Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, Penguin Books, New York, 1999, ISBN 0-14-240732-1

Plot Summary
Melinda Sordino made a phone call that brought the cops to an end-of-summer party, and now she's an outcast. Even her ex-best friend tells her that she hates her, and she has nowhere to sit at lunchtime or on the bus. She retreats into herself, finding safety in silence but making snarky comments in her head about the carnival of cliques, teachers and parents she suffers through each day. She battles with depression and finds limited solace in a janitor's closet that she claims as her own, outfitting it with a discarded Maya Angelou poster and the remains of an art project. Her parents are fairly clueless about how to reach out to her, and only an eccentric art teacher seems to recognize her need for help. Melinda's wall of silence is strong--the question is, how will she break through it?

Critical Evaluation
As she did with her most recent Young Adult novel, Wintergirls, Halse Anderson proves herself to be a master of illuminating the interior lives of young women haunted by demons. In Speak, as in Wintergirls, the moments of silence, the words that are thought but not articulated are the most powerful. Traumatized by the events of the summer party, Melinda no longer speaks--it is not until the very end of the novel that we actually hear her in conversation with anyone. Melinda’s outsider perspective gives her full licence to engage in an ongoing commentary about everyone in her life, and she spares no-one her sarcastic, cutting wit. Most everyone who has come of age in the US will be able to recognize the world that she describes with the cheerleaders, the burnout teachers, the overworked and distracted parents. It is only when Melinda speaks her truth that she is able to see this world with somewhat kinder eyes.

Reader’s Annotation
Could high school possibly get worse? After a traumatic event, no-one is talking to Melinda and she spends her free time in an abandoned janitor’s closet.

Information about the Author
(See Wintergirls entry)

Genre
Realistic Fiction/ Problem Novel

Curriculum Ties
This is a widely taught novel in 8th and 9th grades and could be used for, among other things, looking at the use of concrete detail to make a narrative stronger. This would certainly supplement and support a unit in which students are working on personal narratives.

Booktalking Ideas
Read aloud from the first few pages in which Melinda explains why her school has to change the name of the school mascot.

Reading Level/Interest Age
Grades 8+

Challenge Issues
The novel addresses the subject of rape and could be challenged for this reason. If the book were challenged, I would turn to ALA's Strategies and Tips for Dealing with Challenges to Library  Materials.

Why Included?
This novel has now entered the contemporary canon and is a must-read for anyone who works with young adults. It is both funny and serious, the kind of novel that turns many a student back onto reading.