Module 7 Speak

Bibliography

Anderson, L.(1999). Speak. New York, N.Y.: Farrar Straus Giroux.

Melinda begins her freshman year in high school as an outcast. Her ex-best friends hate her because she called the police to an end of summer party. None of her friends know that the reason she called the police was that Melinda had been raped by an older, popular jock. Melinda withdraws into herself, but with the help of a kind art teacher she gradually begins to find her voice. When the jock tries to attack Melinda again, she finds the courage to fight back. Speak is a realistic fiction book that could be used to help kids realize that they can get help when they've been through something tramatic.


Reviews:
Debbie Carton (Booklist, September 15, 1999 (Vol. 96, No. 2))Having broken up an end-of-summer party by calling the police, high-school freshman Melinda Sordino begins the school year as a social outcast. She's the only person who knows the real reason behind her call: she was raped at the party by Andy Evans, a popular senior at her school. Slowly, with the help of an eccentric and understanding art teacher, she begins to recover from the trauma, only to find Andy threatening her again. Melinda's voice is distinct, unusual, and very real as she recounts her past and present experiences in bitterly ironic, occasionally even amusing vignettes. In her YA fiction debut, Anderson perfectly captures the harsh conformity of high-school cliques and one teen's struggle to find acceptance from her peers. Melinda's sarcastic wit, honesty, and courage make her a memorable character whose ultimate triumph will inspire and empower readers. Category: Older Readers. 1999, Farrar, $16. Gr. 8-12.

Maggie Meacham (Children's Literature)Melinda Sordino knows she is an outcast from the moment she steps into her first year at Merryweather High. Even her best friends won't talk to her because she called the cops at an end of the summer party, and no one likes a rat. What they don't know, and what the reader doesn't find out until half way through the book, is that Melinda was date raped at that party by a popular senior jock. Terrified and ashamed, Melinda can't find the courage to tell anyone what really happened, and her silence makes her more isolated than ever. The story is told in short, titled passages rather than traditional chapters, and this format gives the novel a stylish contemporary feel. Melinda's intelligent, ironic, often humorous voice has a truly authentic ring. The author's sharp eye for the absurdities of high school life, and of our media crazed society, like the constant renaming of the high school football team to insure political correctness, add sardonic humor that will appeal to teens. But the novel's real power lies in the story of Melinda's gradual reclaiming of herself through the help of a compassionate art teacher, her concerned parents, and some caring students, and of her ultimate redemption as she finally finds the courage to speak. 1999, Farrar Straus Giroux, $16.00. Ages 12 up.

CCBC (Cooperative Children's Book Center Choices, 2000)Melinda Sordino begins her freshman year in high school as a social outcast. The world has quickly spread that she had called the cops to break up a summer party. The truth is that Melinda had called 911 for another reason: she had just been raped by a popular senior. Now Melinda is finding it harder and harder to speak about anything at all, and she becomes increasingly withdrawn from her family and her school. Laurie Halse Andersen spins out Melinda's painful story in acerbic, often witty, first-person sound bites, in which we see the realities of high school social life through Melinda's eyes. Luckily, she is able to find a means of expression through an art project, with the help of a rather eccentric art teacher who is able to win Melinda's trust. CCBC categories: Fiction for Teenagers. 1999, Farrar Straus & Giroux, 197 pages, $16.00. Ages 14 and older.

Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, 1999)A frightening and sobering look at the cruelty and viciousness that pervade much of contemporary high school life, as real as today's headlines. At the end of the summer before she enters high school, Melinda attends a party at which two bad things happen to her. She gets drunk, and she is raped. Shocked and scared, she calls the police, who break up the party and send everyone home. She tells no one of her rape, and the other students, even her best friends, turn against her for mining their good time. By the time school starts, she is completely alone, and utterly desolate. She withdraws more and more into herself, rarely talking, cutting classes, ignoring assignments, and becoming more estranged daily from the world around her. Few people penetrate her shell; one of them is Mr. Freeman, her art teacher, who works with her to help her express what she has so deeply repressed. When the unthinkable happens--the same upperclassman who raped her at the party attacks her again--something within the new Melinda says no, and in repelling her attacker, she becomes whole again. The plot is gripping and the characters are powerfully drawn, but it is its raw and unvarnished look at the dynamics of the high school experience that makes this a novel that will be hard for readers to forget. 1999, Farrar Straus & Giroux, $16.00. © 1999 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.