The Teen Books (Verse Novels) of Ellen Hopkins

It is not often that we find modern day writers bring to life novels written in verse (or poetic form). There is a modern writer, by the name of Ellen Hopkins, who actually does this and does this well. She has written and published 6 verse novels (Crank and Glass (part of the Crank series), Burned, Impulse, Identical, and Tricks). She has also written the third book in the Crank series called Fallout, which should be out later this year, and Perfect, which should be out in 2011.

The writing of Ellen Hopkins not only moves and affects readers, but it also brings to light important issues that teens struggle with in today’s modern world. Her novels focus on teen struggles such as drug abuse and addiction, teen prostitution, rape, pregnancy, cutting, bulimia, and more. All her novels are written in verse form and plenty of her verses are actually written in such a way as to create various visual shapes, which actually relate to the content of the verses. That is very creative and clever on her part and makes her writing stand out and be that much more effective and powerful.

I discovered Ellen Hopkins purely by accident while shopping at Barnes & Noble. I didn’t know her at all until then. After reading one of her novels in verse called Impulse, I was instantly amazed by her talent and knew that I would be indulging in her other novels in verse. That is exactly what happened and I am now a huge Ellen Hopkins fan with all her books in my collection. I definitely recommend these books to other readers and hope that they will enjoy these books as much as I did and realize just how talented Ellen Hopkins really is.

I hope to one day follow in the footsteps of Ellen Hopkins by writing and publishing my own novels in verse. It will be quite a challenge to accomplish, but having written a lengthy poetic tale Treasure, that is now available in pocket size paperback, I know that it can be done.