Speak+Laurie+Halse+Anderson

===SPEAK: Laurie Halse Anderson===

//"It is gettng harder to talk. My throat is always sore, my lips raw. When I wake up in the morning, my jaws are clenched so tight I have a headache." Melinda//

Melinda Sordino begins her freshman year as though she had been transplanted from a totally different school. Melinda can feel the judging eyes of her classmates as she gets on the bus her first day of school at Merryweather High—Home of the Trojans or is it home of the Wombats? Walking into the auditorium Melinda sees clearly the cliques that clump here and there, but she knows that there is no one she can sit with. The first words that Melinda hears that day are not even spoken, they are mouthed by her former best friend Rachel, “I hate you.” Melinda’s social world has collapsed; the former member of the “Plain Janes” is now the lone member of “Outcasts”. At lunch she is pelted with mashed potatos and in the hallway she is shoved and called names. One phone call changed everything for Melinda.

Melinda introduces the reader to what it is like when the most comforting place is an old janitor closet, not home and not in the arms of close friends. Her parents speak to each other by yelling and pizza is the closest thing to a home cooked meal. Heather, the newbie from Ohio, becomes the closest thing to a friend that she can wrangle but is soon sucked into the “Marthas”. Melinda floats through the year, skipping classes and failing to do her school work but her art class with Mr. Freeman allows her to begin to express the heavy weight she carries. Friendless and plummeting socially, Melinda becomes a lip biting recluse, haunted by a phone call.

Melinda’s classmates think that she is a tattle tale but in truth, Melinda called the police that night not to break up the party but because she was raped. When Rachel begins to date Andy Evans, the boy who raped Melinda that night, she cannot keep the secret any longer. Melinda exposes Andy and realizes that what happened was not her fault. Melinda’s shame melts away and she isn’t afraid of her story anymore.

This captivatingly written Young adult novel captures the reader in a swirl of drama and satire. There will be something that every student reading this novel will be able to relate to. This YA novel is not just about the rape, which is by no means to be overlooked, but about the social bender that is high school.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Laurie Halse Anderson
Laurie won the 2000 Pritz Honor Book award for Speak and has written many other YA novels. Laurie lives in Pennsylvania with her husband and two daughters.

Laurie Halse Anderson’s personal Web site [|www.writerlady.com]

More Literary works by Laurie Halse Anderson


[|Catalyst]- The life of an honor student blown wide open

[|Fever 1793]- A historical novel based on the Yellow Fever outbreak in Philadelphia in the later part of the 18th century

Suggested readings with Speak
[|I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou]

Multimedia
[|Speak]- The LIFETIME movie, trailer.

Teachers Resources
[|Mad Woman in the Forest]- Online Journal kept by Anderson

[|Lesson plan focusing on sexual harassment]

Lesson plan that integrates Maya Angelou

Brought into the world by- Katherine Gorlewski