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Ellen Hopkins is a former journalist and the award-winning author of twenty nonfiction books for young readers, fourteen bestselling young-adult novels, and four novels for adult readers. With this book, she is honored to enter the realm of middle-grade fiction. Ellen lives with her extended family, one brilliant German shepherd, a retired rescue cat, and two ponds (not pounds) of koi in the eastern shadow of the Northern Nevada Sierra.
Praise for Closer to Nowhere: An Amazon Best Book of the Month A 2021 NCTE Notable Novel in Verse Readers will root for these realistic characters, and will cheer for the growth they experience. Highly recommended. -School Library Journal, starred review Hopkins' use of free verse provides a canvas for sure-handed, brush-stroke development of the backstory and plot and emotional investment and identification with the characters. . . Compassionate and compelling. -Kirkus Reviews There's a new crowd of Ellen Hopkins fans on the horizon! Hopkins tackles tough subjects with honesty and compassion, woven in brilliant verse as always, now in a novel for younger readers. This beautifully written book about the strength of family shows us that even someone who doesn't feel at home anywhere can find a place to belong. -Lynne Kelly, author of the Schneider Family Book Award-winning Song for a Whale Hopkins uses her familiar verse to take readers on an emotional rollercoaster. . . The author's note about her own family experiences with addiction and behavioral challenges is almost as poignant as the text, and the quick pace makes it easy to devour, enticing fans to check out the rest of Hopkins' oeuvre. -The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books Hopkins creates realistic portrayals of two kids trying to do their best even when it's not easy. -Publishers Weekly One of the biggest challenges a middle-grade author faces is the middle-grade reader. This is the age when childhood and young adulthood so violently clash within you, even YOU aren't sure how to find your voice. With Cal and Hannah, Ellen Hopkins tells middle-grade readers: I see you. I hear you. And your voice is powerful . . . even as it evolves. Closer to Nowhere is raw, but real. It's love, but tough. It IS middle grade, and it is a gift for readers everywhere. -K. A. Holt, award-winning author of House Arrest The queen of gritty YA novels-in-verse enters the realm of middle-grade literature with this story of a family fracturing under myriad pressures yet refusing to be broken . . . Hopkins paints a realistic picture of a family undergoing upheaval and learning to better care for one another. -Booklist
