[.ca] Speak (ISBN 073933672X)

From Amazon.com:
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: Andy Evans. He's a senior at Melinda's high school, and Melinda hasn't been able to speak clearly since he raped her at the senior party last August. 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 and loudly confronts her rapist, 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

A Must Read:
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 She becomes sullen, and withdrawn.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?

Slowwwww:
this book never got me. i was told it was awesome and started reading it. im the kind of person whos gotta finish a book if i start it so i did read the whole thing but this story never really got my attention. i found it just went on and on about nothing and was extremly uneventful. the whole time i was waiting for the story to start and it does, at the end of it. the whole book is about this secret yet you know what it is right from the start even though they dont tell you its just so obvious. i would not recommend this book to anyone.

this book was awsome:
this book was a little confusing in the begining but the middle and the end we awsome and i couldnt put the book down......it was like they wrote a book about me....i could relate so much.....i love books like this and if any1 knows 1 they should tell me! well you should read this book and dont put it down till your dun reading it!!!

Superb:
Another favorite book. I love the author's style and the strong voice she has given Melinda. The humor is as sharp as the observations, and high school life is portrayed very accurately. I highly recommend Speak!

Realistic or not?:
My highschool days are long past...yet I could so relate to this girl's thoughts. It's an incredibly cruel time, not necessarily all fun and games at all. As an adult I wish that the people around her that are in the position to help would make a serious effort, but as an adult I also know that school counselors for instance are mainly useless and only there for show. My best friends in highschool were as clueless and unconcerned/unhelpful as hers... I guess nothing has changed? Everyone claims to be so educated about dysfunctions and abuse and whatever else, yet nobody recognises the signs or knows how to react. I do think the book's ending is a bit unrealistic and simplistic, but who knows? maybe she does have that kind of strength.