So I’m sitting on the train the other morning, minding my own business, my nose in a copy of Ellen Hopkins’ latest, Tricks. If you don’t know who the best-selling author Hopkins is, it’s because you don’t have a teenager in the house. Her utterly captivating books take on controversial and painful subject matter — abuse, drug use, family tragedy — in a most unusual form: They’re written in blank verse. I know you’re thinking, Yeah, right, what self-respecting teenager is going to read a novel written in free verse? The answer is: lots of them. I witnessed it first hand when my oldest daughter, then 13 or so, fell in love with Sonya Sones’ What My Mother Doesn’t Know, also written in free verse, and now I’m seeing it again with Hopkins, whose unadorned, unfettered narratives are very, very powerful.
But back to the train the other morning. I was lost in a copy of Tricks — which tackles teen prostitution — when I was startled back into reality by a woman from my town I know by sight, not by name. “I would never let my daughters read that,” she practically spat. “Do you know what she writes about?” I regarded her for a moment and said mildly, “You know, I don’t believe in censoring books.” “That’s your choice, of course, but I personally wouldn’t want my girls knowing any of this,” she replied. Honey, I thought to myself, I bet they already know most of it. But — and feel free to call me a coward — I didn’t say any of this her. (It’s just not worth it with some people.) I simply let myself get lost in the book’s lyricism again.
“As For My Body
It’s battered, scraped, bruised. The Tears
of Zion shift looks about a hundred years old.
I did spend a few bucks at the Salvation Army.
Bought a used skirt, two tank tops. Underwear.
I hate to think who used them, why they gave
them away. But they only cost a dime apiece.
I stink, too. I’ve managed four or five showers,
when the man of the hour wanted to spring for
a motel room. More often, it’s the seat of his car.
Quick and easy, five minutes or less. No emotion.
No pain. And the weirdest thing is, I’m not
the least bit embarrassed about doing it any more.
That’s the worst part. That, and when my brain
insists on remembering Andrew. Thinking
about how he held me, rained his love down
all around me, brings devouring pain.
So I’ll think instead about the coming night, where
I might peddle the remaining tatters of my soul.”
Okay: Literature it’s not. But I completely understand why teens would want to read it. Books are a way to get information. I’ve written about this topic before, right after I found a Gossip Girl paperback tumbling out of my daughter Maddie’s backpack. That was years ago: She was in middle school when that column came out, and she’ll be leaving for college next summer. She and her sister are practically grown. But in the intervening years, my take on teens and books hasn’t changed. Yes, kids might — in the case of Gossip Girl — be spending way too much time reading about the shopping habits of morally challenged New Yorkers. Or they might be reading about crack addicts or domestic abuse or teen pregnancy, maybe all in the same book. One of my girls recently finished Amy Efaw’s After, about a straight-A student and soccer star who doesn’t realize she’s pregnant until she delivers (and then she stuffs the baby in the trash). But what of it? God knows I learned a lot of things from books, starting with Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret when I was 8 or 9 and moving into my mother’s Literary Guild Main Selections (principally Sidney Sheldon’s The Other Side of Midnight) and then into Jaws and The Godfather. When I was 16 or 17 I found my parents’ “secret” stash (The Happy Hooker, The Joy of Sex). And who remembers Jean Auel’s prehistoric porn, Clan of the Cave Bear?
What about you? Did you do the same thing? Do you have rules for your teenagers and the books they read?
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Jackie Collins
Ditto! In JHS I was reading the Sweet Valley series. In HS, I was reading every Jackie Collins novel that existed. My mom never protested and I learned a lot from those books! LOL
I don’t care what my kids are ready as long as they are reading….It never bothered me when they found comic books moved to harry potter or on to Twilight it is the fact that they are READING and not sitting in front of a TV screen that makes me happy
Agree, any time a child or teenager is reading, be happy they can read when so many kids today are graduating high school and can’t read. I never censored what my son read as a teenager, it was better than vegging in front of a video game or computer screen. I have read a lot of the series out there for teens and I really don’t find anything more than what they actually see in school and on the streets not to mention on TV. If they want to read be glad they can read.
