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Abstract: The article considers the possibility of using a work of art to solve the problem of teenager’s fears and complexes. The story of the modern writer Asya Petrova allows us to discuss with students in grades 7-8 the question: what does the internal freedom of the individual imply? Is it possible to violate the rules governing the life of society, family, and an individual? What and under what circumstances? The purpose of the article is based on the material of the selected story by A. Petrova, to identify the principles of world relations, methods and techniques that allow achieving the completeness of personality manifestation and helping the teenager get rid of internal fears. The research methodology includes the traditional structural and semantic analysis of the work, with an emphasis on the subject organization, as well as the consideration of literature in the receptive aspect, from the point of view of the process of artistic communication, the psychology of artistic perception. During the analysis of the story “Crocodile”, two types of plot were revealed: external-eventual, connected with the resolution of a difficult everyday situation, and internal, psychological, showing a change in the psyche of the characters. The ritual of initiation is guessed at the heart of the chronotope; children change in the process of fulfilling a common important task. At the same time, the compositional center of the plot is the archetype of the “wise old woman” – the grandmother of Cordelia, who gradually cleans the psyche of the characters and changes their outlook on life. The peculiarity of the story of A. Petrova is the creation of an atmosphere of absurdity and the inclusion of elements of the fantastic, which not only gives the narrative fascination, but also forms a more flexible skill of perceiving the art world of a work by a teenager, initially gravitating to a naive-realistic perception of art. The story by a young Petersburg writer is first analyzed in the literary criticism aspect. The material in the article will help the teacher in organizing the discussion as part of the classroom, an elective on contemporary literature, and an extracurricular reading lesson.