Rating: 
Summary: GREAT BOOK!!!
Review: This book was one of the most life changing books I have ever read. The way that Laurie Halse Anderson writes it, you feel as though you are in the same world with this poor girl. After reading Speak, I now have a new outlook on everything that I do in life. I am a thirteen year old girl and reading this book made me realize how harmful getting yourself into the wrong situations can really be. WAY TO GO LAURIE HALSE ANDERSON i LOVED your book!!!!!!!! Anybody and everybody should read this book!
Rating:
Summary: Silence is never Golden
Review: I read this book when I was a freshman in high school. Although it has been three years since I first read it, it has never left my mind. To read a book with such originality at such a young age is hard to find. Most girls my age were reading a book on their favorite pop star. Well not me. I yearned to find a meaningful book on which I could find hope and fear, love and hate in. This was my answer.
Rating:
Summary: Sound it out
Review: What elevates a young adult novel from "Merely Good" to "Extraordinary"? Why are children in school encouraged to read "The Chocolate War" but not the latest Lurlene McDaniel? Usually the reason is because the writing in a good YA novel is superior to its competitors. But to make a harrowing story not only poignant but memorable, there has to be that one extra element. In "Speak", the extra element is humor. Author Laurie Halse Anderson has taken a painful life-changing moment of horror and imbued its subject with a sardonic sarcastic wit. As a result, I was able to not only read this story all the way through (I have trouble reading painful books sometimes) but enjoy it and look forward to picking it up again.Melinda is beginning her high school career as the official outcast. Over the summer Melinda dared to call the cops to a kick-ass party being held and now all the kids she has ever been friends with have abandoned her. On top of that, there's a secret Melinda's harboring that threatens to destroy her from the inside out. Only her sympathetic art teacher, Mr. Freeman, gives Melinda any direction or support she so clearly lacks from both her home and school life. In some ways, I was a little disappointed that Anderson chose to make it so obvious that this book was tailor made to be read and reread by kids in high school English classes. For example, Melinda discusses a day in which her English teacher (deemed Hairwoman for a badly neglected dye job) attempts to teach the class about symbolism. Melinda thinks symbolism is kinda cool, and likes finding examples of it in "The Scarlet Letter". It's a good thing Melinda likes symbolism too because this book is OVERFLOWING with it. A few examples: The weather outside vs. Melinda's internal changes. The name of her favorite teacher is Mr. Freeman. The tree she works on in art class. And so on. The nice thing about this use of symbolism is that Anderson never makes it too too blatantly obvious, or runs it into the ground. Rather, the teen reading this book might pick up on it on their own and think it was an intelligent thing to have spotted. But as I said before, humor is real breakthrough factor in this story. Melinda is funny funny funny. Even when she in the darkest deepest depths of despair, she has the ability to point out what's what. One of the best of the book's motifs is the school's constantly changing mascot. The school changes from the Trojans to the Devils because of the condom association. Then they change from the Devils to the Tigers because of the Satan association. Then they change from the Tigers to the Wombats because of the animal rights association. Then they change from the Wombats to the Hornets because they don't want to be associated with foreign marsupials. Finally they attempt to no longer be the Hornets because the cheerleaders have started a cheer that goes roughly along the lines of... "We are the Hornets,
Horny, Horny, Hornets!
Everywhere we go-oh,
People want to kno-oow,
Who we are, so we tell them . . .
We are the Hornets,
Horny, Horny, Hornets!
(and on and on and on)" This is funny stuff. And real. Goodness me is the stuff in this book real. Admittedly, I can't imagine someone like Melinda existing in my own high school. The idea that an ENTIRE high school could blackball you for a party that (I guarantee you the uncool kids wouldn't have attended) you broke up is a bit of a stretch. But the teachers, parents, and other incompetents in this book are presented in a well-wrought light. You like Melinda too. You sympathize with her completely. And while the ending leaves a couple storylines dangling, you have a pretty clear idea that everything's gonna be all right. The second best book written for young adults ever published.
