Matt de la Peña: Hi, my name is Matt de la Peña and I'm the author of Last Stop on Market Street. And today, I'm going to tell you a little bit about what went into writing this book.

Last Stop on Market Street started with an image, which is very rare for a picture book. Usually the text comes first, and then the text is given to an illustrator and the illustrator makes pictures or pieces of art that go with the text. I went on the illustrator's website and I saw a picture of a boy with his Grandmother on the bus and it sparked an idea for a book.

I was lucky to be able to work with Christian Robinson, the illustrator, so it kind of lived up to what I have in my mind. I just wanted to tell you about a couple things that I was thinking about when I wrote the book. First, I think sometimes when I go to visit schools, some kids in the tougher parts of town in the more rundown schools, they're shocked that an author would come to visit them. And so I thought, "I want to write a book where a kid starts to learn how valuable his or her own life is and is able to see him or herself as beautiful; not just physically but also where they live."

And then another thing I wanted to think about is the relationship between a young person and a grandparent. And maybe your traditional parents aren't there but I think you can still have the same powerful guidance with a grandparent. So those were two of the things that really sparked the idea of the book and I went from there.

Two older boys got on next. C.J. watched as they moved on by and stood in back. "Sure wish I had one of those," he said.

Nana sat down her knitting. "What for? You got the real live thing sitting across from you. Why don't you ask the man if he'll play us a song?" C.J. didn't have to. The guitar player was already plucking strings and beginning to sing.

"To feel the magic of music," the blind man whispered, "I like to close my eyes."

Nana closed hers, too. So did C.

J. and the spotted dog. And in the darkness, the rhythm lifted C.J. out of the bus, out of the busy city. He saw sunset colors swirling over crashing waves, saw a family of hawks slicing through the sky, saw the old woman's butterflies dancing free in the light of the moon. C.J.'s chest grew full and he was lost in the sound and the sound gave him the feeling of magic.