Reading and Discussing "I Crawl through It" in a YA Literature Class.

I wish everyone knew Sharon Kane. When I was just new academic, Sharon was always around to offer advice and to validate my efforts. Over the years she has been one of the great supporters of the blog and has been a constant presence at the ALAN Workshop and any YA conferences that I have managed to get off the ground. Her earlier blog posts cover a range of topics and they can be found here (a post about waiting for award winners), here (YA about Ada Lovelace), here (about revisiting awards), and here (about space and time in YA literature). This post focuses on how her students respond to A. S. King's wonderful novel, I Crawl Through It and, as an added bonus, King's response to her Skype visit with the class.

Reading and Discussing I Crawl through It in a YA literature Class.

When I, Sharon, met my Young Adult Literature class for the first time this semester, we watched a book trailer for I Crawl Through It, by A.S. King, and I assigned the novel as a whole class read for the following week, promising something extraordinary. I also assigned the article “Who’s Afraid of A.S. King?".  

​During our second class meeting, before I even had a chance to read students’ responses, we talked with the author via a videoconference. Amy Sarig King fielded many questions, and gave my students even more to think about regarding standardized testing; the ongoing trauma of intruder drills and safety threats; creativity; mental illness; the intelligence and emotional depth of adolescents; surrealism; and more. Here are samples from notes students wrote in the thank you card we sent her:

-I admire how you handled the issue of PTSD, and I think the book ended perfectly for this subject.

-I’ve never read a book where I could relate so much to so many characters (good and bad).

-I’m sure I can say for everyone that we loved seeing a glimpse into your beautiful twisted mind.

-I will take your advice about characters telling me what to write when completing my novel.

-I wish my religious Latina mother had read this book when I was a teenager.

-Thank you for paving the way for female YA authors.

-Thank you … for acknowledging the silenced voices of black and Latino kids.  

​I couldn’t wait to get home to read the responses students had written after reading the book, but before meeting the author. Their reflections provided evidence that I Crawl through It is a novel that makes readers work—hard. Yet these undergraduates were inspired to describe the writing as “graceful and eloquent,” and were stimulated to write creatively themselves. Taylor, for example, in her poem “I Went through It,” wrote verses narrated by characters that made me feel I knew them better; Drew’s “To Cope (Or is it Nope?”) was a list poem that made me shudder, and want better for the teens I love.  Taking my cue from them, I have written the following “found poem” using words from my students’ work/play. Below mine, you can find some of the poems my students produced.

I Am a Helicopter Reader
by Sharon Kane

​This book is one that scares you at first,
And makes you wonder what exactly you have picked up to read.
It gives the reader an illusion of understanding without really understanding anything at all.
Each character presented in a raw and uncut manner…
Brilliant. Relatable.
Maybe it is just too much obscurity for me.
What is the deal with the Bush Man?
We are all damaged.
The importance of a name in connection to a person’s identity is so strong
                 that it is odd
                when a person disassociates from it. 
How quickly things can escalate………
Trauma. Trauma. Trauma.
Reset. Reset. Reset.
I thought I would hate it.
A book can make you more tolerant!
It was like a puzzle.
I spent hours walking to and from classes,
               unpacking each and every aspect of the story.
I refuse to be afraid of A.S. King.
I am completely an A.S. King fan.
I Crawl through It could begin a conversation about mental health.
Hug. Love. See pain. Offer beauty.
Stay right side out.
The book that was made to confuse….
I enjoyed the ride. 

I Went through It
by Taylor Woods

​“Blowing up isn't always external. It's not always easy to hear or see. Synapses fire every day in my brain. Thinking is just like exploding until it eventually scars you and you can't interact with people anymore. It's like one big, final detonation.”
― A.S. King, I Crawl Through It
 
Stanzi
 
I too, lost someone.
Not the lost that never
comes back.
 
It’s where
you don’t know
if they’ll ever come back.
But they can.
 
To my sister,
 
I regretted
the things I said,
and didn't say.
 
Not hugging you enough,
not telling you I love you,
enough.
 
Telling you to go away,
too many times.
 
Telling you not to hug me
Anymore.
 
To my sister,
I am sorry.
 
I am glad you’re back.
 
Gustav
 
We’ve all wanted
to
go away, fly away.
 
Maybe in an
invisible helicopter,
that took 9 months
to build.
 
Or a drive
you took at 1am.
 
Or a bottle of pills,
one by one
into your palm.
 
Did you get to where
you wanted to go?
 
Or do you wish,
beg,
to come back.
 
China
 
I didn’t swallow
myself to hide from the world.
 
I didn’t become my stomach
or colon.
 
I stayed right side out.
 
Instead,
I covered myself with
long hair
and long sleeves.
 
I didn’t dare
look in the eyes
of those I loved.
 
Because if I looked at those
I love,
they would know.
I was defeated.
 
I could never tell them.
 
