Crenshaw the cat is the imaginary friend of Jackson who only shows up when there is a problem in Jackson's life. Crenshaw is also a cat that is about the size of a person. Some of the problems that Crenshaw shows up to help Jackson through include his dad having MS, his mom loosing her job, which makes her have to work three jobs, and the family ends up having to live in their van each time they cannot pay the rent. Jackson has a hard time keeping friends because he is having to move from place to place, also, he is poor which makes him not be able to fit in with many of the other kids his age. Each time Jackson's parents are unable to make the rent they have a garage sale. Before the sale his parents ask him and his little sister put what they want to hold onto in a keepsake bag. All they want to keep must fit in the bag or it will have to go in the garage sale. After these garage sales the family ends up moving and living in their van for a while. This also makes it difficult for Jackson to make any friends. So Crenshaw appears to help him through these trying times, and help him with his insecurities about not being able to make friends. At the end of the story he meets a girl who becomes his friend who also has an imaginary friend and she lets him know that having an imaginary friend is okay.
This book would be helpful in teaching children that it is okay to be different and to celebrate their differences. Also, it would be a good book to use to teach children that everyone goes through hard times, but you can get through it. This books is another one that teaches the importance of friendship and how being/having a good friend can help during hard times.
In Crenshaw the main character, Franklin, is having trouble developing socially and emotionally due to the family's constant moving around. Because of this he develops Crenshaw, his imaginary friend, who happens to be a cat. As is mentioned in the textbook, "books can serve as portals to help students see others struggling with similar emotions and feelings and reactions." (p. 23) This book would be a good one to help students who are struggling with moving, not being able to make friends, and those whose families are going through tough times.
Citation
Applegate, K. (2015). Crenshaw. New York, NY: Fiewel and Friends.
August Pullman, called Auggie, is starting public school for the first time because he had so many surgeries as a kid he was unable to attend school. He also has a serious craniofacial abnormality. Auggie tries to make as many friends as he can, even though he has some hiccups along the way. He learns the meaning of true friends, forgiveness, and perseverance. Auggie has found some close friends in Jack and Summer. By the end of the story Julian, the student who is the main one bullying Auggie, is no longer attending his school and he has found new friends in those who had been bullying him alongside Julian. Even though Auggie is the main character, he is not the one who learns the real lesson. From his example, the other students are the ones who are learning a lesson.
This is a wonderful book to teach lessons about character analysis, how to treat others, perspective, and point of view. This story is told from many different perspectives, Auggie, Jack, Julian, Auggie's sister Via, and Miranda, Via's childhood friend. Telling the story this way makes it easy to teach lessons about perspective, as well as discuss the fact that everyone will see a situation in a different way. There are resources online that help teach this book and there are fun activities included as well.
There are an amazing amount of resources for librarians to use when looking for book recommendations. Some of these lists give ideas about award winning books and some of these lists are the "if you like this then read this" type. Sometimes, if you see a book pop up on more than one of these lists you know that it must be a good one. When deciding what books to read for our assignment some books that fit this bill were Wonder, that showed up on the New York Times Bestseller list, as well as many lists on Goodreads and Amazon.
Link to Choose Kind Resources
Citation
Palacio, R. J. (2013). Wonder. London: Corgi.
