Crank by Ellen H.

In Crank by Ellen Hopkins, Bree/Kristina doesn’t understand what she has done wrong. Besides smoking crank, getting hooked up to it, and sleeping with someone else’s boyfriend. Bree/Kristina has a complicated emotion. She feels she is ready to have her father back into her life. He wasn't there when she was young, but she knows her Father doesn’t deserve to see her, but she knows for a fact that there could be a change. No matter what he did or what he has become she still has hope that, maybe there could be something that could bond them together. Kristina found it; it was crank that brought her father and her together.

When she began to change into Bree, she had never noticed anything different. She was still Kristina. After a while did she realized she had begun to socializing with different people, lying more, and got punished more and more often. She is not sure whether to lock up Kristina or let Bree be an essence of her.

There were a significant number of poetic structures that stood out. Some structures having to do with her reality, others with her mind and thoughts. The techniques that were used a lot were changing the placement of words or changing the margins. Changing the way things start can add a different level of understanding to the text. In one chapter, the title began descending into a train of thought. There were words set to the right of the page; if the poem was to be read from top to bottom a shorter poem could be created.

A poem inside another poem; the emotions and switching back between Bree’s thoughts and Kristina’s innocence also add another emotion to the story. Reading the real family’s experience and the “cover-up” story (Crank) there is not much of a difference. Someone actually went through what Bree/Kristina went through which is why the poetic structure adds emphasis to the story.

This book is very appropriate for middle school students because it gives than an insight to the real world. Not everything is what they want it to be. There is a coming of age moment that they have to go through for it to shape their personalities and life styles; reality is that sometimes things are tough. Elle’s point in writing this story was to teach people the difficulties and struggles people have to witness. If parents want to keep their children blinded from reality, how will the children mature? If they think everything is perfect and happy, then they have yet to learn not everything is flowers and roses, but not everything is dangerous either. It should be allowed in middle schools, to open up the minds of those who have yet to learn.

You Always Remember.

Rachel always kept herself locked up. Her feelings all went into a blue bottle. After her Aunt's death she realized that there was no need for hiding who she was. She was black and danish and no one could tell her otherwise; she was a new person. Rachel's grandmother was not fond of her mother because she was a "ho". After being caught in bed by grandma with Anthony Miller, a very close friend, Rachel has a moment of realization. She wants to be something; mean something special to someone. 

She wants to belong to someone, but not this way. This moment she is having with Anthony Miller is a replay of her mother and her father. Something she never excepted to do or become. When she helps out at the community center, Brick, who was Jamie who was really James, talks to her. She has no idea who he is, but she has a comfort around him. They go out with their friends and as they bond more Rachel begins to let herself go, be more free willing. She becomes a different person. Her resolution is to go, faraway. Farther then her family went.

There was a new beginning for Rachel. The person that brought her that wellness was Brick. He gave her hope. Something she had lost many years ago. After keeping so much emotions locked up in an imaginary blue bottle; Rachel changes her way of thinking and being. There is more hope in Rachel then she has ever had. A good way the author showed this was through the swans. Towards the end she reconnects with the Danish part of herself and with her own self. The swans were a sign of hope and wishes for the future. The awns take steps, one two, three, four. It then lets its wing catch the air. Its hard to tell if it will fly now or continue running; its a the final step that she will never know.

There was a new face and day to Rachel's life. She had not known who Brick was. A tall, muscular, 25yr old man. Drew (Aunt Loretta's husband) had found him barely surviving. As Brick explained to Rachel what had became of him and how he had ended up there, she had sympathy for him. Little did she know he was actually 17 years old and had lived downstairs from where she had lived. He saw the flying bird fall; Rachel's brother, Robbie. Rachel wishes so much that she could just turn around and find them all eating at the table, Robbie reading his comics, Mor cooking, Pop getting ready for their day's celebration. Even though Rachel could not have all this, she learned to cope with it. Just like she had learned to let her feelings go, she also learned to get used to things that could not change. She had this growth in her that had happened, mentally and physically. 

Hidden Beneath Layers

As we grow up, we realize certain things we never realized as a child. In the book, the Girl Who Fell from the Sky by Heidi W. Durrow, Rachel has to face a new life, one she cannot handle by herself. She has to move in with her grandma; a complete stranger to her. As the years go by and she grows older, she realizes she cannot be who she wants to be; she has faced the fact that she is black and she has blue eyes. She has many unwanted realizations that she makes as she grows older.  As Rachel began growing up with 2 female leaders, grandma and Aunt Loretta both are coming from the same blood but they have very different and compelling minds.

In the beginning, Rachel cannot comprehend why she is being differentiated from the other students. She cannot get used to living in Portland with her “grandmother”; a person who she knows nothing about other than her scent.  Portland is the place where Rachel has to stay for the rest of her life. Rachel has learned not to mention her family in the house. Her Grandma was not very fond of her mother, or her father. Rachel’s father was grandmas’ son, something she knows too well to not miss. She also begins to forget what her family used to look like; she cannot remember the Danish words her mom once spoke to her, her mother and father’s face, and Robbie, her brother.

Aunt Loretta begins to hang out with Drew, her new boyfriends/tennis player. Aunt Loretta has a positive effect on Rachel. She helps Rachel when grandma gets moody or tries to offend her parents. Aunt Loretta is more calmed and patient. Rachel as a teenager now looks up to Aunt Loretta.  A young and beautiful woman she is and the luck she has. Rachel wishes she was beautiful and was charming like her aunt, but in her mind she isn’t. Rachel still has not realized it doesn’t matter what she looks like, it matters who she is on the inside, her emotions and her personality tell it all; not her looks. Her beautiful eyes also tell story, one that is hidden inside a blue bottle.

The blue bottle. Whenever Rachel got mad or upset, instead of crying she would place it in an invisible blue bottle. One she kept well hidden inside of her. As a young girl she would always cry because of those who made fun of her, she would hide her emotions and anger as often as she could. As she got into high school, she learned what questions to answer and who to respond too. All her anger and frustration was put into that blue bottle. Now no one would ever realize she was broken, hurt. She was a lifeless soul who lived during the day. She thought she was nothing more than a waste of space. If only Aunt Loretta was still alive to encourage her, maybe she would continue. But this was something she had to figure out by herself, from innocence to experience.