Did You Ever

When you were little, endure
your parents’ warnings, then wait
for them to leave the room,
pry loose protective covers
and consider inserting some metal
object into an electrical outlet?

                    Did you wonder if for once
                    you might light up the room?

When you were big enough
to cross the street on your own,
did you ever wait for a signal,
hear the frenzied approach
of a fire truck and feel like
stepping out in front of it?

                            Did you wonder just how far
                            that rocket ride might take you?

When you were almost grown,
did you ever sit in a bubble bath,
perspiration pooling,
notice a blow dryer plugged
in within easy reach, and think
about dropping it into the water?
                            
                            Did you wonder if the expected
                            rush might somehow fail you?

And now, do you ever dangle
your toes over the precipice,
dare the cliff to crumble,
defy the frozen deity to suffer
the sun, thaw feather and bone,
take wing to fly you home?
                            I, Pattyn Scarlet Von Stratten, do.
BURNED
A Word About Burned

I want my readers to know I am not anti-religion. In fact, I go to
church (I happen to be Lutheran) regularly, and even sing in the
choir. However, every religion can be home to extremists.
Pattyn's family is an extreme (not to mention dysfunctional)
example of the LDS faith. I do know fine Mormons, with a strong
focus on family that I respect.

Truly, I didn't start out to write Burned about any religion, but
about a girl who winds up in a Columbine-type situation. I
needed to bring her to a place where that was the only option
she could consider. As I wrote the character, she happened to
resemble a Mormon girl who I knew. I once visited her
apartment. She and her boyfriend had stockpiled weapons and
explosives against the coming "End of Times" forewarned by her
church. The character of Pattyn von Stratten was likely born on
that visit.

That said, Burned is a work of fiction. Pattyn is damaged not by
her religion, but by her father. I give reasons for her father being
the way he is. They involve war. His own upbringing. His own
damaged past. In the face of his abuse, Pattyn begins to
question her place in the world. And her religion is a big part of
her world.

To learn more about the pros and cons of the LDS faith, you can
visit www.mormon.org and www.exmormon.com
Burned, a 2006 National Book Award nominee, and NY Times bestseller,
is the story of a young woman, struggling to find her place in the world in the
face of abuse by the person she most adores: her father. She questions her
family, her faith, and her ability to love and be loved.

Suspended from school, she is sent to rural Nevada to live with an aunt whom
she barely knows. There she finds love, acceptance and new knowledge about
the things that have made her father like he is.
But even there, her demons find her.
Review From School Library Journal

Grade 9 Up–Once again the author of Crank  has
masterfully used verse to re-create the yearnings and
emotions of a teenage girl trapped in tragic
circumstances. Poems in varied formats captivate
readers as they describe a teen's immobilizing fear of
her abusive father, disgust with a church hierarchy that
looks the other way, hope that new relationships can
counteract despair, joy in the awakening of romance, and
sorrow when demons ultimately prevail. Pattyn Von
Stratten is the eldest of eight sisters in a stern Mormon
household where women are relegated to servitude and
silence. She has a glimpse of normal teenage life when
Derek takes an interest in her, but her father stalks them
in the desert and frightens him away. Unable to stifle her
rage, Pattyn acts out as never before and is suspended
from school. Sent to live with an aunt on a remote
Nevada ranch, she meets Ethan and discovers forever
love. Woven into the story of a teen's struggle to find her
destiny is the story of her aunt's barrenness following
government mismanagement of atomic testing and
protests over nuclear waste disposal. Readers will
become immersed in Pattyn's innermost thoughts as
long-held secrets are revealed, her father's beatings take
a toll on her mother and sister, and Pattyn surrenders to
Ethan's love with predictable and disturbing
consequences. Writing for mature teens, Hopkins
creates compelling characters in horrific situations.
Reader letter:

I received a copy of BURNED in the mail from my cousin
yesterday & couldn't put it down. I finished it all last night & was
completely smitten! My cousin & I were both reared Mormon, &
thus identified intensely with the story. We both come from
dysfunctional families, which often made me feel like Hopkins
had been peeking through my curtains to obtain her material
for BURNED.

I am now almost 30 & think this book is long overdue. Hopkins
portrayal of a battered young girl in a devoutly religious (&
more specifically, Mormon) family is dead on the mark. If only I
had the clarity of Pattyn when I was a teen. (As conflicted &
confused as Pattyn often is, she is wise beyond her years. My
adolescence was marked with a blur of foggy madness...a fury
of anger, loneliness, & confusion.) I have since made peace
with my past & have left the Mormon church. Yet all the years
and miles later, reading BURNED was like going home.