Speak

Rating:
Summary: Slow but good
Review: This was a great book. I enjoyed reading it, but my only issue was that the whole book is based on the girl's feelings towards what happened to her over the summer and how she has no friends because of a party she called cops to. I kind of figured out what had happened to her but it still was really slow since they give you all theses diary-type entries but don't tell you what really happened until the very end.

Rating:
Summary: Unrealistic
Review: This book made me mad. It's well written, and has an OK premise, but it's extremely unrealistic. Adult reviewers stating that this book is so sad because it's something that could happen inreal life must have had the most horrible childhoods in existance. I am extremely thankful to know that I have such good people in my life, and can rest assured that I would never be alone through such an upsetting time.

I can't understand why Melinda was so sad about losing such horrible friends. Talk about a blessing. Just because they didn't know the whole story behind her decision to call the police does not excuse their behavior. Although I can understand one or two bad friends deciding to cut someone out of their lives for a stupid reason, an entire group of people casting someone aside is complete nonsense. I was offended by the fact that I was supposed to be deeply affected and think that most schools and teenagers are like the ones in Melinda's life.

On a positive note, Melinda was realistic. On the off chance that anyone could ever actually be unlucky enough to be in her predicament, I'm sure that many would behave just as she did. Her actions, choices, and the things she thought were understandable, and made the story bearable. I only made it through the entire thing because I actually felt so deeply attatched to her.

Rating:
Summary: Totally engrossing
Review: I couldn't put this book down, I got totally swept up into it and zipped right through it. Throughout it you can feel Melinda's pain, the pain so many high school girls have felt, of being ostracized. The author has great insights and presents them honestly and without judgment. If you liked this you might also like "An Egg on Three Sticks" by Jackie Moyer Fischer.

Rating:
Summary: "Speak.."
Review: "Speak.." is probably the best book i have ever read.
I dont normally read but "Speak" got me hooked after the first 5 pages!!
Speak is about a freshman named Melinda who goes to a crazy party over the summer with tons of High-schooler Melinda gets drunk and raped. After she realizes what happened she freaks out and calls the cops, but when the cops answer she hangs up. Someone sees her calling the cops then the cops show up. The rest of her freshman year is torcher everyone hates her for calling the cops Melinda has no friends all of her old friends hate her shes all alone melinda becomes a total outkast because no one knows the truth. To find out what happens read this book. This book is a GREAT book i would totally recommend it!!

Rating:
Summary: My review on Speak
Review: I loved this book. This book is about a girl named Melinda who had a great life until one summer when she went to a party with her friend Rachel and ends up getting raped and calling the cops. She tells no one what had happened to her the night of the party, there for she goes through her first year of high school alone and silent because nobody wants to be her friend anymore. I really liked the end of this book I don't want to give it away but let's just say she finds a way to let her fear of people knowing go and expresses herself in a way that she feels she has not been able to, and the best part is she doesn't regret it.

Rating:
Summary: A must read for all ages
Review: Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson is truly an amazing book. Laurie brings the readers into the life of a young girl named Melinda. Melinda faces many major problems that occur everyday in today's society: being ostricized, failing classes and family pressures are some examples. What makes this book unique is the way Melinda deals with her problems; she stops talking. Everyone must communicate in one way or another, and Melinda communicates through her art.
Art is the one class she isn't failing, the one class she enjoys, the one class where she can really express herself. Art is more then just her way to communicate it's also her way to escape. Melinda is forced to face more than any one should have to face at any age, let alone hers, and she's forced to do it alone. As I read I could almost feel Melinda's pains and worries, this book is powerful and moving and it really make you think of how improtant communication is to our society. Laurie catches her readers at the first word and keeps them in suspense until the last letter.

