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Vault Interview: Michele Lee Interviews Ellen Hopkins

Some books never get old. Or at least, the challenges some books face keep coming.

Ellen Hopkins is the author of  several YA novels dealing with frightening issues and situations faced by teens today, Reviewer Michele Lee interviewed her in 2010 as part of Banned Books Week when she was disinvited from the Humble, Texas Teen Lit Festival after a middle school librarian shared concerns with some parents who went to the district superintendent. Although he had never read Hopkins’ books, and other librarians lobbied to keep her as a speaker, he still canceled her appearance. At the time of the interview, Ellen’s titles included Crank , Impulse, Glass, and Fallout.

It’s 2021, and at a school board meeting in Carmel, Indiana members of a “grassroots activist” called Purple for Parents attended a school board meeting where they read from books purportedly in the district’s school libraries supporting LGBTQ+ students and, in addition, explicit passages from, among other books, Crank by Ellen Hopkins. At the meeting a gun fell out of a man’s pocket and he had to be escorted out by police. The administration building has had to install metal detectors, and one of the faces of the group appeared on Fox News to throw the school librarians under the bus. As I watch commenters on Facebook tear down teachers and librarians, break into schools, and dox high school English teachers, I think my head is going to explode.

I will say there are also good people here who believe in our, and our kids’, freedom to read. But we’re not the ones getting national attention.

So I think, as much as things have changed since 2010, they haven’t changed for the better.  It’s time to revisit this interview of Ellen Hopkins.

 

Michele Lee Interviews Ellen Hopkins

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ML: While some people joke that they wish their book was banned because it would be great for sales, what actually goes through your mind when someone labels your books inappropriate for their audience?

EH: Either that they haven’t actually read my books (but rather pulled content out of context), or that they have a seriously warped view of the contemporary teen experience. Unfortunately, few enough young adults live healthy, scrubbed lives. And what’ might be deemed “inappropriate” for them is necessary for many others.

ML: What tools have you used to approach a teen audience about such serious topics authentically, but also at a teen level rather than an adult level?

EH: I spend a lot of time talking to teens, both online and through primary outreach. They talk freely to me, so I truly understand many of their issues and concerns. It’s hugely important to walk where they live, rather than assuming what that place is.

ML:  Do you think that teens are different from adults after all, or do we have a skewed idea of the average teen’s worldly knowledge?

EH: Everyone’s story is different. Personal. Many teens are forced to grow up much too quickly, but even those who are allowed an “average” childhood observe peers who have been touched by issues like addiction, depression, abuse, etc. Surely they know these things exist. Why not allow them some sort of perspective?

ML: You mentioned at the forefront of Crank that this book came, more or less, from your real life. Combined with the censorship issue, do you feel that there’s a segment of people who want to just hide all uncomfortable issues from public view?

EH: Of course. Or they just don’t want to look at these things themselves. And what this does is to make them feel somehow superior than, or at the very least apart from, those who are affected by them. Empathy is critical. But ignorance won’t lead you to understanding.

ML: How do you think this affects individuals coping with these issues and how we as a society handle them?

EH: They feel alone in their problems. I can’t tell you how many readers I’ve heard from who really believed that, until they saw themselves between the covers of a book. Mainstreaming them is huge, and they deserve to be considered “just a regular person,” albeit one going through difficult times.

ML: All the individuals in your books have both environmental issues and their own bad decisions to cite for their circumstances. What role does society and the people in supposed support positions play in addiction and depression, among other issues?

EH: Actually, they don’t all have environmental issues. Some do have support, but choose the wrong path anyway. There is a big chunk of choice involved in every bad decision. Learning by example is valid, but when you have the information to know that turning in a certain direction can lead you to a very wrong place, most of the “blame,” if you want to call it that, is on the individual.

ML: As you point out in the upcoming third book in Kristina’s life, Fallout, the damage of addiction is never isolated to just one person. How do we, as individuals, best help those struggling? And is there ever a time when we just have to let go, for our own sa

EH:  There absolutely comes a time when you have to realize there is nothing more you can do to convince someone you love to turn their life around. You simply have to say, “Look. I love you, but I cannot stand by and watch you kill yourself slowly. When you want help I’m here. Until then, goodbye.” That may sound cruel, but self-preservation is paramount to helping someone else. If you’re a wreck, you’re useless to them, anyway. And if they refuse help, despite knowing the likely outcome, they will head down that path anyway.

ML: Likewise, how do we reach to each other as the friends, parents, children or loved ones of addicts? How do we support each other while we’re struggling to support the people struggling with the monster?

EH: First, we refuse to judge them. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been called a bad mother because of my daughter’s actions. At some point, her choices were completely hers, as they are for everyone. We offer an ear. A shoulder to cry on. Resources, which we can help them find. And mostly, we prop them up when they fold.

