Speak

From Barnes & Noble

When Melinda Sordino's friends discover she called the police to quiet a party, they ostracize her, turning her into an outcast -- even among kids she barely knows. But even worse than the harsh conformity of high-school cliques is a secret that you have to hide.

From the Publisher

“In a stunning first novel, Anderson uses keen observations and vivid imagery to pull readers into the head of an isolated teenager. . . . Yet Anderson infuses the narrative with a wit that sustains the heroine through her pain and holds readers’ empathy. . . . But the book’s overall gritty realism and Melinda’s hard-won metamorphosis will leave readers touched and inspired.”—Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

“An uncannily funny book even as it plumbs the darkness, Speak will hold readers from first word to last.”—The Horn Book, Starred Review

“A frightening and sobering look at the cruelty and viciousness that pervade much of contemporary high school life, as real as today’s headlines. . . . The plot is gripping and the characters are powerfully drawn . . . a novel that will be hard for readers to forget.”—Kirkus Reviews, Pointer Review

“Melinda’s pain is palpable, and readers will totally empathize with her. This is a compelling book, with sharp, crisp writing that draws readers in, engulfing them in the story.”—School Library Journal

“A story told with acute insight, acid wit, and affecting prose.”—Library Journal

“Melinda’s voice is distinct, unusual, and very real as she recounts her past and present experiences in bitterly ironic, occasionally even amusing vignettes. . . . Melinda’s sarcastic wit, honesty, and courage make her a memorable character whose ultimate triumph will inspire and empower readers.”—Booklist

A Michal L. Printz Honor Book A National Book Award Finalist An Edgar Allan Poe Award Finalist A Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist Winner of the SCBWI Golden Kite Award An ALA Top Ten Best Book for Young Adults An ALA Quick Pick A Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year A Booklist Top Ten First Novel A BCCB Blue Ribbon Book A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year A Horn Book Fanfare Title A New York Times Bestseller A Publishers Weekly Bestseller

Horn Book

Young Adult
Speaking out at the "wrong" time-calling 911 from a teen drinking party-has made Melinda a social outcast; now she barely speaks at all. A conversation with her father about their failed Thanksgiving dinner goes as follows: "Dad: 'It's supposed to be soup.' / Me: / Dad: 'It tasted a bit watery, so I kept adding thickener....'/ Me: ." While Melinda's smart and savvy interior narrative slowly reveals the searing pain of that 911 night, it also nails the high-school experience cold-from "The First Ten Lies They Tell You" number eight: "Your schedule was created with your needs in mind" to cliques and clans and the worst and best in teachers. The book is structurally divided into four marking periods, over which Melinda's grades decline severely and she loses the only friend she has left, a perky new girl she doesn't even like. Melinda's nightmare discloses itself in bits throughout the story: a frightening encounter at school "I see IT in the hallway....IT sees me. IT smiles and winks", an artwork that speaks pain. Melinda aches to tell her story, and well after readers have deduced the sexual assault, we feel her choking on her untold secret. By springtime, while Melinda studies germination in Biology and Hawthorne's symbolism in English, and seeds are becoming "restless" underground, her nightmare pushes itself inexorably to the surface. When her ex-best-friend starts dating the "Beast," Melinda can no longer remain silent. A physical confrontation with her attacker is dramatically charged and not entirely in keeping with the tone of the rest of the novel, but is satisfying nonetheless, as Melinda wields a shard of broken glass and finds her voice at last to scream, "No!" Melinda's distinctive narrative employs imagery that is as unexpected as it is acute: "April is humid....A warm, moldy washcloth of a month." Though her character is her own and not entirely mute like the protagonist of John Marsden's So Much to Tell You, readers familiar with both books will be impelled to compare the two girls made silent by a tragic incident. The final words of Marsden's books are echoed in those of Speak, as Melinda prepares to share her experience with a father-figure art teacher: "Me: 'Let me tell you about it.'" An uncannily funny book even as it plumbs the darkness, Speak will hold readers from first word to last. l.a.

