Ellen Hopkins’ best selling book Crank will give every teenager, parent, administrator or mentor to teens the gut-wrenching experience of how easily methamphetamine can turn a life upside-down.  Kristina is a perfectly normal, good kid.  She’s done everything her mother has expected of her, yet she seeks to find out about her father who lives in Albuquerque.  A drug-abuser himself, Dad barely has his life together and Kristina is not impressed.  But away from home, she is taken away with a boy who introduces her to “The Monster”.  When she’s high, Kristina creates an alter-ego named Bree.  Bree is more sexual, more risky, more outspoken.  As the summer closes, Kristina hasn’t lost her virginity, but that will change in the months to come.  Returning home, “The Monster” will keep its grip on Kristina as her mother and step-father struggle to figure out what has changed her.  Poetic license with concrete and free verse form, Hopkins fast-moving story explores the psychological side of the drug’s effects more than the physical.  There is no happy ending here, but the awareness of the drug’s torture on the user and his/her family and friends is the lesson in itself.