Crank

Title - Crank
Author - Ellen Hopkins
ISBN - 0689865198
Publication Date - 2004

Plot - Kristina is a high school student with a promising life ahead of her.  All of this is about to crash down around her.  Meeting another boy called Adam she creates an alternate ego for herself that she uses to get outside of her world.  This ego would eventually stick with her, called Bree.  Bree and Adam end up going down the rabbit hole into the monster world of crank.  This addiction is instantaneous and begins to rule her life, as she becomes unable to separate fiction from fact.    She is forced to go back to her mothers and live with family there, but the addiction follows, and leaves a trail of tears.  She ends up developing relationships with multiple people.  One of these relationships is with Chase, who seems to truly care for her, and another with Brendan, who rapes her.  Eventually she discovers that she is pregnant with child and hopes that it is Chase's child, but it turns out to be the child of Brendan.  She is forced to make many decisions about what is going to happen to her and her child, all in the fog of the addiction to the monster.  At the end of the novel she is raising her child, but just barely as she still is caught by the addictive madness of the monster, calling her out the door.

Critical Review -  Upon first glance Crank would seem like a difficult read.  Lots of authors have been experimenting with using free verse to be able to tell a story, and Hopkins takes the reader down quite a path.  There is a beautiful uniqueness to the tale of Crank, where reading the story can be done in so many different ways.  The poetry can be read word by word, line by line.  Sometimes it is read top to bottom, skipping sections of poetry to give the reader a whole new meaning to what is being said.  It does a lot to maintain the readers interest, and anyone who is willing to set aside some hours getting all of the meanings Hopkins wishes to convey will be richly rewarded.  There is an even further beauty to the method of this writing for this particular story.  The poetry itself is winding, twisting and turning, leading the reader in all sorts of different directions.  Much like the drug to which the leads are addicted to, the poetry of Crank allows the reader to descend and be caught off guard into the madness of what is going on in the story.

Reader's Annotation - What     
                                               I am going to say,
                                               That can convince you
                                               To read this poem which
                                   Makes
                                               Feelings be sucked into
                                               an abyss of lost
                                               emotive turmoil.
                                   Life,
                                               crazy as it may
                                               seem to bystanders
                                               drives us to find self
                                    Worth
                                               in materials,
                                              and of memories.
                                              Like death, are we yet
                                    Living?
                                              But in that empty
                                              tomb that I call life
                                              the monster beckons:
                                    Crank.

About the Author - Ellen Hopkins began her career in the non-fiction field, writing books for children.  But in 2002 she found out that her daughter had developed a severe meth-amphetamine addiction.  Keenly aware of all the damage that was being caused by her daughters use of the drug, and desiring to sense some connection and responsibility she might bear for her daughters condition, Hopkins set out to write a novel about the monster of crank.

This cathartic journey encouraged her to explore a wide range of subjects that might be effecting teens with a series of verse novels including Burned, Impulse, Identical and Glass.  Each of these explores the drama effecting teens and how their choices have a significant impact on the rest of their lives.

Genre- Drama, Free Verse Poetry

Curriculum Ties - Discuss the use of Free Verse to write an entire novel. - Literature

Compare and contrast the novel Crank with other Epic poems such as Milton's Paradise Lost, or Dante's Inferno.  - Literature

Booktalking Ideas -

Discuss the nature of addiction.

Discuss the difference, if any, of the nature of many of the prescription drugs that are out there.

Discuss the efficacy of decriminalizing drugs such as marijuana and its social impact

Reading Level/Interest Age - Grade 10+

Challenge Issues - I think there are so many challenge issues it would be difficult to start.  As I know, Hopkins has been banned from doing book talks at certain places because of the controversy over the Crank series.  It is hard to pick one issue. But aside from language issues the novel contains a rapist who fathers a child, and severe drug abuse without any resolution aside from the fact that we know she is addicted at the end.

Overcoming Challenges - I think it would be important to first point out that there is no glamour involved to the drug use.  The narrator of the novel knows that it is something that is sucking away her life, which she cannot stop.  She also ends up pregnant from a thing she believes to be rape, but cannot sort it out in her mind properly and actually questions it.  Discussing with teens that actions have consequences is important and this can be a good way to begin that discussion.  Also having a list of items from drug agencies about drug abuse and its negative consequences on hand to show to parents to that they have a way to discuss the novel with their teen would be a good thing as well.  This should allay the fears of most responsible parents.

Why Included - Along with Wintergirls, I really wanted to find another book that would be considered controversial in teen literature.  A friend of mine put me onto Ellen Hopkins and I was very pleased.