Lansdale
 
I could never lie,
the way Lansdale did.
 
It was the only language she knew,
and all I know, is to tell the truth.
 
Even if it hurt.
Even if it meant losing.
 
I could never lie,
the way Lansdale did.
 
The Bush Man
 
I don’t know why,
The Bush Man
wanted kisses
For his letters.
 
I gave love,
for acceptance.
 
Maybe that’s why.
 
To be accepted.

"Open to Interpretation"
​by Anthony Mirarcki

Outline another day in red
As I realize this is now beyond my control
All I wanted was to feel
Other than the emptiness
That you were so eager to leave on my shoulders
It’s kind of ironic, but nothing
Is the heaviest burden I’ve ever held
And I don’t mean to seem masochistic
But I can’t help but run back to you
I always run back to you
It’s like I’ve been burned so bad
That I can’t even feel
So I hold on despite the damage
Until it all becomes too real
Do you find me pathetic?
I’m stuck in the turbulence of love
I’m not even sure was there to begin with
So I watch as all I have created
In my mind comes crashing down
All around me
And leaves me trapped and surrounded
By the wreckage of what was never there
And I offer to you all I have left
It’s not much use to you
But it means even less to me
And again I find myself running back to you

To Cope (Or is it Nope?)
by Chrisitian "Drew" Seymour

to cope is to escape from where you are;
     to read a novel about aliens
     to write a story where you're the hero
     to use your imagination in ways inconceivable
     to build an invisible helicopter.
to cope is to protect yourself from hurt, to build a giant wall;
     to limit who you interact with
     to only connect and befriend online
     to carry around a safety blanket
     to always wear a lab coat.
to cope is to never say anything, especially something that could alienate you;
     to keep your mouth shut, to never participate
     to always just not and smile, and never show your brain
     to go along with the crowd, to always be a follower
     to swallow your tongue and swallow your words and yourself.
to cope is to live in a world that you yourself dictate;
     to be the leader, the boss, and not let others define you
     to be the bully, using your words and your brute, to put others in their place
     to limit your world so that you will have set your limits
     to lie, about yourself and your world, to affect the real world.

I Crawl Through the Circle
by Jocelyn Lyon

​Everything will repeat in the end.
This cycle comes full circle, again.
Let’s go back to the world and its meaning,
The problem is all around us
but you’re not believing.
 
Empathy should be basic human decency,
you should know that rape
is still a possibility.
Reality will always be there in the end.
This cycle comes full circle, again.
REACT. FESTER. REPEAT.
An Unpredictable Ball of Nerves
cannot face their own baggage.
Therefore, their problems will remain captive.
You cannot teach your child what you do not know.
This cycle comes full circle, again.
 
On National Television, a respected pastor
groped a young woman.
He reached and grabbed her
side breast,
he held her there while she remained uncomfortable.
She runs from the stage
embarrassed.
But the viewers only notice how she’s dressed.
Reality is slapping you across the face.
Your daughter saw it on the news and felt it too.
If it were her, would you
feel more disgraced?
Would you speak up to challenge his hand or refrain?
 
Everything will repeat in the end.
This cycle comes full circle, again.

​Amy, my students could not have had a better experience to welcome them into the community of authors, teens,  teachers, librarians, parents, professors, and others who love YA Literature.  Thank you for your very special gift.  

Amy's Two Cents about the Experience

When I saw on Twitter that Sharon was reading I Crawl Through It as her FIRST (!!!) book in her YAL class, I had to offer a Skype visit...because to me, that's a pretty gutsy move. My time with Sharon's class was profound for me. I often forget exact references in my books because I write several per year and this book was written years ago. A student asked me about a particular paragraph in the book and I couldn't really answer it. And then another student gave me the page number. It was great to revisit the paragraph in real time, in front of the class, and find the reason I wrote that part. I read it aloud and said, "Look at that last line! That's the reason for this scene!" And then we studied that line: "No blood is real blood unless someone cares," and we talked about what it means within the scope of the book and also through the lens of our culture and what students live through daily in modern-day American high schools. For that moment alone, this Skype visit pretty much changed me. It taught me a bit about why I write what I do, and it allowed me to share that with university students who are essentially filling up their own basket of why they do what they do.
​

Need more A. S. King?

Back to Steve: I hope you are reading A. S. King. These books are great. Not just great YA, great literature that speak to the tradition of surrealism and the absurd that has always been on the edge of great literature. Think Swift or Fielding. Think Bret Harte and Ambrose Bierce. Think Kurt Vonnegut and Robert Coover or Julio Cortazar, Jorge Louis Borges, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Isabel Allende. Okay, it is clear I am a fan. If you are reading Andrew Smith and Shaun David Hutchinson and ignoring A. S. King, you are missing the boat. All of the writers mentioned are fun to read, but it is fair warning to tell you that you better have your irony senors and your creative imagination at the ready.

Until next week.