Speak

Rating:
Summary: Speak
Review: Review over Speak
By: Katrina Lester

I need a new friend. I need a friend, period. Not a true friend, nothing close or share clothes or sleepover giggle giggle yak yak. Just a pseudo-friend, disposable friend. Friend as accessory. Just so I don't feel and look so stupid (p.22).

These are the words of Melinda Sordino, a fourteen year old freshman at Merryweather High. Melinda's life has changed dramatically since last year. Last year she had friends, made good grades, and was generally a happy person. That is until she went to a party during the summer and something horrible happened to her. Now, she finds herself without friends, failing school, and miserable. Her parents know something is wrong but they are too busy with their own lives to really intervene and help. The same is true of her teachers. However, one teacher Mr. Freeman, an art teacher, really sees Melinda's potential and talent and challenges her to put herself into her work. Through her art project, Melinda is able to express herself and the growth that she experiences over time. However, we she be able to verbally express her own agony and find the healing that she needs? This book will show you the inner struggle of a young girl with a terrible secret.
I truly believe that every teacher, parent, and young adult should read this book. I believe that this book could help all people working with young adults be more sympathetic, compassionate, and aware of the struggles facing young adults. This could also help young adults who are struggling with secrets and also help others be more of a friend to outcasts.

Rating:
Summary: Speak
Review: Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson is a must read for teenage girls and possibly boys. It is about a young girl, Melinda Sordino, that goes to a party with her best friend just weeks before she is going to start high school. Wanting to fit in and make new friends before starting her freshman year, she decides to drink a few beers. A senior boy, Andy, comes on to her and she is completely flattered. He is tall, dark and handsome. What more could a girl want? She could start her senior high years with a bang. Everyone would know her. Melinda, being naive, did not see what was happening until it was too late. Andy raped her. Hurt, embarrassed and ashamed, Melinda did the only thing she knew to do, call the police. But when the 911 operator answered the phone, Melinda could not speak, thus starting her silence. Having the address from the call, the police show up and bust the party. Everyone, even her best friend, knows Melinda as the girl that called the police and is therefore outcast. This story is heart wrenching as it is told in first person through the thoughts that go on her Melinda's mind. The art teacher seems to be the only one that takes an interest in Melinda and helps her break through her silence by giving her an assignment to make a tree come to life.

Rating:
Summary: Spoken
Review: I could not put this book down! This book is a must, especially for high school girls.

A young teenage girl named Melinda goes to a party with her friend. While there, she is raped by a senior boy. Melinda finds a phone at the party and telephones the cops. Before she can tell the dispatcher what has happened to her she freezes up and the cops trace the call. The police end up coming to the party and crashing it, thus turning everyone against her. This book describes how Melinda copes with the rape as well as how she handles being islolated by all of her old friends for calling the police that night.

The author did a great job of adding humor to such an important issue that many teenage girls deal with. This book definitely inspires victims of rape of how to "speak" out about it. It also gives readers an idea of what victims of rape are thinking and how they loose their self-esteem.

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Summary: Speak your mind!
Review: Speak is a deep and stark look into the world of freshman Melinda Sordino. Melinda is hated and shunned by her entire school including her former friends for breaking up an end of the summer pool party by calling the cops. But no one knows the real reason Melinda called the cops...that night she was raped by a drunk senior named Andy Evans. But Melinda goes on being silent because she knows no one will believe her. The only outlet she seems to have is her art class with her very cool teacher. But Melinda can't hold on to this secret forever especially when Andy comes back for more and then Melinda decides she must do the one thing she hasn't done yet...SPEAK.

This was one of the best books I have ever read. Melinda was so REAL. A wonderful book for teen girls that follows one's journey through her freshman year dealing with the burden of her rape. Woo. Read this!

Rating:
Summary: Great for Troubled Teens
Review: Poor Melinda! Can things get any worse for her? It's the beginning of her freshman year and she's a complete social pariah. No one will speak to her, not even her oldest friends. Melinda spends most of her freshman year outcast from even the most unwanted groups. She hides a secret, afraid to admit it to anyone, including herself.

I have to admit, I found the first half of this novel to be pretty slow. I spent most of the time thinking to myself, "Just get over it and go on!" By the time Melinda finally admits her secret to the reader and to herself, I had figured out her secret. Since I've never been in a situation like her's, I can't imagine what it would be like. However, after reading some of the "crazy" thoughts that went on in her head, I can sympathize with what a young girl like Melinda must be going through. I think it has also given me some insight into what other girls that age might be going through their freshman year.

