Ellen Hopkins is an award-winning author known for young adult books about challenging subjects. But she’s now earned a distinction in Utah that she wasn’t looking for. Out of the 17 books banned in public schools under a 2024 law, three of them were novels written by Hopkins.
That makes her the second-most-banned author statewide behind Sarah J. Maas.
Hopkins told a webinar hosted by Let Utah Read, an advocacy group, that she doesn't want her novels banned in all public schools. That’s because she set out on her novel-writing journey with young adults in mind.
After writing non-fiction for young readers and poetry, she told them she turned to novels because of her daughter’s drug addiction.
“I didn't know I wanted to write for young adults until I was watching my own young adult daughter go through, you know, a pretty devastating period of her life,” Hopkins said. “I wanted to change that for as many kids as I could, if I could.”
Hopkins wrote her first novel in 2004. She describes “Crank” as fictionalized but a “very, very real look at the path to addiction for a kid that you don't ever expect to get there.”
The novel is not banned in Utah, but it is one of the most banned books across the country, according to the American Library Association. They said the book is often targeted for being sexually explicit and depicting drug use.
For a book to be banned statewide, three school districts have to remove a book for being “objective sensitive material,” meaning it is deemed “pornographic or indecent” as defined in state code.
Her books that have been banned are "Fallout," the third and final book in the “Crank” series, "Tricks" and "Tilt." Respectively, “Tricks” deals with teen prostitution and "Tilt" follows three teens navigating issues like pregnancy and a romantic relationship between two young men, one of whom is HIV positive.
Hopkins did say some of her books are not appropriate for every kid at every age because every child is different. It is up to parents to understand where their kids are intellectually and determine when they’re ready to read about certain subjects.
Hopkins writes about these subjects because she’s committed to telling what she calls the “truth.” Having raised multiple generations of teenagers, and now her grandchildren, she said she knows what hurts teenagers and what gives them joy. Still, her books aren’t all about painful things because they also show characters coming out the other side stronger.
“I want to bring a wider perspective to this kind of narrow space that teenagers live in,” she said of her work.
And Hopkins feels it has made a difference in the lives of young people. Over the years, she’s heard from thousands who have thanked her for turning them away from going down certain paths or helping them to better understand what others are going through.
Before the webinar, Hopkins said she received an email from a reader who wrote, “When I first started reading your books in eighth grade, I had no idea I was reading what was to become my own story.” After struggling with drug addiction, they said they got sober but were tempted to relapse after the death of their son. For help, they re-read “Crank.”
“Your book reminds me of where I've been and made me stop and realize how far I've come. I've lived the story on those pages, and I realized I never want to go back today. I made the decision, I'm going to stay sober: for me, for my family, and to make my son proud of me as he watches over me,” Hopkins read from the email.
Books, Hopkins said, are a safe space for kids to explore issues — much safer, she said, than exploring on their phones or in the real world.
The focus on book-banning is political theater to Hopkins. She said librarians and authors are easy targets that distract society from more important issues.
Even as a long-time author, Hopkins hasn’t been immune. With her most recent book about the foster care system, “Sync,” Hopkins was tempted to self-censor. Instead, she said she promised her readers that she would write truthfully and wanted to stick to that.
For Utahns who want to restrict access to her books, Hopkins said they underestimate how smart children, especially teenagers, are. With high school students, they’ll be out in the world and making lots of choices for themselves in a couple of years.
“Trust in those young people, give them the ability to make those decisions for themselves,” Hopkins said.
