Speak Author: Laurie Halse Anderson | Language: English | ISBN:
B004QGY36Q | Format: PDF
Speak Description
The first ten lies they tell you in high school.
"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 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 it 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 Laurie Halse Anderson's powerful novel, an utterly believable 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.
Speak was a 1999 National Book Award Finalist for Young People's Literature.
- File Size: 304 KB
- Print Length: 220 pages
- Page Numbers Source ISBN: B004SUIWI0
- Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR); Reprint edition (May 10, 2011)
- Sold by: Macmillan
- Language: English
- ASIN: B004QGY36Q
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Not Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,136 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #1
in Books > Children's Books > Growing Up & Facts of Life > Difficult Discussions > Illness - #6
in Books > Teens > Social Issues
- #1
in Books > Children's Books > Growing Up & Facts of Life > Difficult Discussions > Illness - #6
in Books > Teens > Social Issues
This book is definitely one of my favorites. It's so different from anything I have ever read, the style, the tone, and the way it was written. It was a compelling read from the beginning to the end.
The story is not written as your average outcast "popular people are stupid" cliche. It's an original. The tone is like Melinda is just relaying her thoughts and what she sees to the reader, rather than her feelings and rage and anger against the people that hurt her. Her character gets stronger as you read on, as she begins to stand up for herself.
I liked how the author didn't just tell you what had happened to Melinda in order for her to stay so silent - instead, bits of the incident unfolds as you read along.
I was caught up in Melinda's world, and even though I'm glad to say that I haven't been there and done that, it was easy to just recognize the pain, fear and confusion she went through just because the author doesn't say it right out.
Overall, an excellent read and I highly recommend this to anyone who wants to feel the triumph of "Speak".
By A Customer
Melinda Sordino, a student with good grades and great friends, has made some mistakes. At the end of a summer party she calls the cops, yet when they arrive she doesn't tell them anything. Back at school the next year, her friends won't speak to her, and people she doesn't even know hate her as the fink who wrecked everybody's party, and her grades start dropping. Her relationship with her parents deteriorates quickly. She becomes sullen, and withdrawn. However this picture is not the whole story.
Her parents know something is wrong but cannot get her to open up. Her only hope is her art teacher; he realizes something is very wrong and through the assignments he gives her tries to draw her out.
This is a story of a girl who is abused, and who doesn't know how to talk about it, but in keeping it inside she is self -destructing. Can Melinda find her voice and speak of her sorrow, or will her silence destroy her?
By Steven R. McEvoy
TOP 1000 REVIEWER
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