Publishers Weekly

PW said of this stunning first novel narrated by a rape survivor, "Anderson infuses the narrative with a wit that sustains the heroine through her pain and holds readers' empathy." Ages 12--up. (Apr.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

ALAN Review

This is a story about silence--the causes and effects, the costs and benefits, but mostly the breaching of it. Late summer before her freshman year in high school, Melinda calls 911 ending a party and becoming a pariah. The first day of class a few weeks later, she is left to talk with Heather, a new girl, while everyone else snickers or ignores her. Melinda's parents are not getting along, Heather deserts her for the Martha's, girls who dress, act, and try to think as one, and IT appears in Melinda's dreams and around every corner. When day-to-day existence becomes too much to bear she takes refuge in a janitor's closet, to which she adds some posters and a comforter. But even there she's not safe from Andy Evans, the boy who raped her at the party and who is now dating the girl who used to be her best friend. Anderson provides the reader with hints of what happened at the party throughout the text, as Melinda attempts to break her silence and explain why she had to call 911. As the story unfolds some readers will react like the accepting, available art teacher; Mr. Freeman, some will respond like the critical, absent parents; and some will recognize the adolescent, self-absorbed students at her high school. The wonderfully descriptive language, along with the suspense, capture and propel the reader through this tale. Speak was a National Book Award finalist in 1999. Genre: Coming of Age/Rape. 1999, Farrar Straus Giroux, Ages 13 up. Reviewer: Katherine Barr

Library Journal

Gr 8 Up-A ninth grader becomes a social pariah when she calls the police to bust a summer bash and spends the year coming to terms with the secret fact that she was raped during the party. A story told with acute insight, acid wit, and affecting prose. (Oct.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

School Library Journal

Gr 7 Up-Young, talented actress Mandy Siefried becomes Melinda, a troubled teen who struggles to cope after a rape, as she reads Laurie Halse Anderson's award-winning novel (Farrar, 1999). Although Melinda calls the police, she remains silent about the incident even with her parents and friends. Siefried's expressive voice depicts the tender, insecure youth and her freshman year at high school. This compelling novel presents a realistic portrayal of life in a contemporary high school. The narrator reads at a quick pace, pausing effectively to increase the dramatic mood. She easily recreates the sound of a power saw, and does a fine job of whining, singing, and presenting the cheerleaders' "Go horny Hornets." Listeners will become emotionally involved in this very effective presentation which is sure to please teen audiences.-Claudia Moore, W.T. Woodson High School, Fairfax, VA Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

A frightening and sobering look at the cruelty and viciousness that pervade much of contemporary high school life, as real as today's headlines. At the end of the summer before she enters high school, Melinda attends a party at which two bad things happen to her. She gets drunk, and she is raped. Shocked and scared, she calls the police, who break up the party and send everyone home. She tells no one of her rape, and the other students, even her best friends, turn against her for ruining their good time. By the time school starts, she is completely alone, and utterly desolate. She withdraws more and more into herself, rarely talking, cutting classes, ignoring assignments, and becoming more estranged daily from the world around her. Few people penetrate her shell; one of them is Mr. Freeman, her art teacher, who works with her to help her express what she has so deeply repressed. When the unthinkable happens—the same upperclassman who raped her at the party attacks her again—something within the new Melinda says no, and in repelling her attacker, she becomes whole again. The plot is gripping and the characters are powerfully drawn, but it is its raw and unvarnished look at the dynamics of the high school experience that makes this a novel that will be hard for readers to forget. (Fiction. 12+)

Children's Literature

Melinda, a high school freshman, suddenly stops speaking. The reader experiences through her cynical perspective the dreariness of life as an outcast in high school. Melinda loses touch with her friends and family by building emotional walls to hide a secret she is too ashamed and afraid to tell. This emotional novel expresses the dark side of high school students and the pressures to fit in. Melinda also makes the reader laugh with her witty teenage cynicism and her descriptions of the absurd characters who resemble people in our own lives. Despite Melinda's trauma and what it has done to her relationships, she gains emotional strength and self-respect through her art class. Reviewer: Casey Dargan