Speak

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Summary: Speak Review
Review: The novel Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson is a pretty good book. It is about a girl named Melinda who is just starting high school and her and one of her friends go to a party. They were drinking a little and someone did something to her so she called the police. After the party nobody would talk to her or be her friend because she called the police. Melinda never told anybody about what had happened. When she does say something about her best friend doesn't believe her.

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Summary: Speak Review
Review: Freshman, Melinda Sordino, starts high school depressed and outcast. The entire school hates her for calling the cops on an end-of-the-summer party. Her friends have deserted her without even trying to find out the truth of what really happened. Slowly Melinda stops speaking to her parents, teachers, and even her peers. Anytime she sees Andy Evens, a popular senior boy, she feels paralyzed like a rabbit around a predator. Through her artwork, Melinda shows her feelings of depression and loneliness. She has a secret that she can't tell anybody. Will Melinda ever be able to tell this secret? Find out at the end of the story when the truth is finally revealed.

Laurie Halse Anderson's novel is a wonderful tribute to teenage life with all the realistic dramas and conflicts all young adults go through. All readers will relate to the isolation and confusion Melinda expresses in her sad and humorous story.

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Summary: Speak
Review: Speak, written by Laurie Halse Anderson, captures all the aspects of high school life. This book is about a teenage girl, Melinda Sordino, who was raped at a party and then called the police. She becomes a total outcast and all her old friends are now enemies. This book is excellent because it has an inspirational ending and everything is modeled like a high school year. I finished the book in two days because I wanted to see what happened next. I would recommend this book for any high school student.
Niemietz

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.