Crank by Ellen Hopkins (537 pages)
This novel, written entirely in poems, details the life of seventeen-year-old Kristina Shaw. The reader picks up Kristina’s story as she leaves her home to visit her estranged father. She hasn’t seen him in 8 years, and he’s not exactly the role model any teen needs. He works nights at the local bowling alley and spends his free time smoking, drinking, and doing drugs. Soon, Kristina meets Adam, the neighborhood bad boy, and he introduces her to meth, also known as “The Monster.” From then on, her life is never the same. Her grades fall, her love life is filled with unsavory characters, and she takes on a new name and persona - Bree. As Bree, she is fearless and out of control, letting The Monster lead her deeper and deeper into darkness. This is the first of several poetic novels by Hopkins that details drug abuse in teens. (For mature readers)
Miss Simer’s Rating: ***1/2
Kissed by an Angel (Book One) - 230 pages; Miss Simer’s Rating: ***1/2
Written entirely in a letter to youngest sister, Emmy, this novel details the years of abuse that Matthew and Callie endured with their psychotic mother. On the outside, they seemed like they were in a loving family with a happy, successful mother. However, the kids were truly being treated like animals, locked in closets, forced to take care of themselves while their mother brought home various men and abused various drugs. With no end in sight to the treatment they were getting, Matthew and Callie formulate a plan to rid themselves of their mother and save Emmy from growing up the way they did. With the help of their Aunt Bobbie, a stranger named Murdoch, and their biological father, Ben, the kids do everything they can to save themselves from their mother before it’s too late.
Leo Caraway is the leader of his high school’s Young Republicans, he has earned a full scholarship to Harvard, and he is just counting down the days until college. While taking an end-of-the-year Algebra exam, Leo says “pinball” to a neighboring student to help him remember how to find vectors, and then he is accused of cheating and stripped of his Harvard scholarship. Desperate, Leo decides to track down his biological father - the lead punk rocker of the band Purge - and beg him for Harvard tuition money. When he finally meets Marion X. McMurphy AKA “King Maggot,” he is surprised by how fatherly the man turns out to be. Leo joins the band on their summer tour as a roadie and gets to know the life of a rock star. Join Leo on his path to self-discovery in this rocking novel by Gordon Korman!
Karen Luddy’s novel about an eighth-grader in 1969 South Carolina who has a less-than-perfect homelife achieving great heights with her talent for spelling, seemed like an interesting premise for a novel. Karlene Bridges endures life with an alcoholic father, but she is able to fill that void by studying words from the dictionary. Her favorite letter is T because it seems to have the most profound words. Coached by her zany Latin teacher Mrs. Harrison, Karlene is primed to become the school, county, state, and national spelling champion. Although the novel does have some good moments, I was personally put off by Karlene’s extremely rough personality. I have to say this is one book that I don’t wholeheartedly recommend.
In a distant, bleak future, El Patron rules the empire of Opium, the land that separates the United States and Aztlan (formerly Mexico). A feared and powerful dictator, El Patron has had a clone of himself made so that he will have someone to take his place upon his death. This clone, named Matt, lives as an outcast and is thought of as inhuman by most people. Cared for by a loving maid named Celia and his bodyguard Tamlyn, Matt is given the best education and musical training. When El Patron falls ill, Matt uncovers all the lies El Patron has been telling him and he realizes he must escape Opium to save his own life. Fans of Lowry’s The Giver will enjoy this look at a possible futuristic society and how one person can make a difference.
Chance’s dad is a drunk.
This fictional account of a young teen who is hooked on drugs is a revealing and honest portrayal of a young person in trouble.