Anderson, L. (1999). Speak. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux.
Speak speaks to all teenagers going through a difficult time. Melinda is an incoming freshman who finished the eight grade expecting her freshman year to be the best of her life. However, the horrifying events that took place in an ordinary summer party marked her life forever and doomed her to a lonely school year. The power of speaking either sets us free or makes us prisioners of society. Not knowing what is best, Melinda decides to NOT speak up and tell the world of that horrible experience. As if the ninth grade isn't scary enough, for Melinda, spending it by herself, with no real friends to turn to, she is miserable. Who used to be her friends started hating her after that fateful night and she was left alone.
It's not until later that the reader becomes aware of just how bad that night was and it is then when we understand that she was raped. Her rape, needless to say, left her feelign traumatized but what is worse is that her friends didn't even give her a chance to explain herself. Reading this made me wonder just how many kids face situations like this where they feel trapped in a situation with no way out and with no one to turn to. Reading this made me realize that the life of a teenager, regardless of their experiences, is difficult and as an adult, one perhaps should be a bit more approachable and judge less.
I believe that any teenager would benefit from reading Speak because it really does speak to that young generation. It teaches them about the fact that their life experiences can be horrible, one must not be afraid to Speak and that speaking about these experiences will definitely set you free. The hope at the end makes us realize that everything that we experience, good or bad, will eventually not be the end of the world.
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