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5 out of 5
by
Jessica
from
Radford, VA | Apr 10, 2008
Reference information:
Title: Speak
Author: Laurie Halse Anderson
Publisher: Penguin Group Year: 1999
# of pages: 198 Genre: intense read
Reading level: 9th grade Interest level: late high school
Potential hot lava: Thoughts of suicide and rape.
General response/reaction:
This book was so moving. Yes, it was difficult to read and very intense, but it was extremely good! I sort of knew how it was going to end because I cheated and looked it up, but it was still so good to read this book. I was glad that Anderson did not go into detail about the rape because that would have been too intense for me. I liked the way she kept the narration in Melinda’s head. The dialogue in her head remained realistic because no girl would want to replay the details over and over again. This novel was amazing because Melinda grew through her tragedy. I think that this book can be very therapeutic for many students.
Subjects, Themes, and Big Ideas:
• Trust
• Friendship
• Pain
• Suffering
• Growth
• Strength
Characters:
• Melinda – main character, narrator, was raped when she was 13, goes through her first year of high school as an outcast because she cannot fully grow past the tragedy in her life, expresses herself through art
• Heather – a girl who befriended Melinda at the beginning and then blew her off at the end
• Ivy – an old friend from middle school, in art class with Melinda, at first was mad at Melinda but then warmed up to her by the end
• Rachel – Melinda’s ex-best friend, hangs out with the exchange students at school, starts dating Andy Evans (the boy who raped Melinda)
• Andy Evans – the boy who raped Melinda, has a history of doing the same thing to every girl he meets.
Plot summary:
Melinda is starting high school with all the problems imaginable. She is an outcast because she is “weird,” her friends from middle school don’t want to associate with her because she called the police that broke up a party, and the teachers are “out to get her.” At first, she befriends a girl who is new to the school, Heather. For a while, things seem to work out between the two. Unfortunately, Melinda keeps to herself all the time and barely speaks. She has a secret inside of her that torments all the words. Most of the school thinks she is weird and her parents and teachers think something is wrong with her. They think she is just being a delinquent, but there is more to the story than what Melinda lets on.
Melinda goes through the motions of school and barely passes. She makes some friends, but she is so scarred from the summer that she is still uncomfortable getting too close to anyone. Melinda does not trust anyone, nor can she trust herself. The only thing in school Melinda enjoys is her art class. She works hard all year by creating and letting her emotions flow through her art (although she does not know it at the time).
As the year goes on, she encounters the boy who raped her. He knows that he still has the power over her and continues to use it to scare her into silence. However, when Andy starts dating Rachel, Melinda cannot stand back and let Andy do the same thing to her former best friend. It takes a while for Melinda to get the courage to tell Rachel, but she finally does. Of course Rachel does not believe Melinda and she thinks that Melinda is just jealous, but Melinda at least tried. When Rachel breaks up with Andy (because he was trying to do the same thing to her as he did to Melinda), Andy becomes furious and goes after Melinda. She fights him and makes enough commotion for her friends to come back to find out what was going on and Andy gets exposed for who he really is.
Strengths (including reviews and awards):
• The book is funny.
• It is written in the mind of a teenager so it’s easy for students to relate to.
• It has won many awards (School Library Journal Book of the Year just to name one)
• It has been turned into a Lifetime movie (so students could have a visual instead of just Melinda’s thoughts.
Drawbacks or other cautions:
• There is a short section where Melinda thinks about and attempts suicide.
• It talks about at 13 year old getting raped.
• There are some parts that do not seem realistic (David suing Mr. Neck)
Teaching ideas:
Pre-reading
• Journal: What was your first year of high school like?
o Hopefully I will be teaching this book to a higher grade than freshmen, so this question would be appropriate. I would hope that I get journals that reflect on how much they have changed since that first year.
• Discussion: Cliques in high school
o What kinds of cliques exist in our school?
o Do they get special privileges?
o How can you differentiate between the cliques?
o Who decides who joins which clique?
o This could also be a journal topic
During reading
• More journaling or discussions about cliques
o How do certain cliques treat others in school?
How does that relate to the novel?
o Have you witnessed treatment like this?
• Writing Activity (these could be quick daily journal activities)
o Inner-monologue
Write a number of inner-monologues like Melinda does.
• Artwork
o Try to describe each section of the book in drawings
o Explain the story to someone without using words
Post-reading
• Possibly watch clips of the movie
o I haven’t seen it so I would definitely have to preview it before I showed it to the class.
