The images also help convey CJ’s evolved perspective to young readers who may miss the messages in the text. Before they board the bus, CJ is clearly unhappy that they have to go volunteer after church. He complains about the rain, the fact that they don’t have a car, and that they are not going right home. Although readers do not yet know where CJ and Nana are going, it is obvious that he does not want to be going there. Up until they load the bus, the pictures are mainly two page spreads. But, once they actually get on the bus and start talking to people, the structure changes. Starting on page 10, the images and text are separated. Exemplified on pages 15 and 16, the box like images and freestanding text indicate to even the youngest of readers that something is changing. Even if they don’t know it yet, CJ’s mindset toward his surrounding is undergoing a massive evolution and the image-text structure reflects this. Once the pair leaves the bus, the words and pictures revert back to their pre-bus form, but it is clear that something is different. Primarily, the weather has gone from grey and rainy to sunny with a rainbow. Even young children can identify a change in the story’s mood that reflects CJ’s new perspective. CJ has learned to find beauty in the most ordinary places, such as a rainbow in “dirty” city. When CJ and Nana finally get to the soup kitchen, he demonstrates this new mindset by telling his Nana “I’m glad we came” (pg. 25). Even if younger readers don’t pick up on what is being said through the text, they can see on that same page CJ’s smiling face as he waves to everyone waiting in line to eat.
