Crank / Ellen Hopkins / 537 pages / October Challenge Banned Books

Crank was #4 on ALA's 100 Top Banned/Challenged Books list in 2010 for drugs, offensive language, and sexually explicit scenes.  Hopkins says the book was loosely based on her daughter's addictions to crystal meth.  Several school districts not only removed her books from the shelves (Texas and Norman, OK), they cancelled previously scheduled visits.  Crank chronicles Christina's descent into the hell of drug addiction, unwise, sometimes abusive relationships, rape, and personality loss.  On a summer visit to her ne'er do well, estranged father, she becomes involved with Adam as Brie.  He introduces her to drugs and her world is forever, irreparably changed.  Much inappropriate language spots the cautionary, perhaps too graphic, tale.