Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

Anderson, L. H. (1999). Speak. New York, NY: Penguin.

Speak is based on the terrible tragedy, the main character, Melinda Sordino experiences one summer night. It all began when Melinda attended a party in August, before she started ninth grade. At this party, she gets drunk and unfortunately meets Andy Evans. During this party, Melinda calls the police and no one knows the reason of her call. She begins ninth grade in isolation and depressed because no one speaks to her and everyone ditches her and calls her a snitch, this is the reason why one of the themes in Speak is isolation and depression. She goes through the school year reliving her horrible experience. The secret is that Andy Evans raped her during that party, but no one knows this truth, until the end. 

Rape and its consequences for the victim is another theme in Speak, along with losing one's voice and not being able to speak about the horrifying experience, in this case, it is too painful for Melinda to even think of speaking about it. In the end, Andy slams Melinda’s chest and knocks her back into the closet as she was getting ready to step out. The door closes and he tries to rape her a second time, but Melinda finds the strength to scream, “No” loud enough that many people hear her.  Melinda grabs a piece of glass from the broken mirror and cuts him a little, which gives her enough time to reach the door and unlock it. When the door opens, Nicole is there and so is the lacrosse team. One of the girls runs to get help.


Finally, everyone believes Melinda and she is relief she has found the strength to speak up, which adds to the themes in this novel, finding the courage to speak up, having everyone hear your story and definitely believe you. I believe that the themes involved in this novel are themes some of my students have experience at one time or another. This book could be intended for students ages 12 through 18. I believe this book could help teen-age raped victims and or students that feel isolated from their peers because of something they did. They may find the courage to speak up after reading this story and realize that speaking up will help them in the process of healing their wounds. Any teacher that works with students at the middle school level and high school level may benefit from reading this novel, especially Counselors. The book, Some Boys, by Patty Blount is a novel I recommend to continue reading about some of the genre criteria and or themes encounter in Speak. Speak consists of 198 mesmerizing pages.