Ellen Hopkins writes young adult “problem” novels. They’re pretty edgy and don’t pull any punches. If you know anything about Ellen’s own story, you understand why, after tough times dealing with her daughter’s drug use, she felt the need to write a novel about teens and drugs.
It is an unfortunate fact of life in the United States that if you are truthful with teens and tell them about the not-so-pretty side of real life, someone is going to try to stop teens from reading about it. And of course, they don’t want to just block their own children from reading it, they want to control what everyone else’s kids read as well.
Ellen has fought many of these battles and is in the middle of a couple right now in Oklahoma. She talks about it frankly on her blog.
You can learn more about Ellen and her books at her website:
Lisa Yee's Website 
