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Genre/Form: | Epistolary fiction Young adult works Fiction Realistic fiction Young adult fiction |
---|---|
Material Type: | Fiction, Juvenile audience, Internet resource |
Document Type: | Book, Internet Resource |
All Authors / Contributors: |
Laurie Halse Anderson |
ISBN: | 0374371520 9780374371524 9780312674397 0312674392 9780141310886 014131088X 0142407321 9780142407325 9781448776900 1448776902 9780756970987 0756970989 9780142414736 0142414735 1404610723 9781404610729 1613834527 9781613834527 0844672920 9780844672922 |
OCLC Number: | 40298254 |
Notes: | Michael L. Printz Honor Book, 2000. |
Awards: | Michael L. Printz Honor Book, 2000 |
Target Audience: | Young Adult. |
Description: | 197 pages ; 22 cm |
Responsibility: | Laurie Halse Anderson. |
More information: |
Abstract:
"Speak up for yourself - we want to know what you have to say." From the first moment of her freshman year at Merryweather High, Melinda knows that this is a big fat lie, part of the nonsense of high school. She is friendless, outcast, because she busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops, so now nobody will talk to her, let alone listen to her. As time passes, she becomes increasingly isolated and practically stops talking altogether. Only her art class offers any solace, and is is through her work on an art project that she is finally able to face what really happened at that terrible party: she was raped by an upperclassman, a guy who still attends Merryweather and is still a threat to her. Her healing process has just begun when she has another violent encounter with him. But this time Melinda fights back, refuses to be silent, and thereby achieves a measure of vindication. In this powerful novel, an utterly believeable heroine with a bitterly ironic voice delivers a blow to the hypocritical world of high school. She speaks for many a disenfranchised teenager while demonstrating the importance of speaking up for oneself.
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WorldCat User Reviews (2)
A nice addition to any library.
One of the very best YA novels I have ever read. Speak deals with the subject of rape and the great inward pain that results. There are virtually no slow spots in this YA novel. Will recommend it to 8th grade and up, as well as teachers.
- 1 of 1 people found this review helpful. Did it help you?
Surprising
"You are getting better at this, but it's not good enough. This looks like a tree, but it is an average, ordinary, everyday, boring tree. Breathe life into it. Make it bend - trees are flexible, so they don't snap. Scar it, give it a twisted branch - perfect trees don't exist. Nothing is perfect. Flaws...
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"You are getting better at this, but it's not good enough. This looks like a tree, but it is an average, ordinary, everyday, boring tree. Breathe life into it. Make it bend - trees are flexible, so they don't snap. Scar it, give it a twisted branch - perfect trees don't exist. Nothing is perfect. Flaws are interesting."Sections like this from Laurie Halse Anderson's debut YA novel Speak surprised me. It's just an art project tree right? Wrong. Everything's so much more. No wonder no one's speaking to Melinda. She called the cops and ruined the party. Narc! The problem is she hasn't told anyone why. Would anyone believe her anyway? Anderson's clever style feeds us clues about the party in small doses. Whatever happened there (No, I'm not going to tell you), Melinda doesn't want to talk about it, or much of anything else, taking us on a journey with her down into her psyche and back out again. I found myself enjoying the small stuff the novel has to offer. The fast pace of the present tense. The unnumbered concrete chapters. The lack of indents. The character Rachel/Rachelle with a / in her name. The four report cards. The kissy mark on the page. The three point vocabulary words. And the dialogue that reads like a play. The novel seamlessly spans an entire school year, allowing Melinda enough time to begin to take her life back into her own hands. It takes the art teacher, an unlikely hero, to care enough to supply an outlet for her to discover who she is in light of all that has happened. And who would have thought seeds could mean so much? Riddled with symbolism of rebirth and life, the novel offers hope in the middle of the darkest times. Reviewed by Jonathan Stephens
- 2 of 4 people found this review helpful. Did it help you?


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Related Subjects:(10)
- High schools -- Fiction.
- Schools -- Fiction.
- Emotional problems of teenagers -- Fiction.
- Rape -- Fiction.
- Emotional problems -- Fiction.
- Emotional problems of teenagers.
- High schools.
- Rape.
- Schools.
- Emotionally disturbed children -- Fiction.
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