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Speak | 
 enlarge | Author: Laurie Halse Anderson
Publisher: Puffin
Category: Book
List Price: $10.00
Buy New: $3.15
You Save: $6.85 (68%)
New (72) Used (53) Collectible (6) from $3.14
Avg. Customer Rating:  1185 reviews
Sales Rank: 1689
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Reading Level: Young Adult
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 224
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.8
ISBN: 0142407321
EAN: 9780142407325
ASIN: 0142407321
Publication Date: April 20, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com Review
Since the beginning of the school year, high school freshman Melinda has found that it's been getting harder and harder for her to speak out loud: "My throat is always sore, my lips raw.... Every time I try to talk to my parents or a teacher, I sputter or freeze.... It's like I have some kind of spastic laryngitis." What could have caused Melinda to suddenly fall mute? Could it be due to the fact that no one at school is speaking to her because she called the cops and got everyone busted at the seniors' big end-of-summer party? Or maybe it's because her parents' only form of communication is Post-It notes written on their way out the door to their nine-to-whenever jobs. While Melinda is bothered by these things, deep down she knows the real reason why she's been struck mute... Laurie Halse Anderson's first novel is a stunning and sympathetic tribute to the teenage outcast. The triumphant ending, in which Melinda finds her voice, is cause for cheering (while many readers might also shed a tear or two). After reading Speak, it will be hard for any teen to look at the class scapegoat again without a measure of compassion and understanding for that person--who may be screaming beneath the silence. (Ages 13 and older) --Jennifer Hubert
Product Description
Melinda Sordino busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops. Now her old friends won't talk to her, and people she doesn't even know hate her from a distance. The safest place to be is alone, inside her own head. But even that's not safe. Because there's something she's trying not to think about, something about the night of the party that, if she let it in, would blow her carefully constructed disguise to smithereens. And then she would have to speak the truth. This extraordinary first novel has captured the imaginations of teenagers and adults across the country.
Awards for Speak
A 2000 Printz Honor Book
A 1999 National Book Award Finalist
An Edgar Allan Poe Award Finalist
A 1999 Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist
Winner of the SCBWI Golden Kite Award
An ALA Best Book for Young Adults
An ALA Quick Pick
A Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year
A Booklist Top Ten First Novel of 1999
A BCCB Blue Ribbon Book
A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year
A Horn Book Fanfare Title
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1180 more reviews...
 unrealistic but still okay 3 1/2 stars SPOILERS December 18, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
SPOILERS BELOW
this book has over 1000 reviews so i think this space can best be utilized by me telling you what i didn't like about the book and why i gave it 3 1/2 stars instead of 5.
it's a great book, i loved the voice of melinda, she was very funny and witty and sounded like she would have been a fun girl to hang out with. it sucked what happened to her, she got raped at a party and called the cops and then everyone freaked on her and decided to hate her for most of her freshman year.
this is where i start to say UNREALISTIC!!!
1- the rapist guy. he was basically portrayed as a psychopath who preyed on freshmen girls and who repeatedly taunted melinda for his own cruel and sick enjoyment. i realize the story is told from melinda's 1st person POV but it's up to the author to find a way around this writing device and still try to present her characters as 3 dimensional people, not soulless bad guys.
2- everyone in school hates melinda because she called the cops at a party. not one person, not even her BEST FRIENDS FROM JUNIOR HIGH ever bothered to sit down with her and ask her why she did it. how convenient.
3- the cliques. the whole heather and the marthas thing was really overdone and none of those girls was really acting like a true martha, i mean blowing off the prom decorations and making heather do it all?? YEAH RIGHT. the whole point of being a martha would be that you enjoy that kind of stuff and do it for fun.
3b- rachelle and the euro kids. wow i never knew syracuse was such an international hot spot. we have a belgian, a swede, a portugese and an egyptian and they all conveniently speak french (well okay at least the belgian has an excuse.)
4- melinda is magically a basketball phenom and tennis champ. okay, we are told she basically just sits around or sleeps all day long, is 13 and already a size 10 (a size large) and you're telling me she's fit enough to make basket after basket after basket? HER ARMS WOULD GET SORE AFTER LIKE THE 10TH SHOT!!! it really insults people who have been practicing for years to be that good at shooting hoops when you write something like that!!!
