s picture books in our storytimes. We’ll even have a MAX Transit bus visit our storytimes at 10am on November 15th (Main Library) and 9:30am on November 17th (North Branch). See Matt de la Peña in person at Hope on November 9th at 7:00. It’s free and open to the public!
Matt de la Peña is our featured author for the Little Read Lakeshore, 2022. His picture book, Last Stop on Market Street, is an accessible form of a hero's journey for young readers. Take a look at more picture books by de la Peña (he has several novels for older audiences not included in this list).