Rating:
Summary: awesome
Review: I(...) thought speak was an excellent book. we had to read it in english, i couldnt put the book down. the story was just so well writtin, and her humour and charecter was great, i thought it was awesome and everyone should read this book, or make it into a movie, id go see it
Rating:
Summary: Every Girl Should Read This
Review: This book is about a girl who has many teen issues. She busted a party causing a whole bunch of people to dislike her greatly. School comes around, and people are dissing her. She makes her own little hiding space in a janitor's closet. The only friend she made during school started to push her away. A while later she starts talking to her ex-bestfriend, Rachel. She tells Rachel everything that happened at the party,which includes getting raped by Andy Evans, Rachel's new boyfriend. Rachel thinks Melinda is just jealous.
We think every girl should read this because it gives good examples of girls' issues. If you think you're going through a hard time, read this book, and everything will turn around for you. If something ever would happen to you, don't keep it a big secret, tell someone, ask for help.
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Summary: I LOVED IT!!!!!
Review: This book was FABULOUS! It is DEFINANTLY, for teens or adults! I finished it in a hour (litteraly)!!! Then i've had it passed around my school becuase everyone wants to read it, and I havent had it in MY possesion for a month now, bcuase people love it SO much! I hope you LOVE it too!
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Summary: I'm Speaking Up About a Good Book!!!
Review: With no friends, Melinda Sordino, enters high school as a tattle-tale who's in no social group. No one gives her the time of day, after she ratted out a party that had beer at it during the summer. Finding comfort in a janitor's closet is where she keeps in a secret that is eating her alive. She ignores her family and skips classes to avoid students. Will she find friends? Will she break down and tell her secret? You'll just have to read and find out!!! I really enjoyed this great novel written by Laurie Halse Anderson. The plot was carefully planned out, and the main character is very hard to understand, which keeps you guessing. This book would be greatly enjoyed by young teenage girls.
There was nothing about this book that I didn't like. Every part of this story kept me guessing on what would happen next. Anyone who enjoys books that have a little suspense and humor would surely enjoy this well written novel. So stop by your library and check out this great book.
Rating: 
Summary: Not bad, but not for everyone
Review: This book is primarily a psychological profile, NOT an action book. If you can identify with the narrator's situation and feelings, you will like, maybe even love the book. I will agree with those that say the story is a downer and supporting characters are totally underdeveloped, but it is an easy read and
a healing/helpful piece of work for the rape victims or those individuals whom have had other crisis in their life. Besides, you can read it in a day.
Rating:
Summary: and they all lived happily ever after......
Review: I am not going to say that this was a bad book, because it wasn't. I thought, up until the end, it was very well written. The book was very suspenseful and had some realistic situations. I could see some of myself in Melinda. What I don't get is why it had to end so badly. I mean so she so unpopular and then.....she got popular? Things just don't happen that quickly. What makes a really good story is the ending. If a story is good then the author rushes through the end, then it makes me wonder why I thought it was so good. I was very disappointed with the author when she had Melinda tell her art teacher in the end. If she wouldn't tell anyone about it before, why would she tell her art teacher? It was her fault she was so unpopular in the first place, she secluded herself to much. I just think the ending should have been better.
Rating:
Summary: High school-Misunderstood
Review: The book "Speak" is about a misunderstood girl who is a loner in high school. She spent her summer without any contact with her friends which caused them to grow apart. In high school she has no friends because, besides the fact that she didnt keep in contact, she ruined a summer party and called the cops. Then Heather comes along who befriends Melida (The girl). She tries the whole year to keep her cool and she makes her own private spot in the janitor's closet, just as a place to get away when school's becoming rough. It's mainly about how she struggles through her freshman year, then towards the end of the year, she makes friends and people start to like her again.
The things that I liked most about the book were that she was very good at expressing herself in art. Like her art had a lot of meaning to then, they weren't just globs of paint, they had a purpose. Another thing I like about the book was that the writer really knows how to relate to a high school loner.
What I disliked was that the girl only had one friend, and at times she would push her friend away to. That to me is very dumb, I mean the girl is nice to you, talks to you, is your ONLY friend and your pushing her away? thats just stupid to me.
My favorite part of the book is when she is shooting the hoops in gym, and makes every one of them. The coach is really getting happy now and she is feeling warm inside as well. At that point she finds her strenghts in high school, that's really a big accomplishment.
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