Speak

Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson is a fast-read novel. The plot was over stretched although the reader could whiz through the story beacuse the plot can be suspensful. The reader is drawn in by Anderson's character, Merinda Sardino who is a very interesting, hard to relate to character. Although I didn't always feel the emotions the author was trying to show, I could sometimes feel Merinda's pain and relate to her because we are all fresbmen. ALong with the depressing plot, the reader learns morals from the novel. It teaches the importance of communication and not keeping secrets from other people. Overall, we would reccomend this book because it does teach important lessons. Mainly we would reccomend this book to girls because they could relate better to the character of Melinda Sordino. This book is pretty good; however, we would not read it again. It is an okay read.

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Speak Review

Speak was an okay book and was a fast read. It was a little boring; although it did teach the importance of communication. The book had vivid details that created an image in the reader's mind. Laurie Halse Anderson could have written the book at a faster moving pace because at times the book would seem overstretched. Overall the book was descriptive; although, the plot did not really sink in.

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A Teenage Outcast

Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson
ISBN #0-439364010-5

By Ionela Shapiro

Do you remember your first day in high school? Where you nervous that you wouldn't fit in or be accepted? In the book, Speak, the main character, Melinda Sordino is experiencing this on her first day at Merryweather High. Her friends from 8th grade hate her because called the police that broke up a senior end of the summer party. No one knows the reason why Melinda did this; it's something Melinda will not SPEAK about. In this realistic fiction novel, Melinda is the victim of high school rape. Through out the story she begins to speak less and less, her grades are dropping lower during each marking period and she cares less about herself. The story takes you through Melinda's healing process to when she finally decides to SPEAK.

I enjoyed reading this book and would recommend it to other teenagers to read. It really describes what a troubled teenager is going through. Maybe it would teach kids not to judge people without really getting to know them. I felt for Melinda's character, especially because she was an outcast. I have been the new student many times and constantly feel like an outcast, and I knew exactly what Melinda was going through. There were so many times while I was reading the story, my mind would wander to a certain incident at school and I thought, "been there and done that before". When you are new and have no friends, you want so much to belong to a group or "clan". I know what it is like not to know any one and not belong and it just feels awful. Any teenager that feels like an outcast or that feels they are not accepted by their friends, would enjoy this book and would definitely relate to it.


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