Ellen Hopkins Books In Order

Publication Order of Crank Books

Publication Order of Burned Books

Publication Order of Impulse Books

Publication Order of Tricks Books

Publication Order of Love Lies Beneath Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

About Ellen Hopkins:

Ellen Louise Hopkins is a New York Times Bestselling author. She is well known for her books entitled Crank, Burned, Impulse and several others. She is a favorite author for both young adult and the teenage readers.

Early Life

Ellen Hopkins is a self-confessed adopted child of Valeria and Albert Wagner. She is born on March 26, 1955 and her adoptive parents were already old, with her mom 42 years old and her dad at 72 years old. She conceded that it was definitely a challenge living with older parents along, of course, with lots of wonderful benefits. It was reported that by the year 2000, Ellen Hopkins finally found her biological mother, Toni Chandler who was also a poet and a writer, just like herself.

When asked if her talent for writing was inherent or nurtured, she directly answers that it’s both. Of course, as a natural daughter of a writer and a poet, she believes that this talent and gift runs through her too. And she also believes that this talent was nurtured further by her adoptive parents.

Valeria, read to her children’s stories each night and by the time she was in pre-school, she was already reading chapter books. Thus, from her adoptive mom she learned to love language. Then from her adoptive father, Albert, she learned a lot of values especially the value of honesty and a strong work ethic—which pretty much comes out in her writing.

She has a younger brother named Albert Jr. who was also separately adopted. For her, high school life was mediocre and most of her high school friends are actually also interested in creative pastimes like choir, creative writing, theater and dance—which suited her perfectly fine.

As for sports, she was not really interested in it and at best she was just mediocre. As for college, she took up Journalism at UCSB but was not able to finish it because she decided to get married. By that time, she started a business and already has three kids namely: Jason, Cristal, Kelly and an adopted son named, Orion. Orion was the inspiration and is actually the basis of the baby character in Crank. Unfortunately, the marriage did not work out.

Second Marriage and Beyond

In 1984, Ellen Hopkins finally met John, her current husband until now. From there, she decided to have a fresh start by selling her business and pursuing her relentless dream of a career in writing. They moved to Tahoe, where Ellen started to do freelance writing for magazines and newspapers.

The idea for writing children’s books came to life when she visited the Air & Space Smithsonian in 1998, where she saw the museum’s showcase on Women in Aviation. This inspired her to create a children’s book based aviation. So by the year 2000, Ellen was already able to publish two children’s story books the High Seas Superman and Air Devils and Orcas.

After that, she was able to crank out 20 more children’s books and by 2002, she decided to create a novel that was inspired by her daughter’s addiction to crystal meth. As for her children, they are grownups now and are already living on their own in San Antonio, Las Vegas and Albuquerque. We try to have a get together at the very least a few times a year and almost always this falls on a holiday.

Currently, Ellen is living with her husband, John Hopkins, and her adopted son Orion at the beautiful and scenic Washoe Valley in the state of Nevada. During her free time she loves to spend it with her family and engage in activities like gardening, camping, fishing, skiing, biking and hiking. She also loves taking care of her pet German Shepherds.

Meeting Her Publisher and Her Career

Ellen Hopkins first met Julia Richardson, who would soon become her editor, at a book festival. Ellen gave Julia the first few pages of her writing, which would soon be published as Crank. Julia liked what she read and took the liberty of getting it published.

By October 2004, Crank hit the stands and by six weeks within the market, it soared up to the top ten lists. Ellen was really ecstatic with the public’s huge acceptance of her debut novel which is written in a distinctive poetic tone. The follow up book of Crank, entitled Glass, also garnered huge acclaims from the reading public and has touched the lives of the readers across oceans and continents.

Ellen’s other highly acclaimed novels are: Identical, Impulse and Burn are likewise amongst the top ten bestselling lists but are completely about diverse subjects.

Excerpts and Reviews of Crank.

Crank was the first novel that Ellen Hopkins wrote and was published in October of 2004 with the help of Julia Richardson, her editor. The book quickly gained a top spot on the bestselling list because of its honest and true to life portrayal of a good girl’s addiction to crystal meth, the book’s interesting format and the timely subject matter which is close to many parent’s dilemmas and even young adults can relate to the timely subject matter.

According to Ellen, her first novel, Crank, was borne out of the frustration about her daughter’s addiction to methamphetamine. It was an honest self-exploration of a mother, trying to answer unanswerable questions with regards to a daughter’s addiction, the justifications and the blames. Crank was written using the point of view of “her daughter,” this way she was also trying to understand and learn what addiction is using the point of view of her daughter.

This way she learned a lot about her and the struggle that comes with the addiction. All in all, the book is a good read because it is a topic that is close to the heart of many young adults and parents alike. It helps them learn how the substance work and helps them adjust to the devastating emotions involved in the struggle and most of all it helps them realize that kicking the habit cannot be forced on the addict—but the addict should want it as well. With the many questions that readers have addressed after reading the book, especially the recurrent question of what happened to Kristina, Ellen created the sequel Glass.

One Response to “Ellen Hopkins”

1. Susan L Woolum: 1 year ago

   You are an amazing mother and everytime I pick up one of your books I can’t put it down. Thank 4 sharing your life. My youngest daughter is in prison at the age of 24 and has a 5 yrs son.i wanted her 2 read one of your books, come 2 fund out we are reading your books they are wonderful.we will continue doing so thank you Susan

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