An inside-out girl, an invisible helicopter, and two kinds of tests for survival.
Presenting: the unfilmable book trailer!
But directors by e.E.
Krista Schumow
Charlton-Trujillo (who also produced it) and James Bailey met the challenge.
Entertainment Weekly: What kind of guidelines did you give the creators of this trailer?
I gave them no guide at all.
Krista Schumow
I gave them the book.
It was suggested, Maybe we could make a trailer.
I said No, I dont think thats possible…
I only saw it a few days ago and they did manage to do it.
I lost that dare.
They didnt have any questions for you?
I think they found the perfect Gustav, even though I myself never pictured Gustav.
They even depict the girl who swallowed herself.
I couldnt believe they pulled that off.
I thought it was great.
They green-screened her and put a stomach on top.
Even though it is a metaphor, shes a different part of the digestive system every day.
I thought it was perfect.
Kind of funny, but also creepy.
When the little stomach with a skirt runs away, its like, Whaaat?
Youve been touring to promote the book.
What are the most interesting conversations youve had with readers?
The interpretations are many, which was the point.
Everybody is going to see something different.
Everybody is allowed their own ideas about this book.
Its about teenagers, so what have young readers brought to it?
Whats been really eye-opening is talking about intruder drills at school.
At that age, I remember never wanting to admit I was scared.
Thats when you learn to front invincibility.
Far more than I thought opened up and were honest and said yes I find the intruder drills scary.
Male, female, every color, it doesnt matter.
Doesnt matter how tough they are on the outside.
This is a new phenomenon.
Who knows how it messes with their heads?
When I was a kid, we did fire drills.
But never on the news did I see a school on fire.
Its not the destruction of the whole world.
Its the destruction of your friends in front of your face in the classroom.
It does scar kids.
Theres a certain age that it hits them.
But theres a moment when it switches.
Thats the moment you want to be able to talk to them honestly about it.
Teens must intuit a little hopelessness from these drills, right?
Its definitely disheartening that we cant do just alittlebit of something to try and make kids safer in school.
But thats what the books about.
You have to crawl through it.
You have to crawl through life, and hopefully youll make it.
As a mother its disheartening when I hear about these drills.
We undervalue teenagers so much and blow off their emotions so much.
This is being blown off as well.
Thats probably the most tragic thing of all.
Were just letting them deal with the consequences.
Some have the insane idea of arming first-grade teachers to protect kids.
Time and again, its just politics and politics and politics.
As someone who suffers from PTSD after I was robbed at gunpoint quite violently when I was 24 …
I blew it off for a long time.
You dont even consciously do that.
You just stand there in shock.
Theyre inundated with these fill-in-the-blank standardized tests until theyre numb.
I think it already has.
Writing about these things in an abstract way, is that an easier way to explore these issues.
A chance to explore troubling topics with a dose of magical realism?
Its not like the reality makes sense anyway.
All the concepts are so insane!
Its insane that were talking about this.
Because its so absurd, I had to use an absurd structure.
There is no code.
Every human, no matter what book it is, will bring to a book what they want.
The key is: get on the helicopter trust me.
For a signed copy ofI Crawl Through It,you could find them atKings local indie bookstore.