5- the hidden closet that only melinda know about. NO WAY. if that closet really exists, most of the seniors, half the juniors, the coolest 20% of the sophomores and the hottest 5% of the freshmen know about this room and use it on a daily basis. come on!!!
6- how did she fail basically all her classes except bio and art and still pass the 9th grade???
there's more but i'm gonna stop here. the book was still okay. i think a girl who has been raped or abused would benefit from reading it. the whole symbolism thing was really forced (OKAY WE GET IT MELINDA IS A TREE! GAWD!!!)
the best part was the humor and melinda's voice, i think the author could have spent a bit more time and made the book more true to life, i really would have liked to see the rapist be presented as a flawed human as opposed to a psycho monster.
definitely would recommend to all ages & reading levels. the rape scene is very brief and tastefully done and in my opinion safe for a person of any age to read.
 Open this book, open your mind, open your mouth December 4, 2008
Speak is another book that I dove into knowing virtually nothing about it from the start. I knew it was in the "adolescent lit" category and that the narrator spent some time doing some artwork trying to express herself. I was not at all ready for the deeply emotional and heart wrenching story of the novel. This isn't by any means a piece of adolescent "fluff" like the flood of teen books flooding the market in recent years. Rather it is an intense exploration of a teenager struggling with alienation, self-worth, honesty and change. It's about the struggle she goes through in trying to find her voice in the midst of emotional turmoil. With very few exceptions, the main character, Melinda, has gone mute. She speaks only when silence is absolutely unavoidable and even then, her words don't speak her true thoughts. As the title implies, she spends the novel trying to find a way to speak her mind, to find her voice. This book masterfully explores the communication barriers between adolescents and their peers and the adults in their lives.
Writing Style
The first person narrative is fluid and natural. The paragraphs are short. To a large extent, this feels like a journal written by the narrator Melinda. To pull the reader closer to the action, the book is written in the present tense, so we're encountering everything directly alongside Melinda. Melinda is struggling with her voice and with trying to figure out how to communicate her troubles and with whom. As the reader, we are the only one she truly communicates with. But even with us, she holds back. She keeps us at arms length so we don't penetrate her wall and expose her pain and vulnerability. The voice is uniquely teenage and is a good portrayal of the thoughts of a teenage girl ostracized by her friends as she begins her Freshman year.
Two other stylistic things I want to mention. First, I really liked the way the author divided the book up into the four "Marking Periods" of the school year. It was unique and provided for nice markers to break things up. Including Melinda's 'grades' was an intriguing touch that added cool depth. Another stylistic element I enjoyed was that found in the dialogue of the book. Most of the time, Melinda doesn't speak even in lengthy chunks of dialogue. Rather than add tags like "I said nothing" or "I stared silently" or other trite annotations, the author instead lays the dialogue out in a screenplay type format with each speaker's name followed by their line. When Melinda remains silent, the direction simply says "Me: " with no trailing dialogue, indicating silence with stage presence.
Characters
Our main character narrator, Melinda, is troubled. The first sentence of the book tells us she's starting high school. The second sentence tells us she is miserable. The next paragraph lets us know that she has lost all of her friends (one of her old "friends" mouths "I Hate You" to her by the third page). Within the first few pages, she is harassed by teachers and fellow students and miserably clods her way through the halls, searching for an escape. On the second page of the book, she describes the various cliques and groups around the school and then explains that she doesn't fit with any of them. "I am Outcast." she explains. I don't want to spoil too much about the various causes of trouble in her life, though as you read along you will likely figure out most of the problems before they're explicitly described. The portrayal of Melinda is vivid and real. She pulls off of the page effectively. The biggest struggle as a reader is wanting to be able to help her, but not being able to.
The other characters fall into three main groups.
- Those who are outwardly hateful and/or aggressive to Melinda
- Those who are relatively indifferent to Melinda
- Those who are genuine toward Melinda
Most of her previous friends fit into the first category (hateful/aggressive) though a couple seem to fall into the 'indifferent' category. One of her teachers, Mr. Neck, fits in the first category...not just towards Melinda but towards most of the students although it is particularly felt by Melinda. Most of the other teachers and administrators are in the indifferent category. One "friend" that Melinda makes in the book, Heather, wanders between categories, at first seeming genuine towards her but then later needing to break away from the "depressing freak" and make her own new acceptable friends.