Rating:
Summary: Freshman Disaster
Review: Speak is a book that not many people have read. I have read it twice and I think that this book should be on everyone's book shelf. The things that a freshman girl coming into high school is amazing. There are a lot of people(mainly teens)that go through a lot of the same problems and struggles as Melinda goes through. This is an all around great book for young adults, and adults. I recommend this book to anyone who is coming into high school or a parent who has a child that will be in high school.

Rating:
Summary: Sometimes Silence Can be Used to Say a Thousand Things
Review: Shh... don't speak. It's not as hard as it may seem, especially not for Melinda Sordino. Everything is going wrong for her. All of her friends hate her, her clothes don't match, and even people that don't know her hate her from a distance. This is all because she called the cops at the end of a year party in August. She was taken advantage of, and she was too naive to know at the time. Now she is realizing that by calling the police her reputation has gone down the drain... but she doesn't have the voice to speak up and tell anyone about what really happened. Who would listen?

On the first day of school, she sees all of her friends in their new cliques, hanging all over new guys, and all in separate classes. So this is high school? The late passes, sleeping during class, and feeling like an outcast among the rest of her peers? This is what she looked forward to?

Her parents are beginning to worry about her. She has basically become a mute. She doesn't speak... she just nods her head. Her grades are dropping each marking period and the only class that she can really create emotions in is Art class. At the beginning og the year she is assigned a project to create a tree with emotion in it. But the trees are what she finds very difficult. They are actually much harder than they appear with their different sized leaves, roots, and trunks. Art becomes more than a hobby though; it becomes her way to put her feelings on paper. Everything begins shaping up when she meets a person named Heather who becomes her friend it's amazing though the way high school works. Heather drops her after the second marking period ends to hang with a better group called the Marthas.

What is she to do when her ex-best friend, Rachel B., starts dating Andy Evans (IT)? The moon was so much closer in August, but she can't keep silent about that night anymore. She was drunk and he seemed like a Greek God in all of his perfections. She thought that she was going to be able to start out high school with a boyfriend. God was she wrong. She has to warn her but will Rachel even listen?

This book is so realistic that my heart was literally jumping inside when I read that she was encountering Andy Evans... IT! I cringed at the thought of her scabbing lips and bleeding hands. She goes through so much in that first year of high school. Fresh meat truly is what she became, but like all things the reputation begins to fade from being incredibly terrible to not that lousy, and the hate isn't as strong. There are so many lessons to be learned from this book and so many things that need to be cast into our world. Maybe through this girl's eyes was the only way. This book sure got the message across to me with all of its vivid descriptions, catching plot, and subtle messages. I suggest that everybody should read Speak by Laurie Hales Anderson.

Rating:
Summary: Struggle to be Heard
Review: Melinda Sordino begins her freshman year in high school as an immediate outcast. Nearly every student knows that she called the police at a party the summer before, but no one ever asked her why. As she becomes more and more alienated, she sinks deeper into her own thoughts, rarely uttering a word to anyone. Through the voice in her head, she tells readers of the cruelties and ironies of high school, but at the same time, readers know that she does not wish for this absolute exclusion. However, there are those who wish to help her, an art teacher, an old friend who seems ready to forgive, her science partner, but she must first acknowledge what happened at that party and deal with her pain before she can grow and move on.
This wry examination of high school sociology through the eyes of a traumatized girl reveals the cruelties that occur to so many young people in school. Her extreme situation forced her into a greater alienation than most must deal with, but her final triumph shows that anyone can finally be heard. This book serves as an important addition in the discussion of abuse, but it also gives an example to more typical students that many high school students feel alienated, and it is up to individuals to develop the strength to make themselves heard.

Rating:
Summary: Speak
Review:  Melindas life has changed since last summer when she called the cops at the senior party. Now all her "so called friends" have abanded her. She's become the outcast and has icelated herself from the social scene. Melinda has locked herself in the darkness of her own mind adn will not open up for anyone. This book requars a mature aduience, but if invites a diverse group of people. As you read this book you will feel as though you are in Melinda's mind trying to find a way out of her miserie.