Since the beginning of the school year, high school freshman Melinda has found that it's been getting harder and harder for her to speak out loud: "My throat is always sore, my lips raw.... Every time I try to talk to my parents or a teacher, I sputter or freeze.... It's like I have some kind of spastic laryngitis." What could have caused Melinda to suddenly fall mute? Could it be due to the fact that no one at school is speaking to her because she called the cops and got everyone busted at the seniors' big end-of-summer party? Or maybe it's because her parents' only form of communication is Post-It notes written on their way out the door to their nine-to-whenever jobs. While Melinda is bothered by these things, deep down she knows the real reason why she's been struck mute...

Not only for teen girls

This book was very moving to me and I am not a female and I am completly straight. The book gives a very realistic look on a teenagers daily life and all the pressures in one. The book is funny, but still serious. It amazed me on how it could go from humor to disaster so fast and yet still stay on topic.

not good till the end

Halse, Laurie. Speak. New York: Penguin Graup, 2003. 198 pages
SPEAK Laurie Halse Anderson was very creative in writing Speak. Speak is a story about a girl named Melinda who is just starting a new school and a freshman in high school. But she is different than everyone else. She goes into a new school with absolutely no friends. All her friends felt her after one summer night when she called the cops on a party that she went to. "I have entered high school with the wrong hair, the wrong clothes, the
wrong attitude. And I don't have anyone to sit with."(4) This explains how she feels, like an outcast an outsider looking in. but eventually she meets a nice girl named Heather who isn't her best friend, she is really even her friend more like someone to sit and hangout with. Although as the school year progresses the pain form that summer's night comes back. Rumors, bullies, and memories make the school terribly difficult for her to get through, and eventually she breaks. Over all this wasn't the best book I have read I wouldn't recommend it.

speak review

This is an awesome book for girls any age who know the dengers of being female (getting raped ect.) This book really concentrates on finding your voice when you are scared to speak. A girl named Melinda goes to and end of summer party. When she is raped by a senior, she calls the police and busts up the party. When school starts, everyone is mad at her and no one will talk to her or even look at her. The only girl that will talk to her is a new girl who doesn't know who she is or why everybody is mad at her and not talking to her. The remsinder of the book are her experiences at school through the remainder of the year. The only class she likes is art and through her art, she learns to express herself. Her art teacher helps her to find her voice and express her feelings. This is a very deep book and all girls who have lost their voice or don't know how to express themselves, I recomend this book to them and to everybody who knows what it's like to not be able to expres youself even though you want to. This book is for you.