Crenshaw

Author – Katherine Applegate

Recommended for children 9+

Crenshaw is not a children’s book. To label it like that would mean limiting its depth and impact. I have always believed instead of self help, read Children’s books if you want your mind to open up and create new possibilities. The number of layers we deposit over years make our lens so hazy that we fail to see beauty. It is then that children enter our life like sunshine to show us things we can’t see. In the similar vein, children’s books dipped in innocent questions reveal to us answers we have been looking for.

I found myself slowing down while reading Crenshaw, not wanting it to come to an end. On one hand I was filled with curiosity to decipher what the imaginary cat is all about, and on the other hand I never wanted the mystery to end.

The author Katherine Applegate with great sensitivity brings out the need of the parents to protect their children from harsh reality. In few subtle words, she drills into me that if there is love nothing else matters. Things will come and go. Circumstances will go from good to bad and then back to good, the cycle will go on. But if love is constant, you preserve innocence and spirit of your children.

As convincingly, she whispers in my ears through the imaginary cat three simple words ‘Tell the Truth’. It is with the glue of truth a lasting bond with your children is built. Make them part of your struggle. Let them experience hunger, homelessness, and the uncertainty the way it is and allow them the dignity to deal with them. Let out the anger, let the tears flow, let’s see life in its eye. Only then along with pain, you will find sitting quietly next to it MAGIC!