Speak

1. Bibliography
Anderson, L. H. 1999. Speak. New York, NY: Square Fish. ISBN 9780312674397

2. Summary
Melinda Sordino goes through a traumatic event at an end-of-the-year, 8th grade summer party that no one knows about. She starts her freshman year with the whole school knowing her name and disliking her and becomes a selective mute, only choosing to talk to certain friends and her art teacher, Mr. Freeman. While trying to live with her secret of being sexually assaulted at the summer party, she loses interest in friends and school, and finds comfort by sleeping in a closet at her high school. After her ex-best friend, “Rachel/Rachelle”, begins to date her offender, Andy Evans, Melinda begins to try to speak out about her experience, attempting to warn Rachel about Andy. After Rachel questions Andy about his actions at the prom, Andy furiously finds Melinda in the closet days later and attacks her. However, Melinda fights back and is finally able to say “No” to him, leading her to find a new profound courage to speak up to Mr. Freeman about that summer event.

3. Discussion
I enjoyed this book and was hooked from the start because I wanted to know what happened that night of the summer party that made the whole school hate Melinda. The author stays vague about that night throughout the whole story, but when the truth is finally revealed that she was raped, I was astonished and horrified. I cheered for Melinda when she was fighting back and defending herself against her rapist, Andy Evans, in the school closet, and I was jumping with happiness when she finally had the courage to use her voice and yelled no. I believe this book is set for middle grade/young adult readers because the age discussed in the book is set at freshman year of high school, with the summer party happening when the students were going from 8th grade going to 9th grade; however, I can see how having this book in a middle school library can be problematic because it deals with rape and underage drinking and partying.

4. Connections
This book discusses the topics of rape, underage partying, and characteristics of depression shown by the main character. Although many schools/parents may not want to expose their students/children to these topics, some schools may benefit from having this book to use as a talking point about these topics. The topic of rape may be hard to discuss with middle grade students, but it may be a reality for some. This book and the storyline of Melinda getting courage to speak up can be empowering, along with the discussion of depression. Melinda becoming mute with her parents, dropping her grades, and not being an outgoing/outspoken person can show how a traumatic life situation can affect a person's life, but it can show that she can get through it whether it’s from finding comfort in a friend or a teacher.
Speak became a movie, being based on the book and was released in 2004.