ML: Where is the line in addiction (or with those struggling with mental illness) between choices the addict is responsible for, and choices they make as a victim themselves? How do the people on the sidelines resolve issues of forgiveness and personal responsibility in a situation where the person damaging them is also a struggling victim?

EH: Mental illness is much different than choosing a path that can lead to addiction. The former isn’t a choice. The information to make positive decisions is available. Too many people believe they can control their drug of choice. But the drug is almost always in control. Forgiveness is easy. Trust is much more difficult, and should never be given lightly. If an addict truly wants help, it is available, but it is a rocky path. The monster always calls, something people in support positions must always remember. Never give an addict money. Clothe them. Feed them. Make sure their children are safe. But enabling them is the quickest path to watching them fade away completely. This may seem harsh. But I’ve watched my own child relapse, after six years sober. I love her. Always. But I can’t help her die.

ML: This is the question where I usually ask about other releases the author has, or exciting projects they’re working on. While I’d definitely like to hear yours as well, do you think you could also list some great resources (other than your books) for those struggling with these issues?

EH:  Addiction is rarely conquered alone. Many people find the way out through Alcoholics Anonymous (which, for some reason, most addicts find more helpful than Narcotics Anonymous). And for family members, Al Anon will not only help you through, they will offer local resources you might need.

My next young adult book is Perfect (about the drive for the unattainable goal of perfection), due out Fall 2011. And I’m currently writing my first adult novel-in-verse. Triangles (also 2011) is about midlife freakouts.

 

 

 

Posted on August 8, 2021 by , Reply

Book Review: The Scary Stories Treasury: Three Books to Chill Your Bones by Alvin Schwartz, illustrated by Stephen Gammell

In honor of Banned Books Week, a review of Alvin Schwartz’s The Scary Stories Treasury, which had a place on the American Library Association’s Top 10 Banned and Challenged Books list from 2000-2009. This review was written about the hardcover edition of the original compilation, with illustrations by Stephen Gammell: it doesn’t appear to be available in hardcover at this time.

 

Scary Stories Treasury; Three Books to Chill Your Bones by Alvin Schwartz, illustrated by Stephen Gammell

HarperCollins Publishers, 2013

ISBN-13: 978-0060263416

Available: New and Used paperback

 

The Scary Stories Treasury contains three popular volumes of “scary stories”, collected from folklore and urban legends by Alvin Schwartz: Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, More Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, and Scary Stories 3: More Tales to Chill Your Bones. Any librarian who isn’t familiar with the books collected in this volume really needs to check them out. Not only are these titles in high demand for older children and teens, but they are an incredible storytelling resource. In fact, in the introduction to Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, Schwartz writes that scary stories are “meant to be told”.

 

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is the best known of the three books, and is the one I’ve used the most. It both starts and ends with “jump” stories, and these are fun to tell to a group. “The Viper” and “The Ghost with Bloody Fingers” are stories I’ve frequently told. Also included are the poem “A Man Who Lived in Leeds”, the song “Old Woman All Skin and Bone”, “The Hearse Song” and the Halloween game “The Dead Man’s Brains”. Other stories in the book include variants on familiar tales, such as “The Guests”, in which a young couple looking for a place to stay the night learn after the fact that their hosts were ghosts, and urban legends like “The Hook”, in which news that a murderer with a hook for a hand is on the loose spoils a date. Finally, there are some truly creepy and scary tales about ghosts, witches, shapeshifters, and the supernatural. While most of these come from folklore, and can’t be mistaken for anything happening today, they can still give readers, and listeners, the shivers.

 

More Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark has longer stories. Some are set in a specific historical period, such as “The Weird Blue Light”, which takes place during the Civil War. Many of them have sudden endings. In “Something Was Wrong”, we follow a bewildered and frightened John Sullivan around, learning only in the last few words that he is dead. Some folktales have clearly been adapted for a modern audience, such as “The Drum” an ominous contemporary variant of the folktale “The New Mother”. Schwartz doesn’t hold back or moralize when he retells a story. “Wonderful Sausage” is a clever and horrifying tale about a butcher who adds a special ingredient to his sausage. This volume also has a few more contemporary tales, ranging from frightening to tragic, and a description of the creepy sleepover game “A Ghost in the Mirror”. While the stories in this volume are more satisfying in many ways, I’d say these tales are aimed at a slightly older audience.

