This book was an amazing story about what it’s like to have true friends, whether they are real or made up. Children love books with animals who are helpful. In this book, the animal is an imaginary friend, but he deems to be more helpful than anyone in reality for a little boy named Jackson. Jackson finds his family in a predicament that he’s been through before and doesn’t want to go back to-being homeless and living out of a van. Jackson is a trooper and does what he can to help his family, but Crenshaw ends up being his saving grace at coping with the situation that he can’t fully control on his own.

Books can teach and show children so much more than just words and pictures. Beauty by Bill Wallace is about a boy being taught so much from his horse and Stone Fox by John Gardiner is another story about an animal, a dog, who helps her owner, a young boy earn money to save his family farm. Children relate to books with animals in them and this one is a perfect fit for any child.

Click on the image to visit the author’s Amazon page to find more books written by Applegate.

 Applegate, Katherine (2015). Crenshaw. New York, NY: Feiwel and Friends.