Summary
Jackson’s family has fallen on hard times… again. There isn’t enough food in the house, and there’s no money to pay the rent. They will probably wind up in their car… just like they did the summer after Jackson finished first grade. The car was crowded then with four humans, a dog, lots of stuff, and an imaginary friend. It will definitely be crowded now that Jackson and his sister have grown. But when the same imaginary friend shows up, Jackson’s life, made up of facts and truths, gets turned upside down. Ironically, this may be just what this future animal scientist needs to accept himself and the people that he loves.
How does this story relate to the world as you see it?
Katherine Applegate’s Crenshaw crafts a story that contains fantasy elements but is largely based in reality. While talking cats don’t actually exist, students will easily be able to relate to the idea of having an imaginary friend who helps you through hard times. They will also be able to recognize the ideas of hunger and poverty as truths about the world in which we live. These concepts are realistic even if they are uncomfortable to address. Applegate intentionally structures her story in such a way that highlights the fact that her characters hide their need. The main character and narrator, Jackson, claims that, “You wouldn’t have thought it was a place where people were worried or hungry or sad” (p. 47, 2015). In fact, she intentionally crafts character stories that establish Jackson’s parents as hard working people who have just commonly found themselves on the short side of luck. This idea resonates with me as I personally consider the message of this story compared to the world that I know. The text gently prompts readers to consider the way that individuals in the real world are facing struggles and leads us to respond with compassion by humanizing the people around us.
Summary
Every Sunday, CJ and his nana ride across town on the bus. And every Sunday, they get off at the last stop on Market Street. But today, CJ isn’t too happy about the ride. He wants to “go nowhere” like his friend Miguel or ride in a car like his friend Colby. As he complains, his nana patiently listens and provides responses that open CJ’s eyes to show him the real beauty of the world that surrounds him.
Does the author use details accurately and does this work avoid stereotypes? Does the author use language authentically?
“I had never known, never imagined for a heartbeat, that there might be a place for people like us.” -Matt De la Peña in his Newberry Medal Acceptance Speech
In his book Last Stop on Mark Street, Matt De la Peña effectively uses dialogue to create a text that is rich with meaning while still avoiding stereotypes. His main character, CJ, says things like “How come we gotta wait for the bus in all this wet?” (p.3) and “Nana, how come we don’t got a car?” (p.5) which provides an example of authentic dialogue that permits readers to become further engrossed in the story. In his Newberry medal acceptance speech, De la Peña thanks his publisher, Jennifer Besser, saying, “You understood from the beginning that CJ would switch codes,” (p.4, 2016). This technique of code switching paired with the author’s own lived experiences contribute to the creation of a rich literary experience for readers. In the article “A Ride with Nana and CJ: Engagement, Appreciation, and Social Action”, Rudine Sims Bishop claims that Last Stop on Market Street is an effective starting point for readers to examine their worldview and the way in which we respond to individuals whose circumstances are different than are own (p.122, 2016). It is through the creation of this effective starting point that De la Peña skillfully offers an incentive for readers to make a difference through their own social action.
Text-to-Text Connections
Both of these texts deal with the issues of poverty. They also both achieve their purpose of encouraging readers to think about the world around them. If I were to use these texts in my own classroom, I would likely choose to pair them in a text set because it would allow for a variety of views that allowed the overarching theme of poverty and call to social action to be accessible to all of my students. Along with pairing these texts, I would also use the “problem posing” strategy described by McLaughlin and DeVoogd to encourage my students to think critically about these books (p.41, 2004). To effectively achieve this strategy I would break up my class into five small groups to create a sort of jigsaw technique. This would occur after both of there books had been read by all of the members of our classroom community. Each of the groups would then answer one of the five questions listed: 1) Who is in the text/picture/situation? Who is missing? 2) Whose voice are represented? Whose voice are marginalized or discounted? 3) What are the intentions of the author? What does the author want the reader to think? 4) What would an alternative text/picture/situation say? 5) How can the reader use this situation to promote equity?
After answering these questions, student would come back to together to teach out to their classmates about what they learned. I would encourage them to use specific examples from both of the texts to defend their answers. I would also remind them to ask their peers questions to encourage conversations about each of these “problem poses”. By analyzing these texts together, through the light of critical literacy, I believe that students will better be able to understand the impact of poverty in the real world.
Sources
Applegate, Katherine. (2015). Crenshaw. New York, New York: Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC.
Bishop, R.S. (2016). A ride with nana and CJ: Engagement, appreciation, and social action. Language Arts, 94(2). 120-123. https://asulearn.appstate.edu/pluginfile.php/313933/mod_page/content/20/Last%20Stop%20on%20Market%20Street.pdf.
De la Peña, Matt. (2015). Last stop on Market Street. New York, New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC.
De la Peña, Matt. (2016). Newberry medal acceptance speech. Association for Library Service to Children. Retrieved from https://asulearn.appstate.edu/pluginfile.php/313933/mod_page/content/20/newbery-speech-2016%20Market%20Street.pdf.
McLaughlin, M., & DeVoogd, G.L. (2004). Critical literacy: Enhancing students’ comprehension of text. New York: Scholastic. Retrieved from https://asulearn.appstate.edu/pluginfile.php/313933/mod_page/content/20/Ch.%202%20Teaching%20Critical%20Literacy.pdf.
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