"Speak," by Laurie Halse Anderson

The book Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson follows the story of a 13 year old girl named Melinda starting her freshman year at a new school where everyone already hates her. Over the summer she attended a party and then called the cops, what no one knows is the real reason she actually called them. Melinda’s struggle to speak up about what actually happened led her to feel isolated and treated like an outcast. Laurie Halse Anderson is a 64 year old American author. She likes to write about traumatic events and how people deal with them, especially teenagers or younger adults. Most of her inspiration is drawn from her personal or family experiences. An example of this was Speak which was modeled after her own experience with sexual assault right before ninth grade. 

Melinda starts her first year of high school feeling isolated and cut off because of a troubling event that happened at a summer party. No one understands her, not her family, few friends, or

teachers. Throughout the story Melinda struggles with coming to terms with what happened over the summer but she gradually begins to find her self confidence and finally speaks out about what happened, rebuilding her self-confidence. The main conflict is that Melinda is shunned by her classmates because of what she did but she refuses to explain why. By bottling up her emotions she isolates herself more and lets the person who hurt her avoid facing consequences. When a similar situation arises again, Melinda realizes that she must not allow herself to get hurt again and finally clears her name. At the beginning of the book Melinda is seen by everyone else as strange, troubled, and unfriendly. No one wants to be associated with her and most people hate her, even people who she used to be friends with. The truth is she is just misunderstood and by staying distant and not confiding in anyone she doesn’t allow herself to be understood. However, at the end of the story Melinda finds her voice and stops letting everyone silence her or define who she is. 

Something that I liked about this book is that the author doesn’t tell us what happened to Melinda until the end. She gives hints throughout the story but we don’t truly find out until Melinda comes to terms with it at the end of the book. I also liked how the book uses Melinda’s silence to show her feelings without needing a lot of dialogue. It keeps you interested as you watch her slowly gain confidence and start speaking up for herself. I would recommend this book because it teaches you the importance of speaking up for yourself and that you never know what's going on in other people's lives. From anyone else's point of view Melinda is a weird girl from school who ruined a party for no reason. In reality Melinda is just a girl trying to get through a traumatic experience and no one would know that from just looking at her. She is bullied because people assume they know everything but that is not always the case. Overall, this book shows us that in order to heal, you need to speak up. It also teaches many others lessons and can resonate with many people who have suffered through similar things.