Speak

Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: Speak is a great book.On a late summer night Melinda goes to a party and things are getting out of hand so Melinda calls the cops.On the start of Melinda's first day of highschool she realises that she has become an outcast.In this story she barely ever speaks.When she finally does speak you will not want to put the book down.This book is great and I reccomend it to mature young readers.This book teaches you reality and how things can really become.Reading this book might give you the chills or just be one of those books that you just can't set down.When Melinda speaks (to her friends)people begin to understand and she gains a lot of her friends back.You will be able to almost be inside Melinda's mind and find out what she has to go through every day of most of her freshman year in highschool.I really like this book because it tells you really how people can be in highschool.Melinda in the beggining has no self confidence and at the end starts building it up.Melinda was always quiet in the story and never stood up for herself so people felt free to nag on her all the time knowing she wouldn't say anything.This book has its funny times and its sad times but all in all it is great.I think anyone should put their selves in her shoes just to know what it feels like to be picked on or to need to have a true friend that you just can't seem to find.This book will keep you on the edge of your seat and you will not want to put it down for anything.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book
Review: I thought that this book was really good because it really hita spot in girl teenagers. I hate what Andy did to Melinda, and I'mmad she didn't stick up for herself. But at the end she came throughit and was stronger.

Rating:
Summary: Speak- of a book report
Review: The book "Speak" is a very compelling book, about ayoung girl trying to overcome her tragic life. In the story, theyoung girl, Melinda, starts off high school as an outcast, because ofa party, that happened a couple of weeks before school started. When she had to call the police. This is not like elementary school, where people forget about what happens. Not even her closest friends believe why her when she says why she called the COPS. The whole story is about her being silent and finally overcoming everything and being able to speak. I believe that this is one of the most well written books, and well-deserving of its nomination for the PRINCE award. It had a mixture of everything, which is why this book is so wonderful. Just the way it is written is unique. It's kind of like a play. To me this book speaks of a girl in a semi-disfunctional family. And let alone this influence has on her life. And then her school life tenderizes my emotions about the way that she is treated. About being treated like I said before, her friends won't even talk to her and the person that did something to her at the party keeps messing around her emotions. In conclusion this book is truly amazing because of the way it speaks, as if the author went through this herself. So if you see this book at a store nearby, pick it up or if you don't want to buy it, ask a friend if you can borrow it, and after you read it, and it moves you, then you could decide on your own if you wish to buy it.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best book ever written
Review: This book is awesome. I suggest everybody of all ages to read this book, no matter if you are an adult, children, or young adult. This is a book that you can't put down until you are finished. It is a truly inspiring book that is written in a self-reflection style. It doesn't take a long time to read it. Many people I know that has read this book loved it. I believe Laurie Halse Anderson has written a powerful, painful, and deep book.

This is about a ninth grader called Melinda Sordino. Melinda has bent an outcast since her first day of high school. Her old friends won't talk to her. Her parents, teachers, and hardly anybody in her life are supportive towards her. People she doesn't know treat her awfully. As Melinda's life and future turns into a disaster, she starts to skip school, fail classes, and becomes a troubled kid. All this is happening because of one incident in an end-of-summer party. She stopped the party by calling the cops. This ruined her popularity. Not only was her popularity destroyed, but also something happened to her during that evening. Something she wants to get out of her head. Something that no matter how hard she tries to forget it, it still leaves a mark in her. Nobody is interested in finding out why she stopped the party. As Melinda becomes more isolated, she speaks rarely. When the truth comes out, an unexpected thing happens.

This book has become one of my favorite books. The middle and ending of the book was very exciting. The ending will make you want to read it over and over again. If this book hasn't been translated to other languages, I believe this should be done. Then people all over the world can read this awesome book.

Rating:
Summary: speak a powerful book to read
Review: the book i read was called speak it was a really really good good book and i highily recamend it to everyone more girls this book was a first book that i could not keep my eyes off it was a real page turner for me well. it it was the first day of highi school for milinda just by the beginning you could tell it was going to be a hard year for her so she get to school and and it gos bad on the day someone throws a spoonful of mashed potatos right on her shirt . she is so embarresd milinda (now ill be known as the girl who got mashed potatos thrown at her) and also everyday it is getting harder for her to speak why that for you to find out but she cant talk to her parent or her teachers she has sores on her lips why is it so hard for her to speak find out and read this book i guarantee you will be happy i wont be able to take your eyes off this book so read it and find out why this book is calld speak .

Rating:
Summary: My opinion on this book
Review: I thought this book was very well written. It expressed the views of a girl who had been raped very well. I think that it might of helped someone who had been raped to speak and to report it. If all of the raped women and men reported it we could get the horrible people who did it off the streets.

Rating:
Summary: Speak
Review: When I actually started reading this book I thought is was going to be some corny book about some girl who is unpopular because she called the police about a party..blah blah blah. I was wrong. This is a beautifully written book, about a girl and how her life is changed forever because of what happened on a late summer night. It had a wonderful plot that kept me on my toes until the end. Little by little the plot thickens until finally you realise what happened. I have recommended this book to many of my classmates and even my language arts teacher. All of them loved it just as much as I did. I hope you read this book and enjoy it like I did.

Rating:
Summary: Student Review
Review: Speak is about a girl named Melinda, who, the summer before entering high school calls the cops on a end of the summer party where people are drinking underage. She enters high school with no friends. No one will talk to her except this new girl from Ohio, named Heather. She becomes very quiet and doesn't talk to anyone. However, when the time comes she must decide to talk or put her old best friend in danger.

Rating:
Summary: an honest look at the difficulties of adolescence
Review: Melinda begins her high school career a complete outcast, alienated from even her best friends. Because of a traumatic event that occured over the summer, she is unable to express herself, or even to explain herself, to those who harrass and dislike her. As the book progresses, we are allowed inside Melinda's mind as she tries to cope with the tragedy, as well as the subsequent fallout. This book gives an honest and realistic view of high school and the pettiness and ugliness that exists there. And I couldn't help but identify with Melinda as a misunderstood outcast. As for the other review which asked why Melinda couldn't just speak to her friends about what happened, I ask this person to consider the pain and humiliation that one would feel after being violated this way. 15- year old children (or teenagers, I should say) do not necessarily have the coping mechanisms to deal with this kind of thing. Luckily, Melinda realizes her voice, and finds the strength to overcome her status as an outcast. She is a heroine worthy of our praise. Adults and teens alike should read this book. As for those who may say the topic is too "adult" for teens, I say you have no idea what being a teen ager these days is really like.

Rating:
Summary: More accurate than we'd like to admit.
Review: I couldn't wait to read what happened next in this book, then was sad when it ended because I wanted to be there to see Melinda continue to blossom. The accuracy of all of the workings of high school were right on the money. The loneliness, cliques, awkwardness, cruelty, etc brought back so many memories for me. Now that I'm in my thirties, I could see the humor and outrageousness of it all. Then was a very different story. It is amazing that the majority of us survive.

As far as the rape goes, the public at large has no ideas as to how regulary such things happen to young women. Survival is possible, but not until it is realized that the fault lies with the assailant and not the victim. Shame and guilt are two powerful emotions that really can make one stop talking or even living,for that matter, and I think that the author captured the essence of how overwhelmingly this type of violence can affect one's life.