A review by bookgoonie
Flirtin' With the Monster: Your Favorite Authors on Ellen Hopkins' Crank and Glass by Ellen Hopkins, Cinda Williams Chima, Terri Clark, Megan Kelley Hall, Niki Burnham, Gail Giles, Susan Hart Lindquist, Micol Ostow, Mary Bryan
4.0
I had a student that kept requesting Ellen Hopkins. I knew that drugs were the topic of one of her most famous works. I questioned what this boy wanted with reading it and I didn’t really want to read it. Drugs. Urgh! After hearing an awesome interview of Ellen Hopkins on her reasons for writing Crank during Banned Books Week, I decided to get some Hopkins for our school library. Since the books were coming, I thought I better get acquainted with them in case the sh*t hit the fan. Audiobook to my rescue. An awesome audiobook it is.
Laura Flanagan narrated the two Hopkins books I’ve tackled so far. She captures a naive and vulnerable Kristina on her journey of destruction and out the other side. Her voice conveys her uncertainty and her certainty that she NEEDs the MONSTER. I needed this book. This is a world that I know nothing about. I even had a student last year that was paranoid FREAKING out from whatever she had been taking. I just couldn’t wrap my brain around HER, except to feel sad for her. Hopkins helped me see how an average girl could be seduced into the need and addiction to drugs. I needed this narrator, because she made me root for her progress and fear for her backslides. I left the book with a heaviness for how hard Kristina’s road will be, but I have HOPE too. HOPE that there is a way out. It isn’t as easy as the road in, but you CAN come out the other side. I hate that I waited so long to add Hopkins’ powerful words and message to our library.
Crank is a MUST READ. Parent and Teenager. Educator and Student. If it can save one person from the reaches of the MONSTER, it is worth it.
Laura Flanagan narrated the two Hopkins books I’ve tackled so far. She captures a naive and vulnerable Kristina on her journey of destruction and out the other side. Her voice conveys her uncertainty and her certainty that she NEEDs the MONSTER. I needed this book. This is a world that I know nothing about. I even had a student last year that was paranoid FREAKING out from whatever she had been taking. I just couldn’t wrap my brain around HER, except to feel sad for her. Hopkins helped me see how an average girl could be seduced into the need and addiction to drugs. I needed this narrator, because she made me root for her progress and fear for her backslides. I left the book with a heaviness for how hard Kristina’s road will be, but I have HOPE too. HOPE that there is a way out. It isn’t as easy as the road in, but you CAN come out the other side. I hate that I waited so long to add Hopkins’ powerful words and message to our library.
Crank is a MUST READ. Parent and Teenager. Educator and Student. If it can save one person from the reaches of the MONSTER, it is worth it.