Speak

By: Laurie Halse Anderson

“Melinda finally finds her voice”

            Speak, a teenager’s tale of the hardships of high school, begins with Melinda’s first day as a freshman at Merryweather High School. She finds herself friendless and an outcast because of something that happened at a party she went to with her former best friend Rachel Bruin. After the incident, Melinda panics and calls the police. When the police arrive, some of the people at the party are arrested and all of them are very annoyed with Melinda, especially Rachel. But no one knows the full reason why she called the police, including the readers. As the book continues through the marking periods, which separate parts of the book into different sections of the year, it becomes clear that whatever happened to Melinda at the party involves a Merryweather High senior named Andy Evans. Melinda refers to Andy throughout the book only as “IT”.

   Melinda starts to believe she can forget about what happened when she starts her new art class and meets the teacher, Mr. Freeman. The assignment he gives her to draw a tree becomes, throughout the book, a metaphor for things that Melinda is facing in her life.  Melinda also meets a new friend, a new girl named Heather. But as Heather tries hard to fit in, Melinda becomes more of an outsider. Her grades get even lower and she pretty much completely stops talking. It is only when Rachel, her former best friend, starts dating Andy that Melinda finally tells what is wrong; she Speaks.

I thought this was a great book. The way Laurie Halse Anderson tells Melinda’s story made it very easy to get into. The figurative language she uses is very easy to pick up on. This is a very good book for reluctant readers because not only is it interesting, but it is only a mere 198 pages.  I would recommend this book to anyone, especially girls, looking for a good read. Anderson perfectly describes the troubles of high school, and it is inspiring the way Melinda finally finds her voice.

Her story teaches you that sometimes you have to do things that are hard and uncomfortable to help others.

-Erin B.

“Shut your trap; button your lip”

Speak  is an incredible novel that takes you into the life of freshman Melinda Sordino. This story tells how she is changed after a dramatic and traumatizing incident the previous summer when she called the police from a party. Because of her fears, she does not tell anyone about what really happened to her that night, leaving herself without friends, understanding from her family, happiness in her life, closure from the incident, or a voice. Melinda decides that  “it is easier not to say anything. Shut your trap, button your lip, can it. All that crap you hear on TV about communication and expressing feelings is a lie. Nobody really wants to hear what you have to say.” Just as Merryweather High cannot choose a school mascot, Melinda cannot find her identity.

The story is written as though Melinda is writing in a journal or talking directly to the reader.  We hear first hand her thoughts and opinions about her everyday life. She takes the reader on a day-to-day journey of the struggles that come as a consequence for getting others in trouble. “I hate you,” her ex-best friend Rachel mouths to her. As the most hated girl in school, she is lucky to find a new girl  who becomes her friend, but Heather later dumps her due to her negativity and constant bad attitude. She then turns to her art teacher, Mr. Freeman, to confide in him. What really happened that night? Can Melinda fix what she has already done? Can she get her life back to normal?

Anderson’s writing style is easy to read. She knows her audience well and found a common ground that helps her relate to readers. Speak deals with subjects that are too often ignored -- heavy topics like loneliness, depression, the struggle for identity, finding your place, and the search for understanding.  She identifies with true adolescent behaviors and problems. Anderson’s vivid descriptions and word usage make me care about Melinda and what is happening in her life. This book taught me many valuable lessons: you must find your voice and speak up against the wrongs of the world, you should not jump to conclusions; you might be surprised about someone’s reasoning, and you should not sit back and watch the world pass by.

            I would recommend this novel mainly to high school students, but I think that any age group can appreciate and be touched by this story. This “must read” is a page-turner that I just couldn’t put it down. To find out the rest of the story, read Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak.                    

-Abby Grace B.

“IT appears in her dreams, the nightmare reason she is mute.”

    Have you ever tried to stop talking for a day? It’s almost impossible. Sooner or later, you have to communicate with someone, whether it’s your parents, teachers, or even your peers.  This is a story about silence--the causes and effects, the costs and benefits, but mostly the breaching of it. Melinda Sordino masters the art of silence in this novel. After the events of the previous summer, she seldom says anything to anyone, even her parents.

    On the first day of high school, Melinda must face her worst nightmare, her peers who blame her for the cops being called to a huge summer party. The only person who talks to her is the new girl, Heather, while everyone else snickers and ignores her. Her parents are not getting along, Heather eventually ditches her, and IT appears in her dreams and around every corner.  Can things get any worse? When day-to-day existence becomes too much to bear, Melinda takes refuge in a janitor's closet, to which she adds decorations to make it a little more personalized. Even there she's not safe from IT, the nightmare of her existence and the reason she is mute.

    The only light at the end of the tunnel is art class. The teacher, Mr. Freedman, acts as a mentor to Melinda, constantly telling her to put her emotions and feelings into her art project, a tree. He befriends her after he gives her a ride to the mall and assures her that he will  be there if she needs someone to talk to.

    This book is highly suspenseful and very enjoyable. Anderson creates suspense throughout the novel by giving hints about what happened at the party, but does not reveal the full story until the end, as Melinda attempts to break her silence and explain why she had to call 911.

-Lauren A.

"This book really touched me . . . close to a perfect score."

