Good Day in the Neighborhood
I love it when I get emails from teenagers that make my own First Amendment arguments pale. These came back to back yesterday:
Hi Mr. Crutcher!
My name is Hannah Kenny and I am a senior at Grand Haven High School in Michigan.
I am writing to let you know the immense influence your writing has had and is continuing to have in our school.
Upon entering my sophomore year, everyone in the building read your book Whale Talk. The impact of your story sparked monthly school improvement projects, implemented to the extent of rearranging our class schedules so we can have more "Whale Talk Time." Your book is also featured on t-shirts our teachers wear twice monthly, saying, "Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about. Be kind. Always." The lessons from your book are a continual reminder to be conscious of the situations of those around us and for that I am very thankful.
I have also read your book Deadline and really appreciated the "One School, One Team" philosophy you wrote to. Our school motto is "One Team, One Family, One Grand Haven." It is really neat to see the parallels between your text and our world. You really make your writings come to life and they are having a dramatic effect on so many.
Thank you so much for all the lessons your books have taught my peers and I. You are a wonderful author.
Hannah Kenny
Followed by:
Good afternoon Mr. Crutcher, my name is Haley Leonard, I reside in Council Bluffs, Iowa. I am currently going to be a Junior at Abraham Lincoln High School, in late August once school starts up again. I am now attending a summer academy called, Booked! And my lovely academy instructor Sarah Baker, introduced me to your AMAZING book, Deadline.
Roughly one hour ago I finished reading your book with a warm smile on my face, and tears in my eyes. Your book has a very sad ending, but in a way, I loved it!!! This book left me fearless of "changing" and helps me understand, that, yes life is filled with rough patches, but all you need to concentrate on is what positive comes out of those patches. Two of my absolute favorite quotes that really touched me were:
"You put yourself out there in the truest way you can
and hope others do the same. You'll connect or you won't but you did what you could."
- Chris Crutcher
" The only truly ruined people are those who believe
they are "
- Chris Crutcher
You are an amazing writer, and I am SO excited to read more of your books soon!!!! Thank you so much for releasing this wonderful book, it gave me a completely different look out on life!!!! Feel free to write back, it would be great to get a reply! Have a wonderful rest of your Mr. Crutcher!
Your's truly,
Haley Leonard
Sometimes a book is better than it has a right to be because of the history the reader brings to the reading, and because of the understanding and expertise brought by a teacher who has read hundreds of books and taught thousands of students and knows just when and where to bring the two together. Haley’s email stands on its own. She read the struggles of a character, made a connection between his life and her own even though the circumstances weren’t at all the same, and came away with a new way to look at things. That has more to do with Haley than it has to do with me. And it has much to do with her “lovely academy instructor, Sarah Baker.”
The circumstances behind Hannah’s email contain an extra twist. About ten years ago I got into a censorship dust-up in the Grand Rapids, Michigan area that put me as the lead story on the local evening news three nights running, at a time when I was coincidentally scheduled to visit several high schools there. When the dust finally cleared every public high school but one had rescinded my invitation. The principal at Grand Haven had been a student, then a teacher at another school I’d been invited to years earlier, where the educational preparation had been so well structured that I came off as a rock star. His school was not to be part of this train wreck.
I walked onto the stage in the auditorium at Grand Haven High to eleven hundred students chanting my name. They weren’t standing up for me, they were standing up for themselves and for the hundreds of students at other area high schools run by administrators far more interested in placating a wacky, vocal fundamental minister who had done his due diligence on Whale Talk by counting all the bad words and concluding I had far exceeded my quota of none. (Full disclosure: I think he missed three.) Hannah Kenny closed the circle for me on a ten-year journey.
Emails like these, so spot-on and articulate, lift my spirit to elevations I don’t deserve (the deserving are the educators who bring the right stories to the right kids and the kids who invite those stories in), but hey, I’ll take it. When frequently challenged and/or censored authors draw our swords against the already drawn swords of the censors, we usually battle to a stalemate. If those same censors dare engage with the likes of Hannah and Haley, I suggest they get bigger, sharper swords.
