about the book
It is a dismal rainy day, and after going to church with his Nana, C.J., a little black boy, would rather not go and volunteer at the soup kitchen. It is a long bus ride away, the last stop on Market Street.
Waiting for the bus to come, C.J. wonders why they don’t have a car. His wise Nana uses the opportunity to teach him a little about appreciating the little things in life. Why would they need a car when they can ride a bus driven by Mr. Dennis, who always magically pulls a quarter out of C.J.’s ear?
As the bus chugs along, C.J. spots two kids with iPods. He’d love to have one too, and when he queries his Nana about it, she points out the fellow who is strumming his guitar a few seats away. Why would you want one of those when you have real music right here?
As the bus pulls into the decrepit neighborhood that holds the soup kitchen, C.J. wonders why the place is so rundown. Nana has the answer. Sometimes being surrounded by such things makes a person better able to see what is truly beautiful.
As the two climb down from the bus, C.J. looks out at all the people. They are all different races and are young and old, tall and short, smart and slow, successful and homeless. Suddenly, he realizes he is glad to be there to help the people who look forward to seeing him and his Nana every Sunday…and wonders how his very wise grandmother discovered so many wonderful things in such surprising places!
about the author
Born in a surf town in southern California to a “have-not” family, Matt de la Pena is half Mexican and half white. Held back in second grade because he couldn’t read, Matt thought he was stupid. By high school, this basketball-loving, guitar-strumming jock was writing poetry and had finally finished reading his first whole book. It was a secret, something he never shared with anyone.
A full basketball scholarship got him through the University of the Pacific. But when Matt’s professors saw that he was heading toward the NBA, they secretly applied for his enrollment into graduate school. He earned a master’s degree in creative writing from San Diego State University.
One day Matt pulled up to a stop light, surrounded by expensive cars. There was this Latino kid sitting at a bus stop, hood up, headphones on. Nobody gave him a look—he just wasn’t interesting to the people in the cars. Matt wanted to make him interesting— for at least 300 pages—and that inspired him to write his first book. He sent the book to five publishers and four wanted it!
The Living started from a failure, a novel that never went anywhere. But Matt loved the machismo character Shy so much, he had to write a book around him. Look for the book’s sequel, The Hunted due to be released in the May of 2015.
Matt now teaches classes in New York City. He writes in a coffee shop or while staring at the white walls of his apartment. It’s a solitary life but occasionally he gets out and shoots some hoops!
Sources:
Author website
Author page : Random House
Author interview : NPR Books
Also by Matt de la Pena:
A Nation’s Hope : The Story of Boxing Legend Joe Louis. Dial. 2011.
about the illustrator
Christian Robinson is all about the art of having fun, and the way he has fun is in creating art. Neat how that works, right? He studied art at the California Institute of the Arts, earning a BFA in character Animation in 2008. He has worked with Pixar Animation Studios, Jib Jab, and the Sesame Street Workshop.
Christian lives and works in San Francisco, where he tries to blur the line between work and play as much as he can.
Source:
Illustrator website
Also by Christian Robinson:
Leo : A Ghost Story by Mac Barnett. Chronicle Books. 2015.
The Smallest Girl in the Smallest Grade by Justin Roberts. Putnam Publishing. 2014.
Gaston by Kelly DiPucchio. Atheneum Books for Young Readers. 2014.
Rain! by Linda Ashman. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2013.
Harlem’s Little Blackbird : The Story of Florence Mills by Renee Watson. Random House Books for Young Readers. 2012.
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