Crank Ellen Hopkins
When I asked my High School Book Group what they wanted to read for Poetry Month, they insisted on this title. My system didn't have very many, and a good number was missing, so I asked if more could be ordered. Strangely, the more they ordered, the more people requested them, and I was barely able make sure everyone in my bookgroup got a hold of it. Maybe it is because the author has a new hot book that just came out. Maybe because of word of mouth, I don't know.
But I will say this was a pretty amazing and intense book. It very well could be the current teen generation's version of Go Ask Alice. But though it was a pretty scary read, I felt it was much more believable than G.A.A., and hopefully will help keep curious kids from going down paths they shouldn't even think about strolling on.
In the book, Kristina finally convinces her mother to let her go see her long absent father for a three week summer visit. She arrives to find him a purposeless druggie with no real idea of how to even start being a dad. Left to her own devices, she starts a dangerous romance with a teen boy in the building, who convinces her to try meth with him. When she returns home, she finds she can probably get over the boy, but The Monster, as she calls meth, is another story altogether.
This book gives no false hope. No happily ever after. This is a true feeling story of real, powerful addiction, inspired by the author's daughter's own experiences. According to the 2000 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, an estimated 8.8 million people (4.0 percent of the population) have tried methamphetamine at some time in their lives. This is a serious issue, that teens need to know about. I plan to pair this reading with information from the new book companion to the HBO series:
Addiction: Why Can't They Just Stop, and share the author's
website.