• More artwork
• Compile the daily inner-monologues into a “book” like hers
• Discussion
o How has this book educated you?
About cliques, rape, outcasts, reaching out to others
o What can we do to change the dynamic of the social scene in high school? Is there anything at all?
34 people found this review helpful
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5 out of 5
by
Cara
from
The United States | Jul 17, 2009
Once I finished reading the last word I knew I was going to reread it. Yes that profound.
Honest. Authentic. Real. Use all those words and their synonyms and you have this book. I literally wanted to hop into the sea of words and tell Melinda Sordino " I'll be your friend! Don't despair !" Alas I couldn't do that though. I had to see her struggle. It's painful but since I watched the movie (which was done well by the way) first before reading the book I knew where she was coming from. Melinda's voice was so...normal. She wasn't there to make you like her or hate her. She just who she really was. I liked her immensely though and in real life think would have been friends with her. Her whole take on high school was hilarious and kind of scarily accurate. I totally love the character of David Petrakis. He would have been my hero in ninth grade. No joke.
The cover fits the story like a glove. Not all book jackets can boast that, so let's give the jacket cover artist a round of applause!!! Ok I need stop raving about the cover so much but I couldn't help it. The visual person inside of me had to let it out.
Melinda is never really described in detail of how she look likes, so you get the sense the author wanted to make her as relatable as possible, and that she is. We all might not have had to go through the same demons she has, but I know we all have felt alone and without help and that is what makes her the perfect narrator. The ending was done so utterly well I'm not sure I can say anything about it. I'd probably give it away if I try. Let's just say getting back at people is very rewarding.
It is getting added to my all time favorites. If you like this book read You Don't Know Me. Not quite the same style but defintely the same feel.
8 people found this review helpful
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5 out of 5
by
Mary
from
New York, NY | Jul 10, 2007
Wow. I started reading this to entertain myself on a long subway ride home at 2 am, thinking I'd skim a bit and start reading it the next day. The next time I looked at the clock it was five in the morning and I was devouring the last lines of the novel. It is dangerously, fantastically gripping, not necessarily because the plot is so amazing, but because Anderson gets Melinda's voice so very, very right. Melinda is such a thoughtfully rendered portrait of a smart, funny, terribly depressed teenager that I was hooked from her very first lines. To me, the actual story was almost extraneous—the plot itself is a bit unwieldy—but Melinda's anxiety, isolation, and desperate attempts to cope with the horrors of adolescence were so real it was spooky.
17 people found this review helpful
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1 out of 5
by
Erin
from
Cincinnati, OH | Apr 10, 2008
Possibly the worst piece of literature that has ever disgraced the human race with it's presence.
The character is whiney, unsensible, and totally a trumped up stereotype of an angsty teenage girl. There is nothing remotely touching about the story. In fact, in the end, you might find that you wish that she had been punched in the face. The character is a depressed bimbo that has all of the answers but refuses them all. She is also completly self-absorbed and complains about everything but does nothing to either A: get over the entire event by sucking it up, or B: fix it by doing what she knows needs to be done to resolve the situation.
I have absolutely no regard for the author either. The girl is supposed to be an artist, but she [the author] has no idea what an artist feels like when creating. (it's a universal feeling, trust me) so when this supposedly artistic/passionate girl makes art, she does it in a zombie like fashion that completly negates the act of creation on a realistic level.
23 people found this review helpful
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4 out of 5
by
Michael
from
Smyrna, TN | Mar 5, 2009
Just before the start of her freshman year, Melinda attended a party and ended up having to call the police. The police showed up, broke up the party and everyone there is mad at Melinda. She becomes an outcast, retreating into herself and becoming a shadow of her former self. The only connection she feels to the outside world is in her art class, where she's given the year-long project of creating art work around the theme of trees.
Of course, it's easy to figure out early on that something more happened at the party to Malinda. And while the seeds are sewn early on as to what is could be, it doesn't take away any of the impact when what happened to Malinda that fateful night is finally revealed. In fact, it makes it that much more horrifying as we've just spent so much time inside Melinda's head, seeing how it's eaten her up, made her withdraw from family and friends and left her a virtual outcast in her new high school.
"Speak" is a mature novel intended for teenage readers. The first-person perspective of Melinda is a fascinating one.
11 people found this review helpful