 

Scary Stories 3 continues with more detailed and sometimes complicated stories. In “Just Delicious”, a twist on the folktale “The Golden Arm”, a terrified wife feeds her husband a dead woman’s liver without his knowledge… and the woman wants it back. “Harold” is a chilling story of a vengeful doll. “The Wolf Girl”, set in a specific time and place, has its basis in the lives of real people, as does “The Trouble”, a story about poltergeist activity in the Lombardo household. “Maybe You Will Remember”, a baffling story about a girl whose sick mother disappears from her hotel, becomes truly horrifying when the reader turns to the notes at the back of the book to solve the puzzle. The volume wraps up with a couple of mildly funny stories. Of the three books, I’d say this is my least favorite, possibly because it is so grounded in detail, as details often distract listeners, making it harder to get them engaged in the story.

 

All three books have detailed notes and bibliographies provided by the author. While you don’t have to read the notes to enjoy the stories (with the exception of “Maybe You Will Remember”) they are easy to understand and interesting. All three books also have incredible illustrations by gifted children’s book illustrator Stephen Gammell, done in just black and white ink. It’s his illustrations that make the books so magnetic to kids… and so terrifying. The illustration for “Wonderful Sausage”, as an example,  brings a whole new grotesque dimension to the story. With just a few strokes and some shading, Gammell ups the scare level considerably. Tormented, skeletal faces, ragged clothes, distorted and indistinct figures, glowing eyes and teeth, empty chairs, empty baskets, empty clothes… it’s enough to cause nightmares, and makes much more impact than if we had only Schwartz’s words. Many collections of scary stories from American folklore don’t include illustrations, or at least not effective ones, and that is probably one of the reasons why more of them aren’t well known. The Scary Stories books, however, are notorious, to the point that the series was seventh on the American Library Association’s list of the most frequently challenged books for 2000-2009, and the illustrations are surely a good part of the reason why these books in particular are noticed.

 

The main benefit of owning The Scary Stories Treasury is that you’ll have all three books in one volume. Each book appears to have been faithfully reproduced, with Gammell’s original illustrations. However, there’s no new or additional material here. Readers who don’t have the books and want them might want to consider this volume, but for those who already own them, there’s no reason to purchase it. I highly recommend that libraries of all kinds have at least one copy of each of the books included in The Scary Stories Treasury, and the Treasury itself might make a nice reference volume, and you’ll find that the Scary Stories books are rarely on the shelves. The Scary Stories Treasury is highly recommended to libraries and readers who do not already own copies of the Scary Stories books, and recommended as a reference volume for school and public libraries. Appropriate, based on maturity of the reader, for grades 4 and up.

 

Contains: Violence, gore, cannibalism, deception, the occult, witchcraft, murder.

Review by Kirsten Kowalewski

Posted on September 27, 2019 by , 1 comment

Banned Books Week: Children’s Books and the End of Innocence

 

Something I see a lot in arguments about whether kids should have access to a particular book is that, as parents and guardians of children, we want to protect their innocence. If you live in a middle class family that was relatively intact, in an area where everyone seemed to be pretty much like you, controlling your kids’ reading might help to preserve that innocence for a while, but if you take a closer look at the individual families there, what you see is that under the surface, children have already faced, or learned about, some pretty terrible things. Even at school, they’ve faced lockdown drills, practice for what to do if the school is invaded by a shooter. The terrible things we live among are so commonplace, and many of us are so numb to them, that it may be difficult for adults to realize how affected some of our kids really are.

I was in the library with my daughter, who is a huge fan of the 43 Old Cemetery Road books and was looking for something similar. The librarian kept making suggestions and asking questions: is this one too dark? Are you looking for something scary, or something funny, or both? I can’t remember what it was the librarian pulled off the shelf that I looked at and said “I think that one might be too dark and scary for her”. My daughter put her hands on her hips, looked at me with exasperation, and said “Mom, my dad died. Nothing is sadder or scarier than that”.  Okay, then. Keeping kids away from the media doesn’t preserve their innocence. Fiction is a safer place than fact. And let me tell you, there is a lot of scary stuff, and a lot of death, in children’s fiction. Even Little Women spends a lot of time on death.

Children’s writing has gotten a lot edgier today, so I can see where some of the discomfort comes from, but we are living in an uncomfortable world. It is a scary place. We can respect that our kids are dealing with a lot of the same things that make the world a scary place for us, and help them choose the reading material they want, or maybe even need, in hopes that even scary books will give them a space in their lives for hope.

If a kid doesn’t think he’s ready to read a scary book, there’s time yet. And certainly there are choices that need to be made about what’s developmentally appropriate: for instance, most Holocaust fiction is not recommended for elementary students (the one exception I can think of is The Devil’s Arithmetic) but if you take your kids to The Sound of Music, you are going to have to come up with a reasonable explanation of who the Nazis were. But that means having dialogue with your child about that, not making choices for him or others to protect his innocence. For a lot of kids, that innocence just isn’t there anymore. Taking books out of their hands can’t save that. Talking to kids about them can help a lot.

For a partial list of banned children’s books, from picture books through Young Adult, go here.

Posted on October 2, 2015 by , Reply
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