Crank by Ellen Hopkins

Ellen Hopkins’ book Crank may look like a typical book on the outside, with only a powdered white substance spelling out the words. Once you open the cover, the words look vastly different from most other books on the market. In a nutshell, the book is a fictional story based on Hopkins' daughter’s journey through methamphetamine addiction. The story is told through a series of free verses, essentially poetry. One verse leads to another, taking a bit from the previous to create a reading experience that flows well. Some pages can be read in more than one way, with some words pulled out to have double meanings. The dancing of the white space, balance, and form of the lines of text seem to coax your eyes to keep moving, you want to see what is on the next page; like addiction. 

Drug addiction is still a relevant issue, over 20 years later with the opioid epidemic and people co-using drugs like meth and coke for stimulation. Ellen Hopkins’ has the most titles of individual books against her than any other author because she talks about hard truths that adults pervert with their own biased lenses; they have the thoughts of the books being a “how-to” and will make it easier for kids to do drugs. In reality, the book is meant to dissuade children from drugs (and all the other struggles the main character goes through based on her choices). By banning the book, it is doing the opposite - it strips the potential at-risk youth of a point of view to make an informed decision.

This book is accessible to those most vulnerable to addiction, in both reading level and the design making it easy to flow, even for teens who do not particularly enjoy reading. That is why I propose this book be preserved here, in the People’s Graphic Design Archive.

Author. “Book #859 – Crank by Ellen Hopkins.” Library of 1000 Books, February 25, 2020. https://libraryof1000books.wordpress.com/2020/02/26/book-859-crank-by-ellen-hopkins/.

Damron, Aryssa. “A Brief History of Banning Ellen Hopkins.” Journal of Intellectual Freedom & Privacy. Accessed October 29, 2024. https://journals.ala.org/index.php/jifp/article/view/7916/11342.

Dror, Stephie. “Review: Crank by Ellen Hopkins.” The Book Wars, July 23, 2015. https://thebookwars.wordpress.com/2015/07/27/review-crank-verse-novel/.

“NIH Heal Initiative.” National Institutes of Health, July 23, 2024. https://heal.nih.gov/about/opioid-crisis.

Thimakis, Nia. “Happy Birthday, Ellen Hopkins!” Intellectual Freedom Blog, March 28, 2022. https://www.oif.ala.org/happy-birthday-ellen-hopkins-3/#:~:text=Author%20Ellen%20Hopkins%20celebrates%20her,Censorship%20Battles%20in%20America’s%20Libraries.