Hi Mr. Crutcher!
My name is Hannah Kenny and I am a senior at Grand Haven High School in Michigan.
I am writing to let you know the immense influence your writing has had and is continuing to have in our school.
Upon entering my sophomore year, everyone in the building read your book Whale Talk. The impact of your story sparked monthly school improvement projects, implemented to the extent of rearranging our class schedules so we can have more "Whale Talk Time." Your book is also featured on t-shirts our teachers wear twice monthly, saying, "Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about. Be kind. Always." The lessons from your book are a continual reminder to be conscious of the situations of those around us and for that I am very thankful.
I have also read your book Deadline and really appreciated the "One School, One Team" philosophy you wrote to. Our school motto is "One Team, One Family, One Grand Haven." It is really neat to see the parallels between your text and our world. You really make your writings come to life and they are having a dramatic effect on so many.
Thank you so much for all the lessons your books have taught my peers and I. You are a wonderful author.
Hannah Kenny
Followed by:
Good afternoon Mr. Crutcher, my name is Haley Leonard, I reside in Council Bluffs, Iowa. I am currently going to be a Junior at Abraham Lincoln High School, in late August once school starts up again. I am now attending a summer academy called, Booked! And my lovely academy instructor Sarah Baker, introduced me to your AMAZING book, Deadline.
Roughly one hour ago I finished reading your book with a warm smile on my face, and tears in my eyes. Your book has a very sad ending, but in a way, I loved it!!! This book left me fearless of "changing" and helps me understand, that, yes life is filled with rough patches, but all you need to concentrate on is what positive comes out of those patches. Two of my absolute favorite quotes that really touched me were:
"You put yourself out there in the truest way you can
and hope others do the same. You'll connect or you won't but you did what you could."
- Chris Crutcher
" The only truly ruined people are those who believe
they are "
- Chris Crutcher
You are an amazing writer, and I am SO excited to read more of your books soon!!!! Thank you so much for releasing this wonderful book, it gave me a completely different look out on life!!!! Feel free to write back, it would be great to get a reply! Have a wonderful rest of your Mr. Crutcher!
Your's truly,
Haley Leonard
Sometimes a book is better than it has a right to be because of the history the reader brings to the reading, and because of the understanding and expertise brought by a teacher who has read hundreds of books and taught thousands of students and knows just when and where to bring the two together. Haley’s email stands on its own. She read the struggles of a character, made a connection between his life and her own even though the circumstances weren’t at all the same, and came away with a new way to look at things. That has more to do with Haley than it has to do with me. And it has much to do with her “lovely academy instructor, Sarah Baker.”
The circumstances behind Hannah’s email contain an extra twist. About ten years ago I got into a censorship dust-up in the Grand Rapids, Michigan area that put me as the lead story on the local evening news three nights running, at a time when I was coincidentally scheduled to visit several high schools there. When the dust finally cleared every public high school but one had rescinded my invitation. The principal at Grand Haven had been a student, then a teacher at another school I’d been invited to years earlier, where the educational preparation had been so well structured that I came off as a rock star. His school was not to be part of this train wreck.
I walked onto the stage in the auditorium at Grand Haven High to eleven hundred students chanting my name. They weren’t standing up for me, they were standing up for themselves and for the hundreds of students at other area high schools run by administrators far more interested in placating a wacky, vocal fundamental minister who had done his due diligence on Whale Talk by counting all the bad words and concluding I had far exceeded my quota of none. (Full disclosure: I think he missed three.) Hannah Kenny closed the circle for me on a ten-year journey.
Emails like these, so spot-on and articulate, lift my spirit to elevations I don’t deserve (the deserving are the educators who bring the right stories to the right kids and the kids who invite those stories in), but hey, I’ll take it. When frequently challenged and/or censored authors draw our swords against the already drawn swords of the censors, we usually battle to a stalemate. If those same censors dare engage with the likes of Hannah and Haley, I suggest they get bigger, sharper swords.
