Speak

Anderson, Laurie Halse. Speak. New York: Penguin Books, 1999.

Annotation: When Melissa busts a party by calling the cops after she was raped, she tries to get through her first year of high school alienated from most of her peers. Melissa struggles with the cruel treatment of her peers and eventually decides to stop speaking except through her art.

Justification for Nomination: This book captures the essence of great literature and is rich in symbolism, but also uses the voice of a 14-year old girl. While Melissa struggles to come to terms with what has happened to her, you can't help but cheer her on to the last page.

Melissa's sarcastic view of high school can be easily related to. She pokes fun
at the different cliques and organizations, as well as the mascots, and the
inability grownups have to perceive the deeper layers in teenage social structures. But at the same time the reader can hear her frustration at trying
to make a voice for herself and fit in some place in the school social ladder.

This is by no means a Cinderella story, which makes it believable. Melissa
isn't out to win the most popular guy in school or become a famous heroine.
Instead, all she wants is to put her tragic past behind her and get her friends back.


One of the best themes in the book is Melissa's relationship with her art and the trees. As Melissa's art skills improve, you can see her slowly make a new friend or reclaim a lost friend, as if each root she draws on paper brings her more grounded and back to earth. Her self discovery and use of talk shows
like Jerry Springer and Oprah Winfrey to find answers is humorous but
heartbreaking as well, because the reader realizes that he/she is the only one
privy to what's going on in her mind.

Anderson performed a masterpiece when she wrote this book, and therefore I feel that it most certainly deserves a nomination. Melinda's powerful silence
sends an interesting message and makes the reader want to keep turning the page hoping to find Melinda's voice.

Genre: Printz, Coming of Age