I liked the way Anderson labled the transitions/chapters according to the way Melinda saw things. I also loved the way she characterized Melinda's teachers by giving them nicknames to fit the way she saw them. I often wonder if my students do that, too.

I would recommend this book for girls who seem to be having a problem fitting in. On the other hand, it might be good for girls who fit in well and need to see the "other side of the coin" for a change.

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Summary: A good book for teens and a good book for parents of teens
Review: I think this is a good book for teenagers to read. Those who consider themselves on the outside looking in could relate well to the main character, Melinda. I think teens could learn several lessons from this story, especially about drinking and putting yourself in the wrong place at the wrong time. Teenagers' minds are very complex and this story did a fairly good job of conveying that to the reader. I do think that it was unrealistic in that a teenage girl would wait that long to tell someone. Overall I would recommend the book to young adults and parents of young adults who would like to better understand teenage culture.

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Summary: Speak: The Best Book I Have Ever Read
Review: This book is written extremely well. Anderson captures the harsh community of a High School. This book has great examples of what it is like to be a troubled teen in High School struggling to get along with other teens in her grade. Melinda has a sarcastic,honest, and sweet attitude that makes her who she is. This book is the best book for teens that are trying to get along with his or her peers.

Rating:
Summary: Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
Review: Speak is one of the best young adult novels I have read in a long time! This book centers around the inner struggles of a young freshman named Melinda who once was in the popular crowd in the eighth grade but now finds herself the social outcast because she called the police at a party held right before school starts. All of her friends hate her because they think she wanted to get everyone at the party in trouble for drinking. What they don't know is that Melinda was raped by a senior named Andy at the party, and in her drunken state, she called the police because she didn't know what else to do. Melinda begins high school with no friends and does not tell anyone, including her parents, about the horrible thing that happened to her. All of the inner pain she feels manifests itself in her inability to talk much at school, and in her avoidance of people all together. She spends much of her freshman year shut up in a janitor's closet until another traumatic event forces Melinda to face what happened to her and finally get her voice back. The reader has to slowly find out what really happened to Melinda as the events do not unfold all at once. Instead, one has to go inside her mind and experience the same pain and lonliness she does as she tries to deal with what has happened to her. I would highly recommend this book to any young adult. It poignantly describes the struggles that a person who experiences a traumatic event goes through, and teaches a good lesson about sharing your feelings with others instead of holding everything inside.

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Summary: Speak--A High School Journey
Review: Speak is a gripping novel about a young girl's (Melinda's) horrific experience and her first year of high school. Melinda's sarcastic sense of humor about typical high school happenings is hilarious at times. From an educator's viewpoint, this book gives lots of advice of what not to do when teaching, with a little bit of humanity thrown in through the character of Mr. Freeman, art teacher. From the beginning of the book, Melinda is not speaking much at all. She is an outcast among the cliques at school and at home. As one progresses through her grading periods and life, we realize that something terrible must have happened at an end-of-summer party that Melinda attended. When IT, the reason and source of her pain, appears at school, Melinda's fear and lip-biting overwhelm her. She must learn to deal with her insecurities and fear alone.

I highly recommend this book to any young adult. I felt a connection somehow at the beginning of this novel to the feelings of insecurity and not fitting in during high school that Melinda expressed. I also really enjoyed reading her thoughts about some of the lame assignments given during this time. Melinda's journey to conquering her fear and beginning to heal took time as I believe it would need to in reality. By the end of this novel, I was ready to stand up and cheer for Melinda. This realistic novel was well-written, with short "chapters" that make one not want to put it down. I think it is one of the best literature works I've read this year.

Rating:
Summary: Speak
Review: This book "speaks" volumes about teenagers today. I feel that every parent of an eighth grade girl going into high school or with a daughter in high school should read this book. I am an educator, and now have a whole new outlook on my students after reading this fictional story with real life abilities.
To begin, Melinda Sordino is enduring her first day at high school. Instead of being excited she is upset for reasons later revealed to the reader. Throughout the book, the reader is able to see the cruelty students endure from their peers. Also, because of the inner thoughts of Melinda, we are able to read the feelings of an outcast child. The reader feels the shame of the main character and smiles at her witty statements. You will cry and laugh at the same time as you go with Melinda throughout her first year of high school. But like most kids, Melinda has a secret, unlike others, the secret is shocking and unsettling. I encourage you to see life through the eyes of a normal teenager who is forced to deal with cruel classmates, busy parents, and a haunting experience. Read Speak. If you are a student or a parent you will discover the common, and not so common, issues of a thirteen year old girl in an American city.