Sadly, Melinda's parents generally fall into the "indifferent" category. Most of the time they are inattentive and unavailable. Melinda wants desperately to communicate with them but even the most opportune chances pass her by. Her behavior at home and at school often causes her parents to slip into the first category of behavior where they are angry and emotionally scathing towards her. In a couple of instances, they comment on her needing "professional help", but they never strive to truly help her themselves or to find a way for her to get the help she needs.
Those who are genuine to Melinda include the art teacher Mr. Freeman, her biology lab partner David Petrakis, and an older friend of hers Ivy who slowly comes around and helps befriend her, though Melinda still struggles to acknowledge the friendship from any of these characters.
With Melinda as a narrator, we are held at a distance from some of her thoughts. Similarly, we are held at a distance from most of the characters. We only get at them through Melinda and because of the walls around her, that means we don't get more than skin deep most of the time. Still, the narrative does a good job of portraying depth and feel to these otherwise potentially 2-d characters.
Plot/Style/Pacing
Again, I don't want to spoil the crux of the plot, but I do want to comment that the author took on a very difficult theme and she carried it off very well. Melinda's struggles are very believable. Her movements feel natural rather than contrived as we travel through her high school environment and her life overall. The storytelling and the plot points felt real rather than tools of an author trying to tug at a reader's emotions. The other provides enough clues as to the overall problems that you are able to deduce the situation before it is described, but even then, the situation is shocking when revealed in its entirety. Even when she reveals the problem, Anderson does so tactfully and appropriately instead of looking to shock and awe the audience.
As I read on and found myself nearing the end of the book, my main struggle with the plot was not seeing a good way to get out of it. I wanted Melinda to succeed in finding her voice and overcoming her demons. By the time I was into the third and then the fourth "marking period", I had resigned myself to a "sad" ending where she resigns herself to her troubles and just tries to stagger through. Or if she does find her voice, I didn't see sufficient time to adequately see any benefit in her life as a result. Much to my pleasure, Anderson weaves the story into an intriguing and yet terrifying climax. It definitely wasn't what I was expecting, but I can say I was far from disappointed.
Overall
This book was an easy read and a hard read at the same time. The author did an excellent job of pulling me into the mind of a high school "outcast" and all the emotional baggage that goes with it. In addition to an excellent portrayal of high school and the dramas that go with it, she also managed to effectively give our narrator struggles and trials that really pulled on my emotions and made everything all the more real. And she did so without making any of it feel cheap or contrived. The honesty is absolutely real, which can make it frightening. The author included a note on "censorship" in the back of my edition. I suspect there are parents and teachers who would not want their kids reading this book. To them, I would ask if they actually read the book. There is nothing objectionable in it...no language, no graphic references, nothing. On the contrary, this book serves as a great eye-opener to teenagers that they are not alone in their struggles and their feelings of alienation and separation. And to those going through even deeper struggles like Melinda in the book, this novel can provide hope that they can overcome. I would definitely recommend this book to teenagers, to parents, and to anybody who has survived high school.
****
4 stars
 Great Author! Great Book! I would totally recommend reading it!!! December 1, 2008
Speak
By: Laura Halse Anderson
Speak is a clever and an ironic title for a story in which the main character chooses not to speak a whole lot. This book is written in first person. This is a great book, and I would recommend it to anyone. Melinda Sordino is a teenage girl in her first year of high school. Instead of being open-minded, she calls herself "the outcast," and one thing she did the summer before her freshman year may be something that she could regret. What she did that summer totally affects her year in high school...she does not have many friend at the beginning.
I loved this book. It is totally worth reading.
Best book to descibe girls December 1, 2008
This is one of the best books to describe females. Everyone knows that girls are the most confusing objects in this world. Actually, I don't think there is a word to describe female, but after reading this book, you can easily think of many words to describe us. It is truly the best book I have ever read!
Great Book October 27, 2008
I read this book a few years ago in High School English. This was one of the first books I've ever read, and I was really touched by the difficulties that some girls have to face. Many of the women in my life have been molested or raped, and it really helped to be able to see what they might be feeling. It was certainly a good book for a young man in high school to read, I'm sure it was good for the whole class.
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