Speak

Rating:
Summary: Speak
Review: Melinda Sordino starts a new chapter of her life in high school, but it is not what she has expected. Her friends refuse to speak to her, and Melinda suddenly finds herself isolated from those closest to her. Her grades slip, her attitude toward life degenerates, and her relationship with her parents has never been worse. A single, horrific event over the summer causes all of this, and Melinda is left to find a way through it.

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson is written very well. It reveals what true high school life is like, and it relates directly to today's teenagers. It is full of humor, but at the same time is a heartbreaking, depressing story. You will laugh and cry throughout this incredible story of a young girl's plight to find herself and cope with the event that has forever changed her.

Rating:
Summary: Speak
Review: ...Speak is a vivid story of a young girl, Melinda Sordino, going through her freshman year of high school. Melinda has had a few problems already before the first day that she returns to Merryweather High School. She had called the police on a party that she was at over the summer, resulting with some arrests. Because of Melinda calling the police, all of her friends are giving her the cold shoulder. Melinda makes a new friend, now her only one, on the first day of school, who comforts her with her loss of friends. She continues through the harsh year by speaking only when absolutely required.

Speak is a great story of getting through high school. The story is many times ironically similar to real life, and so you may find yourself laughing out loud. This book is geared for readers from ages 13 - up.

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Summary: Speak, good, bad, and not so ugly
Review: Speak, by Laurie Anderson, is a fairly decent book. It is about a girl named Melinda Sordino, in her freshman year, who is a teenage outcast. This book is told from her perspective and reveals her troubled mind incredibly well. She has a troubled mind because, quite basically, her ex-friends have abandoned her in her time of need. This time of need was aroused over the summer at a party, but I won't describe it to you because that would destroy the point of reading the book for yourselves.

This book does keep you on the edge of your seat reading, and once it gets going (which takes awhile, mind you) anyone can get into it. Some of the most important parts have been masterfully integrated into the story to give you information without even knowing it. Anderson has done this so well by merging flashbacks into Melinda's reality and surprisingly, for a first book, it's an incredibly good one.

For this book I have but one criticism. It is a slight one, but it sort of stuck out in my mind. That complaint is with Merryweather High School, Melinda's school. The school has to be the worst school on the planet. It's almost like a combination of all the horrible schools in the United States. All the sports teams are terrible, the teachers don't seem to care, not to mention the fact that they apparently need to learn how to teach, the kids there seem to all be sex-addicts and they don't care, and maybe I'm weird but I don't see how all these foul traits could be integrated into one school. That's my complaint. Fairly weak but nevertheless it's in my opinion legitimate.

Rating:
Summary: Speak Review
Review: Title: Speak
Author: Laurie Halse Anderson

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson gives a great viewpoint of what the first year of high school is like. Melinda Sordino used to have many friends in 8th grade until she went to a party where her life changed forever. This story shows how Melinda struggles through her first year with no friends to help her with all of her stress and loneliness. She doesn't talk or try to get along with anybody. She is too scared to tell anyone about her secret. All she needs is someone to listen to her for just a little while.

I really enjoyed this book because of its realistic quality to relate to real life. It is an easy book to read and understand. I have experienced many things that happened in this book that is why I recommend it to anybody and everybody that has went through their freshman year in high school.

This book is a great story for anyone who has suffered through their freshman year of high school because of stress and didn't have anyone to talk to about it. If you ever come across a person like Melinda, give them this book to read so that they will understand that if they don't speak, no one will know what they are going through.

Rating:
Summary: Speak Review
Review: Melinda Sordino begins her freshmen year of high school as an outcast. All of her friends from middle school have abandoned her because of what happened during the summer. Her only friend is a new girl, Heather, from Ohio. She does not speak very often to other people. She rarely speaks to her parents. Her sanctuary quickly becomes her art class. She is able to express herself and show her emotions, which is why she loves art. Throughout the book Melinda gives sarcastic descriptions of her piers, teachers, principal, guidance counselor, and parents. As the book progresses Melinda regresses. She speaks less and less all because of something that happened during the summer before her freshmen year. She must overcome this horrible event and start to act more like the way she did in middle school.

I enjoyed reading the book Speak. I found it very easy to relate to the book. I believe that almost everyone can find something in the book to relate to. I really liked the author's writing style. I often found myself laughing while reading the book due to Melinda's sarcastic remarks.

Rating:
Summary: Speak
Review: Speak by Laurie Hales Anderson is the story of a girls first year in high school. But after an incident over the summer her friends have ostracized her. Finding herself all alone her life starts in a downward spiral, and she talks less and less. Her only escape is a closet and art class.

