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Speak Review

Have you ever had an entire school cafeteria look at you with hate in their eyes? Seen someone whisper something to someone else and know, without a doubt, it is about you? Fourteen year old Melinda Sordino has. She called the cops at her first high school party over the summer and now she is a social pariah. Only no one knows she had a reason. A good one. She'll barely admit it to herself.
Halse Anderson artfully and authentically describes the life of a high school outcast in a way that is both humorous and heartbreaking. It is fun to read because sometimes I find myself laughing out loud and other times I am holding back tears and sniffling. Her description of high school's social hierarchy and the journey to being comfortable in your own skin brings me back to my ninth grade year.
The book deals with the very real and very serious issues of teenage depression and sexual assault in a way that it is accessible to teens who have dealt with all or none of the above. Any teenager who has struggled with some issue can relate to Melinda's struggle, even if it is not the same. I think using Melinda's struggle with her art project, the rendering of a tree, as a parallel for her struggle to face herself added a neat symbolic dimension to the book.
This is a book that despite it's serious, controversial subject matter I have taught and will teach again because of its ability to connect to the teenage experience and accurate portrayal of adolescent struggles and issues. It's only weak point? The ending. Both myself and my students have lamented the lack of real closure we feel at the end of the book. However, as real life generally doesn't clean up into a well-rounded fairy tale ending, perhaps we shouldn't expect our books to as well.

Speak Overview

Melinda Sordino busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops. Now her old friends won't talk to her, and people she doesn't even know hate her from a distance. The safest place to be is alone, inside her own head. But even that's not safe. Because there's something she's trying not to think about, something about the night of the party that, if she let it in, would blow her carefully constructed disguise to smithereens. And then she would have to speak the truth. This extraordinary first novel has captured the imaginations of teenagers and adults across the country.

Awards for Speak

A 2000 Printz Honor Book
A 1999 National Book Award Finalist
An Edgar Allan Poe Award Finalist
A 1999 Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist
Winner of the SCBWI Golden Kite Award
An ALA Best Book for Young Adults
An ALA Quick Pick
A Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year
A Booklist Top Ten First Novel of 1999
A BCCB Blue Ribbon Book
A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year
A Horn Book Fanfare Title

Speak Specifications

Since the beginning of the school year, high school freshman Melinda has found that it's been getting harder and harder for her to speak out loud: "My throat is always sore, my lips raw.... Every time I try to talk to my parents or a teacher, I sputter or freeze.... It's like I have some kind of spastic laryngitis." What could have caused Melinda to suddenly fall mute? Could it be due to the fact that no one at school is speaking to her because she called the cops and got everyone busted at the seniors' big end-of-summer party? Or maybe it's because her parents' only form of communication is Post-It notes written on their way out the door to their nine-to-whenever jobs. While Melinda is bothered by these things, deep down she knows the real reason why she's been struck mute...

Laurie Halse Anderson's first novel is a stunning and sympathetic tribute to the teenage outcast. The triumphant ending, in which Melinda finds her voice, is cause for cheering (while many readers might also shed a tear or two). After reading Speak, it will be hard for any teen to look at the class scapegoat again without a measure of compassion and understanding for that person--who may be screaming beneath the silence. (Ages 13 and older) --Jennifer Hubert

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Customer Reviews

A character who truly comes to life, scars and all - Joshua Mauthe - Nashville, TN
A couple of weeks ago, I read You, a YA novel that, for all its compelling thoughts and voice, got so involved in having a clever plot that it forgot that the best thing about "slice of life" books is when they remain grounded in everyday life. I mention that to say that Speak, by contrast, is the sort of YA book that manages, miraculously, to do almost everything right. Speak is the story of Melinda Sordino, a young girl who starts her freshman year of high school abandoned by her friends, misunderstood by her parents, and slowly withdrawing into a near-mute state. The reasons for this remain murky for some time, although Anderson foreshadows it well and deals with the nature of Melinda's crisis well. There's a lot here that I loved, but what Anderson really creates is a rich, thoughtful character whose psychology and scars seem genuine, not forced, and one whose story truly feels believable and relatable. The book stumbles at a few points - there's some heavy-handed symbolism, the art teacher is a bit absurd, and the climax is a bit silly. But they're all minor, forgivable points when woven into such a rich characterization. By the time you finish the book, you truly feel as if you know Melinda well, and she feels like someone who could easily be around you at any time. I have to admit, I was a little skeptical going in, but I really loved Speak a lot, and I totally understand the push to include it in English classes - and agree with it 100%.

Speak - Twinmomma -
This was another book my teen needed for her book report.I preferred ordering the books she needed,show she could take her time to enjoy reading and so she could get a better understand of the book with out rushing to return it to the library.Once again the book was very affordable and we recieved the book within days after ordering.Once again the amazon websit was easy and simple,and "Yes I'll be back"

Forsaken Friendships - Joanne Reynolds - BRISTOL, CT United States
Melinda begins high school as the outcast who called the police to a party that took place in the summer before the start of school. She has never been asked why she called the police and her best friends have abandoned her.

Melinda carries a very real secret with a lot of pain involved. She is holding back speaking to most people and her grades and social life come to a dismal fall.

Melinda has quite the personality, something that the reader is aware of, but not necessarily the people that she deals with.

This book is very well written, you really do feel Melinda's pain, you just don't know the reason behind it until the end of the book. So sad that people she considered her friends don't bother to try to find out the reasoning behind her call to 911.

Says so much about the torment that is adolescence, the hormonal changes and angst to becoming one's self.

*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Sep 10, 2010 10:02:05

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Friday, September 10, 2010