Melinda becomes withdrawn and is labeled a troublemaker, lazy, and uncooperative. Tension and conflict with her parents develop, her grades deteriorate, and she becomes more and more miserable. She skips classes regularly, taking refuge in an abandoned janitorial closet which she stocks with comfort items.
It is when Melinda decides to take a �mental health� day for herself that things start to change. After viewing a television talk show, Melinda finally puts a name to her trauma � Andy Evans didn�t just �hurt� her, he raped her. The program reinforces the notion that the attack was not her fault � she is a victim.
The springtime awakening of the garden, the pruning of trees, planting of seeds, and clearing away dead leaves becomes a metaphor for Melinda�s mental recovery. A dramatic confrontation with her attacker leads to a revelation of Melinda�s terrible secret. The truth about what happened to her is finally revealed, and she finds the strength she needs to trust and talk through her pain.
Melinda�s story is told through her own voice, in a style akin to diary entries. The dialog is consistent with someone expressing her thoughts fragmentally, in a stream-of-consciousness mode. Her memories, insights and retrospection serve to develop her character thoroughly. Andy Evans, Melinda�s attacker, is stereotypically evil.
The plot unfolds through flashbacks, as Melinda remembers and reacts to events of the past. The conflict in the story is between Melinda and her society: family, classmates, and teachers. Riding on the bus, the first day of school, her eyes meet those of her best friend Rachel. ��I hate you,� she mouths silently. She turns her back to me and laughs with her friends.��(p. 12) As the weeks and months pass, and her isolation grows, she retreats more and more frequently to her secret closet. � . . . falling, falling a mile downhill to the bottom of my brown chair, where I can sink my teeth into the soft white skin of my wrist and cry like the baby I am.� (p. 159)
Kirkus Reviews (September 15, 1999) comments on the elements that make this book so memorable: �The plot is gripping and the characters are powerfully drawn, but it is its raw and unvarnished look at the dynamics of the high school experience that makes this a novel that will be hard for readers to forget.�
Although Melinda suffers a trauma that most teens will never have to go through, the marginalization that results is all too common. This book may strike a chord, not only with the �outsiders� in the teen community, but also with those who have never suffered the pain of being �invisible� to one�s peers. As Michael Cart discusses in his book, Necessary Noise, �mainstream kids begin to comprehend � intellectually and emotionally � the dramatic differences that now define the daily lives of so many other teens. Kids need to learn empathy. They need to learn how the other can become us.� (Donelson, p. 124)
Awards for Speak
Bluegrass Award
Garden State Teen Book Award
Sequoyah Book Award
Volunteer State Book Award
Evergreen Young Adult Book Award
ABC Children�s Booksellers Choices Award
Carolyn W. Field Award
Related Websites
Laurie Halse Anderson�s Website: http://www.writerlady.com/
Meet the Author: http://www.childrenslit.com/f_laurieanderson.htm
Sources
Books in Print [database online]. Available from http://www.booksinprint.com. Accessed 20 September 2004.
Donelson, Kenneth L., and Alleen Pace Nilsen. 2005. Literature for today�s young adults. 7th ed. New York: Allyn & Bacon.
School of Library and Information Studies
TEXAS WOMAN'S UNIVERSITY