I hate to be pedantic, but Hopkins’ books are written in FREE verse, not blank verse. Blank verse is unrhymed lines of poetry with a regular metre (usually iambic pentameter)- think Shakespeare.
Anyway, I teach at an alternative high school full of non-readers, and the students can’t get enough of Ellen Hopkins’ books. Both the boys and girls love them. Keep in mind, these are teens who have never read a book before reading 600 pages!
You’re right. I stand corrected.
Tina, you rock. Both for this column and for this post.
My complete support of teens reading aside,I am REALLY irritated by the Hopkins book. She stole the idea from Karen Hesse’s far-superior (Newbery award winning) novel “Dust”, and uses it as a cheap trick to grind out have a dozen shocktastic, schlocky variations on “teen girl in trouble” theme. She’s a hack.
But yeah, as a teen, I would have eaten it up.
Karen Hesse’s novel (which is titled “Out of the Dust” not “Dust”) was originally published in 1997. It was not the first “novel in verse” to be published, and Ellen Hopkins is not the only author to use this format since Hesse’s book was published.
Mel Glenn published a novel in verse titled “Jump Ball: A Basketball Season in Poems” that same year.
Australian author Steven Herricks published a novel in verse called “Love, Ghosts and Facial Hair” in 1996.
Virginia Euwer Wolff’s “Make Lemonade” was published in 1993.
Novels in verse are very popular amongst young adults, and many have been published in the years since “Out of the Dust” was released. The books written by Hopkins are arguably the most popular. A list of Young Adult Novels in Verse can be found here: bloggingya.blogspot.com/2009/09/books-novels-in-verse.html
Criticize Ellen Hopkin’s writing all you want – that is your right. However, her books are very popular and get a lot of non-readers reading. That is awesome IMO.
I was always a big reader..The Godfather was a big one for me..I read that when I was a young teenager. But I learned alot about like from books, they took me to worlds that I would never go to on my own,taught me lessons without me having to have those bad experiences. I can remember passing books between my girlfriends and then having discussions about these new situations. Books could make me worldly without ever having to leave my small hometown!
Man that lady on the train was delusional. If her kids have ever read a newspaper or watched tv, then they’re probably familiar with the ugly parts of life. I always encourage kids to read; if they choose to read about things like teen pregnancy, drug addiction, abuse, etc….more power to them. If we start censoring what our children read, we may as well burn the inappropriate ones like the Nazis used to.
That woman was strange indeed. Why did she automaticly assume that because you were reading it, your child would read it?
Because it’s a young adult novel, and she probably knew about it, even if she hadn’t read it.
There are many narrow-minded people out there. How is reading a book with controversial content any different from watching some of the crud movies out there?? At least the kids are reading. When I was a kid, I got tired of re-reading Little House on the Praire and Anne of Green Gables and started picking up my mom’s books. What a difference! I let my kids read what ever they want. All I ask of them is if there is something they don’t like, or understand, come ask me questions so we can dicuss it. There is no way to stop a teenager from reading what they want if they really want to read it.
I hated those books!! too, I started reading other kinds of books-one landed me in the principals office!! JAWS! Hey as long as you read and enjoy!
@ ks really? now-a-days my school is just happy to see you read than text
When I started picking up my Mom’s books, she was into Stephen King. She never said anything against it and I still like King today.
As a teenager, I read what I could get my hands on. What I read took me out of my small town and introduced me to a larger world. I learned a ton from books.
Thats exactly how I felt growing up! People used to look at me strange when I read in the lunchroom of my small town High school!!
When I was about 14, my best friend’s mom told me that, because my parents let me read whatever I wanted, they must not really care about me. Even then, I knew how backwards that was. I cannot thank my parents enough for not only allowing but encouraging me to read anything I could get my hands on.
