The most disturbing, yet compelling book I have ever read.

[mommy4ever]

I have just finished reading a book. A book so horrifying, I cried myself to sleep. I didn't want to finish reading it, but I couldn't put it down. It's not a book about supernatural beings, vampires or other fictional beings, but a book about a real monster, one called Crystal Meth. It hit home hard. Not because I have an addiction, or do drugs. Not because my kids do drugs. But because it COULD be my kids one day, or my neighbors kids or really any one I know.

Crank by Ellen Hopkins is the book I refer to. Although written for teens, I highly recommend that every parent in North America and beyond read it. It is loosely based on the authors own daughter and her family's experiences. And I'm heart broken for them all. But this could have been any one's child. An honor student, not quite fashionable, not the most popular, a perfect daughter(or son), with a best friend since grade 4. That's a pretty generic profile, it could fit many kids, and it would blind side most of us. These aren't the kids who we worry about! These are smart kids right? They wouldn't do drugs.... or would they?

Crank is written from Kristina's point of view, a 16 year old from a middle class family, honor student, perfect daughter, great friends and how a 3 week trip to visit her dad changed her for ever. This is how 1 night 2 weeks into her visit she did something that forever changed her life, it was the beginning of a battle, one no teen is ever prepared to travel. Lies, deception, theft, and more happen.

It's a heartbreaking story, it's terrifying. It's scarier than any horror movie I've ever seen because it could be any of my kids one day. I have the child described, in fact I have four of those kids. Great kids. Honor students, with great friends, well liked, but not the "in" crowd. Not the "fashion divas". Just "ordinary" smart kids. But all it takes is one slip up. One little mistake, one assumption that one time won't change anything, and how wrong that would be.

This book opened my eyes to how easy it CAN happen to ANY child. You hear about the "kid" that over dosed, the party broken up, the charges laid. But you never get to experience it, you don't know what it's really like. It's not a matter of 'growing up' and kicking the habit, it's not that easy. It's a real monster that is next to impossible to battle. It's about one bad choice and how that can change the courses of lives forever.

I highly recommend this book, it illustrates just how easily good kids can make a bad choice. It shows the signs of what may happen if some one has been taken by the monster.

I plan to have my kids read this book, I have 1 teen now, and a preteen plus 2 younger. Drugs are all around them, I know it is, I don't see it but it's there. They need to see why it's a scary and dangerous thing, it's not about parents not wanting them to have a good time, it's about saving their lives. It's about their futures, futures of their kids. It's a very scary world in the teen world today, if they don't have the right information

Crank by Ellen Hopkins

[SweetPea]

Thanks for the recommendation.

[larabelle]

Thanks I will definitely read it with the intent of having my many nieces and nephews read it.

[Kitten20]

Glass is the sequel. I have read that one. Heartbreaking.

[hotprincesscm]

Wow! Thanks for the recommendation, it's now on my "books to read" list!

[miss_thrifty]

my 16 yr old was reading through the libary in school. he borrowed them. He said he couldnt put it down. Isnt the first one in poem form?