84 pages • 2 hours read
Katherine ApplegateCrenshaw
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2015A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Themes
Truth/Fact Versus Story/Fantasy
Jackson’s journey in the book is to reconcile truth/fact and story/fantasy, and to recognize that each has a valuable role to play in life.
Throughout the book, Jackson expresses a preference for facts and truth and dismisses stories as, at their core, lies. Jackson’s preference can be understood as both a response to what he views as his parents’ unrealistic optimism and his anxiety about not being able to control or change his family’s circumstances. Crenshaw and Marisol, as well as Robin and his parents, ultimately help Jackson come to terms with his lack of control and see that imagination and whimsy can provide not only comfort but also evidence that anything is possible. In this way, truth/fact and story/fancy are not opposites (as Jackson initially sees them to be) but complementary.
Jackson views his parents’ optimism as rooted in fantasy and escapism, much like Robin’s favorite story about Lyle, the crocodile who lives in a Victorian brownstone with a human family. For example, when Jackson worries about how they will find money to pay for things, his parents suggest planting a money tree or writing a Grammy-award winning album. He contrasts their fanciful optimism with his fact-based version, noting that when he recognizes that sleeping in a van is better than sleeping on the street, he is being factual and culling truth from observation, like a proper scientist.
Yet one thing in Jackson’s life clearly eludes his logic and rationality: his imaginary friend Crenshaw, who appears whether Jackson wants him to or not. When Crenshaw first came into his life, Jackson was overwhelmed by his circumstances. He was living in a minivan with his parents, sister, and dog, and he had no control to change this. Crenshaw’s presence felt comforting because Crenshaw was so improbable—a giant cat who skateboards and rides the roof of the minivan. If Jackson could conjure Crenshaw, perhaps anything is possible.
Initially, Jackson wants to believe that having truth and knowledge means having control. As he tells Marisol in Chapter 45, “If you understand how something happens, then you can make it happen again. Or not happen” (212). If he could only understand why bad things have happened to his family, he could prevent them from happening again. Yet it is clear that knowing why something happens does not always means being able to prevent it. For example, Jackson’s family becomes homeless because they do not have enough money to pay for their house. They do not have enough money because his father and mother both lost their jobs, his father because of illness and his mother because her job was eliminated. Neither of these could have been anticipated or prevented.
Knowledge cannot always anticipate or prevent catastrophes from happening, but imagination can help people cope with the consequences of catastrophes. For Robin, it is snuggling with her brother or parents and listening to them read a whimsical story in which the impossible happens. For his parents, it is playing music or imagining miraculous happenings (money trees, Grammy awards). For Jackson, it is conjuring Crenshaw, watching him make a bubble beard for a rubber duck, and listening to him purr. Though logical explanations can often be found, the imagination can still provide respite and comfort, something everyone needs at some point. Crenshaw is still with Jackson in the final chapter, and Jackson has come to appreciate Crenshaw’s presence and resolves “to enjoy the magic” as long as he can (245).
The Impact of Poverty
The novel explores the impact of poverty not only on Jackson as an individual child but also on family dynamics, friendship, and community. The narrative emphasizes that poverty can result from unpreventable, unanticipated circumstances that are beyond one’s control.
The family’s instability causes Jackson to feel responsible for things a child cannot reasonably be responsible for, and this causes him emotional as well as physical strain. He often goes hungry and resorts to shoplifting to provide food for his sister, whom he knows is hungry and scared. He feels angry at his parents for failing him, and his father feels shame that he cannot provide for his family. While his classmates attend soccer camp, Jackson does not, because his father cannot afford the uniform. Jackson does not allow himself to regret it because he sees how much pain it causes his father to be unable to afford it. In an attempt to shield their children, and themselves, Sara and Tom often make light of their circumstances, joking and suggesting fanciful solutions. Seeking practical solutions, Sara and Tom are at odds about how much help to accept from social services, leading to arguments that Jackson overhears. He feels anxious and scared all the time. More damaging, he loses trust in his parents.
Having to move also means having to leave their community. Jackson alludes to this when he recalls leaving their house when the family first became homeless. They had said their “official goodbyes” and merely waved at their neighbor as they drove away from their home forever (98). The scene is spare but evocative of the communal bonds the family is losing. This is echoed at the end of the book as the family prepares to leave Swanlake Village, the apartment complex where Jackson has enjoyed living and where his best friend, Marisol, lives. It is a modest but tight-knit community. The complex’s residents interact socially, hosting potluck dinners; kids run lemonade stands and ride scooters. Jackson made pocket money walking dogs with Marisol. Even the yard sale, which precedes the family having to leave the complex, is a social event, as other neighbors sell alongside Jackson’s family. It is not only the apartment that the family loses but the support network and friendships.
Coping with Unpredictability and the Unknown
The point is made several times in the book that Jackson’s family suffers from poverty because of circumstances they could neither predict nor control. The family initially became homeless because of a confluence of events. His father was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and had to give up his job building houses. His mother’s job as a music teacher was eliminated due to budget cuts. When they first move into their van, Sara says the family needs "to catch up a little” (96). Jackson notes that they hold five part-time jobs between them, but they still do not pay enough to cover unanticipated expenses, like Aretha’s veterinary bills, and the family falls further behind.
Part of why Jackson struggles to cope with these circumstances is that his parents never explain what is happening, nor how they will address it. At the beginning of the book, he longs to ask his parents why bad things are happening to him but does not. Instead, he is left to infer and conclude from observation. While his parents’ intention is not to burden their children with their problems, Jackson reads his parents as unrealistic and irresponsible. This amplifies his feelings of uncertainty, mistrust, and lack of agency. Thus, while life will continue to be unpredictable, his parents realize that being forthright and honest with Jackson can help assuage at least some of the anxiety associated with it.
At the end of the book, the family’s circumstances continue to be precarious. They secure an apartment for a month but still need to come up with a long-term plan. However, the family has arrived at a mutual understanding that they will be honest with each other. Further, improbable outcomes that arrive unexpectedly can also be beneficial, as when the music store owner surfaces, needs an assistant manager, and has an empty apartment that he is willing to offer a family in need.
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