It’s easy to see why this beautiful book was a New York Times Bestseller. The warm and multi-layered story about a boy and his grandmother gets me every time we read it.
As they do every Sunday, CJ and his Nana go to church then take the bus to Market Street to help at a soup kitchen. On this particular day it is raining and young CJ is cold and uncomfortable. He questions why they have to catch the bus when all of his friends have cars, and even why they have to go to church at all.
Rather than reprimanding him, his Nana uses this as an opportunity to point out all of the things which make their journey together special and the sights and experiences they would miss out on if they didn’t go to church and didn’t get the bus. This includes a host of fascinating, culturally diverse characters including an old lady with a jar of butterflies, a heavily tattooed man and a man with a guitar.
There are many, many reasons to love this book, not least the beautiful relationship which you see between the boy and his grandmother.
It’s also the only book we have which touches on topics like class and poverty and this comes through really well in the illustrations. It’s easy for a child to see the difference between the church neighbourhood at the beginning of the book, with its tree-lined streets and large houses, and the barbed wire and graffiti which they find on Market Street. This gives you a great opportunity to discuss this with your child.
Ultimately though, the lesson learned is that you don’t need material possessions in order to be spiritually rich. CJ’s grandmother teaches him to appreciate what he has and to always see the wonder in everything around him.
It’s such a simple story but the poignant descriptions and beautiful illustrations really make this book something special. I can’t recommend it highly enough.
Buy it now: https://amzn.to/2IZPljp