The
REPEAT REDEMPTION
Tiger HI-LINE Friday, Nov. 30, 2018
After last years championship, men’s basketball team is going strong for another one /page 8 Follow us on Twitter at tigerhiline, Facebook at TigerHilineOnline and on our website at www.hiline.cfschools.org
Volume 58 Edition 9
Author addresses importance of writing hard topics “Crank,” “Burned,” “Glass,” “Impulse,” “Identical” and “Tricks” are the names of a few New York Times best selling books by award winning author, Ellen Hopkins, that have been banned. These books were banned because they touch on areas that go into spaces that many adults deem inappropriate for young adult fiction readers, but Hopkins said she believes exposing the issues that are affecting teens everyday is needed. “Every single one of my books, there are thousands of readers who need them,” Hopkins said. “If the topic or subject matter is upsetting, it’s supposed to be upsetting because this is how we work through these things. This is how we shine a light on the issues that are affecting young people every single day. If we don’t shine a light on them, we can’t make things better.” Hopkins visited the high school on Friday, Nov. 9 to talk to students interested in her writing process and her outlets for inspiration. One creative writing student, senior Jaci Hundley, attended the author visit. She said she believes Hopkins’ books can help raise awareness for issues teens are facing and help the teens who are struggling. “I think it’s doing two things. One, for the people who don’t know about the stuff she’s writing about, it teaches them and helps them understand what those people are going through. And the people who are going
Brian Winkel Photo
Best selling author Ellen Hopkins speaks on Friday, Nov. 9 at Cedar Falls High School about her journey as an author. through that and actually readwas kid. ing her books, I think it provides “The first thing I did when I some sort of comfort to know started to read was read, read, that someone is listening and read, and the first thing I did someone understands,” she when I learned how to write was said. write, write, write. I was encourHearing Hopkins’ success aged by my adopted mom bestory with sensitive topics, the cause without books she would young writer is encouraged to not have been a happy person. dream about someday addressSo, she kind of made me feel ing difficult topics that society the same way,” Hopkins said. faces as well. “I relate to her She did not start writing as a writing style a lot, with writing career until 1992, but wrote all about heavier topics because I through high school and won like doing that too. It’s nice to many creative writing competiknow that it is not taboo and tions. that you can write about anyHopkins’ writing style of thing you want and help othfree verse sets her apart from ers,” Hundley said. many of the young adult writers Hopkins started writing and in her field. Hopkins is fond of reading when she was a kid. She the straight to the action advanlearned to love literature from tages of verse. “I think poetry is her adopted mom who read to the heart of language,” Hopkins her every single day when she said. “What you can do with one
word in poetry, can take place in an entire sentence when I’m writing a novel in verse. I spend a lot of time with word choice, and one word or a group of words can totally take the place of an entire paragraph if you do it right. I think it's a more powerful way of writing. It takes more thought. There's a beauty to it that you don’t always get with a long passage of prose.” Hopkins’ New York Times best selling novels are praised for addressing the numerous issues in society that affect teens that are often swept into the closet, like drug abuse, guns, bullying, abuse, sex trafficking, prostitution, etc. Many of the issues she writes about come from her first hand experience or from her researching skills which she learned from her former job as a journalist. She said she hopes by sharing the struggles she has faced, she can help others who are currently struggling. “For me, if the struggles that I have been through, if I can put those into a book and help other people into a better space, to me that is really important, and that makes me smile and makes me feel like everything that I have been through is worthwhile,” Hopkins said. One of her books in particular reveals the struggles Hopkins faced in her own life. The multiple award winning book “Crank” reveals the life of her daughter who is a crystal meth addict. It exposes her daughter’s struggle with the drug and
the serious repercussions that introduced multiple neglected children into the world that eventually Hopkins becomes the guardian of. Although reliving her past struggles poses a challenge at times, the writing process for Hopkins proves to be a form of therapy. “The second book in the ‘Crank’ series, that one hurt a lot. That one I had to step away from a lot because I was watching myself lose my daughter there,” she said. “If we could have stopped her at the end of ‘Crank,’ everything would have been different for all of us, but we couldn’t stop her. To watch myself lose her again, that was really painful, but if you lock those experiences up inside your own head, that can make you depressed, so it’s better to write them out than hold them in.” Hopkins suggests that young writers write without the fear of entering areas that haven’t been touched on before and not be afraid of the public's’ backlash. “Write the stories that are really scary. To write them without selfcensorship, that’s a real problem for writers who take hard problems like this. They think about, well, what if somebody is upset by this, what if this gets my book challenged? But you have to write those books really honestly and from the heart. You have to write fearlessly,” she said. By Co-Editor-In-Chief Sophia
SCHILLINGER
Student nominated for Congress of Future Medical Leaders For most, surprises mean birthdays or parties, but for junior Abigael Lyman, an unexpected envelope in her mailbox meant getting one step closer to her dream of working in the medical field. “I didn’t really know what it was. I just got a letter in the mail from doctor Mario Capecchi,” Lyman said. Lyman was invited to attend a three day medical conference with other nominated students across the state of Iowa to learn more about the medical field and the dreams she hopes to achieve in her future. “It’s basically a three day conference thing where you go and learn about the medical field. We get to watch a live surgery and just meet a bunch of doctors who have won Nobel Prizes and
Junior Abigael Lyman was selected for the 2018 Congress of Future Medial Leaders.
stuff.” While Lyman was never told why she was nominated, her interest in her 10th
grade biology class and her passion for anatomy and the workings of the human body might be a factor. “I’m pretty sure it was from a DNA essay last year in biology class. I did pretty good last semester. I got a 4.0, so I guess that probably helped because this summer I got a letter.” Without knowing who nominated her, Lyman was left to asking her family and mentors, and while she may not have an answer, she knows someone was looking out for her and thought she would benefit from such a prestigious program. “I know you had to get some sort of recognition from a teacher or a parent, but I know my mom didn’t, and I asked my science teacher Mr. Mork (Lo-
gan Mork), and he didn’t either,” Lyman said. “I don’t know if someone actually nominated me. Last year when I wrote my essay, the teacher went through and corrected my paper and had me change it even though it wouldn’t change my grade and hinting that it might be sent in. I don’t know if one of the doctors there read my essay, liked it and saw my GPA and thought to invite who wrote it.” Many opportunities hold many possibilities for Lyman, and the conference is just the beginning. “I would probably like to go to Iowa. They have a good program.” By Staff Writer Grace
WASESKUK