Module 9: Crank

Crank by Ellen Hopkins

 

Book Summary:

Kristina goes to visit her father in Albuquerque for the summer. While she is there she meets a boy, who also introduces her to the monster. The monster makes her feel and act like a different person. She calls this new version of herself Bree. Then she goes back home, but she is not the same person as she was before. The monster takes over her life and changes everything about the old Kristina. She doesn’t want to go to school, she makes new friends (who only encourage her new habits), new boys, and her relationship with her family is even more distance. Kristina begins to see the affects the monster is taking on her life, and all her decisions begin to catch up with her.

APA Reference of Book:

Hopkins, E. (2004). Crank. New York, NY: Margaret K. McElderry Books.

Impressions:

This book was really difficult for me to read. Ellen Hopkins writes beautifully and I love the free verse style of this book. However, it is really difficult to read about a teenage girl making horrible life decisions that will affect her the rest of her life. I think books like this are important because they highlight a lifestyle that many people do not get to see. I also think it helps us become more aware of the struggles that addicts face. It is definitely not a comfortable read. I always had to read a happier book after reading parts of this book. I think situations like the ones in this book are very prevalent in high school. I think teenagers would be able to personally relate to this or know someone who deals with these issues. Again I think Ellen Hopkins does an excellent job of using free verse to tell this story. Each page has a different layout and that makes it very interesting to read. I think this book is written very well and will speak to teenagers like other books do not. However, I do not think I could read other books with these types of themes.

Professional Review:

“Hypnotic and jagged free verse wrenchingly chronicles 16-year-old Kristina’s addiction to crank. Kristina’s daring alter ego, Bree, emerges when “gentle clouds of monotony” smother Kristina’s life—when there’s nothing to do and no one to connect with. Visiting her neglectful and druggy father for the first time in years, Bree meets a boy and snorts crank (methamphetamine). The rush is irresistible and she’s hooked, despite a horrible crank-related incident with the boy’s other girlfriend. Back home with her mother, Kristina feels both ignored and smothered, needing more drugs and more boys—in that order. One boy is wonderful and one’s a rapist, but it’s crank holding Bree up at this point. The author’s sharp verse plays with spacing on the page, sometimes providing two alternate readings. In a too brief wrap-up, Kristina keeps her baby (a product of rape) while Hopkins—realistically—offers no real conclusion. Powerful and unsettling.”

Crank [Review of the book Crank by Ellen Hopkins]. (2004, October 1). Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved from https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/ellen-hopkins/crank/

Library Uses:

This book has very controversial material, so I do not think a discussion of the book would go very well in a public library setting. I think that it would be great though to introduce teenagers to more poetry and free verse books. A book display of various types of poetry books could be displayed in the young adult or teen section. I also think it would be great for teenagers to have the opportunity to hear poetry spoken. This could be carried out through a poetry reading or poetry slam. You could have teenagers share their own poetry or they could recite famous poems. Depending on the resources available to you, you could also have slam poets come in and recite poems for the teenagers.