This is a fairly well written book. For anyone who wants to remember their high school years this is a great book for you. The main characters sense of humor is apparent with constant sarcasm being expressed at the other "clans".

This review was made by Brian Siburt.

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Summary: Erin's Speak Review
Review: Title: Speak
Author: Laurie Anderson

Speak, written by Laurie Anderson, is written through the eyes of the sarcastic, but witty main character Melinda Sordino. One event that summer ruined her social status from popular to "complete and total loser, not quite sane." This one event was caused by IT; "A senior. A gorgeous cover-model guy, every inch a tanned muscle and straight white teeth." Because of IT, as Melinda calls him, Greek God and Andy Beast, Melinda slowly recoils from the outside world and becomes spellbound within the depths of her own mind. She refuses to speak and eventually becoming mute. This one event makes her become mute. Follow the journey of Melinda through her ideals behind the sickening sweet reality of high school, and overcoming the one event that literally destroyed her life.

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Summary: My Speak Review
Review: Laurie Halls Anderson captures the true lives of teens in high school everywhere in her novel Speak. It is an incredibly inspirational novel that allows the mind to smile, laugh, cry, and sympathize with Melinda Sordino, as they go trough the freshman year of an outcast teen with a secret.

High school was supposed to be fun. She was supposed to still be friends with her inseparable group of loyal companions. A party, a phone call, and the cops ruined all of that and more for Melinda. Now, alone she ventures into the tortures of high school. IT has happened, IT was real. There is no avoiding it, no forgetting. Melinda must face school, her friends, her parents, her teachers, and IT.

Laurie Halls Anderson does an amazing job or revealing exactly what high school is really "all about." It's a great book for teens everywhere, giving incite to those feelings and places some of us have never been.

Rating:
Summary: My thirteen year old daughter & I stayed home one day to
Review: ...read this book together. It was a valuable day. The awful subject Anderson writes about, rape, is movingly and convincingly told through the eyes of Melinda. The environment of high school is brought to life. All it's most poignant themes, popularity (or the lack of it), isolation and difficulty communicating with parents and teachers with their own sets of problems are written with clarity and insight. The perception that high-school days are simple in comparision with the "real" world of grown up lives is shattered brilliantly. The terrifying realities of teen-age isolation are made clear. Anderson skillfully brings the conclusion of this book to a satisfying end without having it seem ridiculous. Amazing accomplishment.

Rating:
Summary: Teenage Girls Rejoice for Speak!
Review: This book is so refreshing and real. I am grateful that an author has enough guts to write something so touching and that displays the hardships of growing up.
The book takes place inside the halls of Merryweather High and in Melinda Sordino's head and house. The characters are basically your typical high school cliques. You have the jocks, the cheerleaders,thespians, eurotrash, the marthas, goths, etc. All cleverly described through Melinda's eyes. (Melinda Sordino is the main character). Melinda is just starting out high school in the beginning of the book. Thanks to an incident at a party in the summer, she doesn't make a good start. Especially with her friends which she seems to lack quite a bit since that eventful party. I won't give away what happened at the party, but let's just say it wasn't a positive thing. The whole story is basically Melinda telling her story of how she survives with no friends and workaholic parents who don't care. In my opinion the author's message is people aren't always how they seem and friends can change very quickly. Also, to try and try until you succeed. This is proved in Melinda's art career. Melinda is a good artist but has some problems in her art class with a project, which doesn't get completed until some issues she has to deal with get resolved.
My favorite part of the book is how Laurie Halse Anderson, (the author), doesn't try to make high school sound sweet and easy. She tells it like it is. I enjoy fiction books, but with some degree of realism inside. What i didn't like about this book was not really anything. I enjoyed all the aspects of it except the ending. The ending was a bit abrupt, but well timed in a way. It does lack the usual excitement displayed throughout the book. Even though I still love this book, the ending could have been more conclusive and just better in my opinion. I understood all of the book. I think that it easy to understand and realate to. It's also very easy to get into the book and not want to put it down, (as I experienced.) The story line just pulls and pulls you in until your hooked.
I think the book is a bit inappropriate for anyone under the age of 12. It does contain some "cussing", which I feel is fine because it adds to the whole "how high school really is" part that most people enjoy so much. The people that would enjoy this book the most, would be a female between the ages of 12 and 18. The reading ability level isn't too high. Probablly about a 7th or 8th grade reading level is required. I think most ethnicities and cultural backrounds can realate, but i belive that Melinda is caucasin by the books description. But just because she is white, doesn't mean other races would not like this book. Race is not a big issue in it and is not a factor in any situations in the story.
Well this has been my review of Speak. I hope you enjoyed it and can walk away knowing a little more about the book. I highly reccomend it so go out and read it now!