I ran into a similar situation as a teen! An adult once remarked that I must be pretty lonely because I read all the time. In truth, I was far from it – some of those book characters were better friends than the people I met in real life, and they taught me important lessons.
are not real friends. Maybe you have a perfectly normal social life now, but your comment made me sad and seemed a bit unhinged. Books DO teach a lot, but they don’t truly reflect the reality of human interaction or allow you to practise it. It’s a shame you had to withdraw into fantasy to have good’friends’. Few people in life can measure up to fictional creations.
I don’t think Melissa’s comment was “unhinged” at all. I don’t know her, so I don’t know what her experience was, but when I was a kid I also preferred my “book friends”, because the people I met in books were generally better than the kids who beat me up, stole my personal belongings, and spread lies about me. Sometimes the “reality of human interaction” sucks.
Oh, and to respond to the actual article, I read got in trouble for reading “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” at school.
I can remember going to the library during summer break with my mom when I was twelve and thirteen (‘87+’88) and checking out back copies of Cosmo, Danielle Steele, Sidney Sheldon and Judith Krantz novels, not to mentio the classic Clan of the Cave Bear. My mom was happy I was reading. I seem to have turned out okay so the explicit topics did not ruin me for society. I’d rather have my kid read racy novels than watch any Saw film.
My teen has read all of Hopkins’ books, and it hasn’t bothered me in the least. I love that she reads, and I try to read everything she loves so that we have just that much more to talk about. We are very close.
I was and have always been a big reader. However, my mom always knew what I was reading and was always there if I had questions about what I read. I think that might be what is getting some parents/kids into trouble. Kids reading information and having questions but not having anyone to ask that won’t chastise them for reading soemthing they deem innapropriate.
So true.
Judith Krantz’s “Scruples” at age 11 or 12. Mind. Boggled.
I too read Scruples and got a significant education! (I was a little older though, maybe 15). Don’t laugh, it was a long time ago1
Princess Daisy, also by Krantz, was my preteen primer. To this day (many years later!) I still remember scenes and lines from that book. Would anyone happen to have any Paco Rabanne jewelry to go with my silver paper minidress?
I learned so much from reading. I loved the Judy Blume books and used to sneak my mom’s Cosmos and Glamours when she wasn’t home. I also loved slasher novels- Christopher Pike, and the Fear Street Series. I read what was truly interesting to me at the time and it gave me a lifelong passion for reading.
I remember in 4th grade I was reading Are you there God,it’s me Margaret and my teacher took the book away from me and called my mom. My mom had to come into the schoold to get the book because he wouldn’t give it to me because it was filth. I was so proud when my mom told the teacher that I could read anything I was interested in reading (within limits I’m sure) and she would appreciate it if she were to be the “book monitor” and not him. Score 1 for mom. And to this day I am an avid reader and will read almost anything and never suffered any ill effects from reading a book.
I like your mum!
I don’t see the comparison between Ellen Hopkins and Gossip Girl. Teenagers don’t read Ellen Hopkins for information or for any morbid curiosity about rape, drugs, or cutting. They read those books and connect with them because they’re REAL. The writing is really gorgeous, and these books really strive to get people aware about the difficult problems facing teenagers. But Gossip Girl? It’s pure cotton candy. There’s no POINT to the vulgarity in those books other than to spin a fantasy world where teens can do whatever they want without consequences. What draws girls to Gossip Girl is not the same thing going on with Ellen Hopkins, I assure you.
But does there have to be a “point” to that sort of book? When I was 13, my book of choice was the Harlequin Presents romance. They’re about as close to empty calories as you can get, but they appealed to me. After reading dozens, I never once went to Italy and had a torrid affair with a mysterious count at his villa. There is nothing wrong with reading for the sake of escapism.
My daughter read GG and The Clique in middle school. Now she’s reading Hopkins’ books and loving them. She told me she’s tired of reading teen fiction.
As for myself, I remember reading The Happy Hooker when I was at school!! I remember thinking how shocking it was.