Crank - Ellen Hopkins
Seventeen-year-old Kristina Snow is introduced to crank on a trip to visit her wayward father. Caught up in a fast-paced, frightening, and unfamiliar world, she morphs into "Bree" after she "shakes hands with the monster." Her fearless, risk-taking alter ego grows stronger, "convincing me to be someone I never dreamed I'd want to be.
When Kristina goes home, things don't return to normal. Although she tries to reconnect with her mother and her former life as a good student, her drug use soon takes over, leaving her "starving for speed" and for boys who will soon leave her scarred.
-Sharon Korbeck, Waupaca Area Public Library, WI
Although Written in Free verse, don't be scared to pick up the book. There is minimal writting on each page and is all over the page, built into shapes of the story. You are able to read as verse, or normally as you regularly would. The story is simply laid out with front up characters. and in that sence it is so powerful.
Author's Note: "While this work is fiction, it is loosely based on a very true story - my daughter's. The monster did touch her life, and the lives of her family. My family. It is hard to watch someone you love fall so deeply under the spell of a substance that turns him or her into a stranger. Someone you don't even want to know...If this story speaks to you, I have accomplished what I set out to do. Crank is, indeed, a monster - one that is tough to leave behind once you invite it into your life. Think twice. Then think again."
Crank is the first in a 2 part series. Glass is the Second and picks up a Year Later.
Students who liked this book also read:
Burned - Ellen Hopkins
What Happened to Nancy - Beatrice Sparks
Go Ask Alice - Anonymous
The Glass Castle - Jeannette Walls
This is Graceanne's Book - P. L. Whitney
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