Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson is a novel about a girl named Melinda who during the summer before freshman year, goes to a party and ends up calling the cops. Something horrible happened to her, which no one knows about, and she is shunned during school because she called the cops which led to many people getting arrested. She starts to withdraw into herself, barely speaking to anyone, including her parents. She starts to ditch school and skip classes, hiding in an old closet she found and fixed up for herself. All of the adults believe that she is just trying to get attention by staying silent except Mr. Freeman, who is her art teacher. She starts to express herself through her art class, where she is supposed to make a tree tell a story. While in art class, she begins to slightly reform a bond with an old friend. She also befriends a new girl, Heather, who tries to worm her way into “the Marthas”, the popular group in school. Her lab partner, David, slowing encourages her to speak out for herself. When her ex-best friend starts to date a boy Melinda knows is trouble, she tries to speak out to her friend, but her friend thinks she’s just jealous. As she retreats further and further into her head, Melinda does everything she can to make sure she doesn’t think about the night of the party because she doesn’t want to face the truth. The truth about him, the boy who started it all. Speak is a must read about how one event can change your life, especially if you don’t speak up.
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