Rating: 
Summary: Literary Review
Review: The novel Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson uses a variety of literary devices. By using a first person point of view the reader is able to understand the thoughts and emotions of Melinda Sordino. Anderson characterizes the people in the story by using the first person point of view. It is through both this indirect and direct form of characterization that the reader is able to understand what kind of person Melinda is. The reader becomes familiar with Melinda's round character traits and emotionally unstable thoughts. The conflicts in the story are developed through Melinda's outlook on life. The round character brings the story to life by her ever changing mood swings and downcast, cynical outlook on life. The tone the author takes about the young girl's life is intriguing in such a way that the reader feels obligated to finish the story in hopes of understanding the tormented girl, or likewise, people resembling Melinda Sordino. This sardonic comedy demonstrates the cruelty and loneliness that can be frequent in the eyes and mind of a high school student. The book portrays a deep sense of isolation and sorrow, and it shows the extreme opposite, groups of people and never ending cheerfulness. All in all, it is the strong sense of desolation and misery that attracts the readers to this book. One part of the reader feels an unexplainable amount of empathy for the girl and the other part has a yearning to understand young Melinda and to figure out why she does the things she chooses to do. The mixed emotions that the book brings to the reader are what make it appealing.
Rating: 
Summary: How to Speak
Review: Speak is one of the best contemporery books that i have ever read. Laurie Halse Anderson creatively tells a painful story in a small amount of space. The lead character deals with problem that the rest of us can only dream of. The only thing that I might have changed was have it be longer, but it wouldn't have been the same.
Rating:
Summary: The Real Thing
Review: Speak was a great book!!! It touched me in so many ways. The way in which it got to me the most is that she was going through what I went through when I was thirteen. It is a horrible thing. I am now seventeen and only just now have began to recover. I had friends, but none of them knew anything. I would recommend this book to anyone! It is the best book I have ever read! I cried the entire time I was reading it.
Rating: 
Summary: A powerful read
Review: She wasn't a plane Jane, cheerleader or a suffering artist. Melinda Sordino was a nothing. It all goes back to a large summer house party in which she was raped, she called the cops who shut down the party. In this two hundred and three page book written by Laurie Anderson you follow the life of a high school outcast.
This book follows Melinda many places such as school, home, and even a little old closet she tidied up in school. With only one friend, it is hard to navigate the hallways without being always being picked on and/or harassed. The one she dreads, Andy Evans (mostly referred to as "monster"), continues to show up in the book just to taunt Melinda.
"Melinda used to be such a good student. I can't see where we went wrong," is what her parents would say at one of the many parent teacher conferences.
They were all held due to Melinda's lack of effort in the high school. Throughout the book few people learn about Melinda being raped, even those she tells simply don't believe her.
All in all I thought this book was very good as I came away with many strong messages. The one message that really stuck out was always listen to someone they might be telling the truth. This wasn't followed by many of Melinda's old friends that didn't believe her about the rape.
Rating:
Summary: Great, Fast read
Review: Speak was an excellent book. My English teacher was telling most of the girls in my class to read it and I decided to buy it and read it myself. I was instantly captivated. Melinda's circumstances made me feel for her and wish that i could help her or at least be her friend in a sea of people who just didn't understand.
I read this book in two days and it took two days because I had to work and was tired. Otherwise it would have taken about one day for me to finish this awesome book. Speak gives you an inside look about what it's like to be the outcast. Melinda has some amazing lines in the book and I underlined a lot of them. I'm sure reading it the second time I'll find even more. She mixes humor with the seriousness of a very trying time in the life of a teenager.
Rating:
Summary: review
Review: In Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, a troubled girl named Melinda Sordino had been living her freshman year at Syracuse High School with her tongue emotionally tied in knots. Melinda forces herself to keep a huge secret from every soul while staying away from her biggest fear- Andy Evans. Melinda got off to a bad start at school by calling the police on a senior end-of-summer party because of a horrible attack by Andy.
She began the year with one friend, Heather, who she was with often. But soon enough, Heather left Melinda to try and join the "popular" clique. With no friends left, she is abandoned as an outcast with no place to go for safety. She has very little communication with her parents as well as with the world around her. The one hope for that communication with her family is leaving sticky notes on the kitchen table. The only thing that interests her seems to be working in art class where she gets help expressing herself from the teacher, Mr. Freeman.
The author makes you not only watch the life of Melinda spin in circles but really feel the agony that she is going through on the inside. I personally enjoyed reading the story. Page after page, I wondered what would happen next. There was a very good use of foreshadowing which led up to the moment Melinda would speak and confront her fears. Anyone who has a sensitive soul will have a place in their heart for Melinda after looking into her life through this book. I would recommend this for people ages 13 and up.
Rating: 
Summary: Blah
Review: I can honestly say i didn't like this book. The story went on for ever, even thouggh it was only 200 pages. It was boring and the characters were un-exciting. The story-line could have been so much better if the author told her secrete in the beginning instead of the very end. The idea of this girl going on and on and on about her problem and not even telling us what it is.Maybe if she said it at the beginning i wouldn't hate the charcter so much. She just sat there and let her stupid friends make fun of her and everything. If your into low-self esteem and un-exciting characters this book is for you. but if your like me and like those tough, strong and cool characters I don't recomend this book.
Rating:
Summary: Awesum book! by Kaylin Mccarthy
Review: The book I read for my report was "speak" By Laurie.h. Anderson. This book takes place in the late 1990's in a rual area. This book is about friendships and emotional problems.
The main Character and narrator,Melinda,is a bit shy and untrusting of people. No one really anymore due to a trumatic event that occured during the summer. Another important charater was heather. Heather was alittle geeky, but very out-going and wanted everyone to like her.Heather and Melinda became friends when no one would even acknowledge them.
The author used a lot of forshadowing to tell about some of the events that took place during the summer.Like when one of melinda's ex-friends asked hre why she had called the cops.
I really liked this book. It really made me think about friend and who was a actual true friend to me.Infact melinda acted somewhat how I do, so I could really relate to this story.This book is a definate read!
Rating:
Summary: Must Read!!!
Review: My english teacher Mr. Anderson made my class read this book for our literature circles and I must say it was one of the best books I have ever read. It is amazing to read what is going through Melinda Sordino's head as she enters the 9th grade at Merryweather High School. This girl has NO friends and it is all because of what happened to her. But I won't give it away because it is to good. So read it.
Rating:
Summary: Speak
Review: The book Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson was such a great read! I bought the book on a Tuesday and was finished on Wednesday. It only took me 2 days to read this book. I couldn't put it down. I give it 5 stars because it was such a breath-taking book and deserves even more then 5 stars.
| 