    Ever been in the “Life sucks” phase?  Whether you have or not, Laurie Anderson’s Speak is definitely one of those books worth reading.  This book is in a fictional scenario based off Anderson’s freshman year in high school.  The story centers around Melinda Sordino, a girl whose friends dumped her after an accident at a party (If you want to know what happened there, just read the book, alright?) before school started, and whose school year turns up rotten.  While most of her teachers are rather weak at teaching, the only one Mel considers to be sane is her art teacher, Mr. Freeman.  He gives her a year-long assignment on expressing emotion through drawing a tree – an assignment Mel finds very complicated, but Mr. Freeman gives better advice than most of her other teachers.

    I’ll admit that there are some moments in the book where my brain went somewhere else.  What I mean to say is that there are some chapters that are a bit irrelevant because sometimes, nothing seems new when compared to what happens previously, and that they are only important in the fact that Melinda doesn’t really care about what goes on. 

     I like the chapters that relate to the party, emphasize character relationship, and develop Melinda’s character.  Those are the chapters that really get the story flowing, such as her meeting with the Guidance Counselor involving her academic progress, which seems to be getting worse, except for her art grade.  Melinda is a woman of few words, and rarely speaks, even when people are ordering her to speak.  Most of the time, she just doesn’t want to exist.  With the help of some characters, such as Mr. Freeman, her lab partner, David Petrakis, and Ivy, she eventually speaks up and stands up for herself.  The character that Melinda fears the most is Andy Evans, AKA IT or Andy Beast, the man who brought her into her silent existence in the first place and who preys on her weaknesses.

    This book has really touched me, although Anderson said that she isn’t giving the readers a message.  It is a good influence on teenagers who are having trouble adjusting to high school life.  I would also recommend reading “A Comment About Censorship” at the back of the book.  I give this book an A somewhere close to a perfect score, despite a few “snoozer” chapters, which are among the few things that keep it from reaching absolute perfection.

-Matthew M.

"a powerful depiction of the struggles teens have to go through"

            Melinda Sordino is an outcast. She comes into high school with no friends and no one to talk to her. She calls the cops to an end of the summer party. Everyone is mad at her for this and no one talks to her. People she’s never even met before reject her for what she did at the party. No one knows her terrifying reason for calling the cops on the party. The cops came and arrested many underage drinkers. Melinda is very depressed. She starts to gain weight. She has horrible grades and starts skipping school a lot. The only place she really feels she fits in is her art class. Her art teacher, Mr. Freeman is a nice guy she can talk to. She hardly has a relationship with her parents. She says, “We communicate with notes on the kitchen counter.” This is the story of a girl who is going through a really tough time. She has no one she can talk to and she’s been keeping her secret in for a long time. Throughout the story she shows us bits and pieces of what happened the night of the party.

         I very much recommend this book. It really let me step into Melinda’s shoes. The author gave you the chance to feel and experience how alone Melinda was. I  felt so sorry for her to have to go through that awful experience with no one to cry with her. This is a very powerful depiction of the struggles many teens have to go through. This book is very truthful in that it shows you how awful teenagers can be. I recommend you read this book and discover for yourself what will happen in the end. Will everyone finally find out what happened to her at the party to make her call the cops? Will she get all of her friends back? Read the book and I’m telling you, you won’t be disappointed. 

-Cade M.

"Anderson keeps Melinda's secret hidden throughout most of the book"
 
            Reading this book, I became caught up in Melinda's world. I was the outcast at Merryweather High with a screwed up life; I shook when Andy Evans, 'IT', approached, I cringed at the painful shunning from Rachelle and all of Melinda's former friends. But it wasn't until Melinda revisits the night of the party in full detail that I knew exactly what happened to her. There is much to be said about the way Anderson kept Melinda's secret hidden throughout most of the book.  It created an intriguing sense of mystery about Melinda. What could have happened to make her so dysfunctional?
 
            From the very first scene on the first day of school, the imagery is raw and real. Melinda makes one friend, Heather, who is new to Merryweather High and tries desperately to fit in a social circle. She attempts to drag Melinda along with her. This friendship turns out to be shallow and short-lived, because Heather decides it is unacceptable to hang around with the Outcast when she wants to be part of the elite “Marthas”.  So Melinda is by herself, and her monologues give the reader a kaleidoscope into her very vivid thoughts and feelings.
 
            Melinda’s art class is a thing wholly different from all the other aspects of her life. It is there she finds a way to express herself. Mr. Freeman, the art teacher, assigns her to depicting the soul of a Tree and to put emotion into her art work.  This is a frustrating process for her that goes on all year, carving out maybe a hundred linoleum blocks and throwing them away until she can finally put pen to paper and give her artwork life. Mr. Freeman, who seemed to know she had a lot to say, believes she can speak through art. The symbol of the Tree represents Melinda’s search of what is going on inside her and how to express it.
 
           Anderson brought to life a person who is very easy to like and interesting to listen to. Melinda has an unenthusiastic outlook on school, her family and people around her that's funny and realistic. She is very dynamic. Her past was spent with close friends and popularity, and in a way, when she is isolated, she finds herself. She finds strength she never knew was inside her.
 
    This book would have been awful to read if it was written as a sob story, thick with complaints and hopelessness. Instead, Anderson is down to earth with the way high school is, but she packs the book with funny and rather satiric observations.  I loved that everything came from Melinda’s point of view. It means one can experience her life and decide how ones feels about her, without a narrator to explain that she is depressed and reclusive. I recommend this book because it demonstrates how to move on from pain in your life.

Julie F.