'Crenshaw' is about a boy and his imaginary friend, the titular Crenshaw, a human-sized cat and the struggles of his family to get by through barely a roof and two meals a day on their belly. It's a tale of friendships, believing in magic, and keeping alive that magic we believed in as kids into our adulthood even against all odds - when the world expects us to be "grownups" and behave like adults. The book shows us how the always rational and factually correct boy Jackson, starts to believe in his imaginary cat friend. This is a book where the adults - Jackson's parents act like kids and so Jackson thinks he has to be the more mature person in the house, all the while losing out on his childhood innocence. By the end, even though Jackson's family are reaching a new destination mired with uncertainty, there is now a clearly defined contract between Jackson and his parents: they must not tell lies or feign nonchalance about their poverty and financial scarcity to their son and Jackson finally reaches the delf-realisation that he will enjoy the magic while it lasts.