Speak - Laurie Halse Anderson

Genre: Young Adult
Publisher: Puffin
Series/Standalone: Standalone
Pages: 224
Copyright: 2006
My Rating: 5/5

Summary: "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..."
 
My Review: This was a powerful book that had a huge impact on me.  I laughed, I cried, and I remembered! Melinda is every teenager who has ever been teased, laughed at, ridiculed, belittled, outcast, and tormented.
 
My heart went out to her thru-out her entire story. I felt her pain. I was in that closet with her. I felt her inner rage and anger that she didn't know how to release so she held it in. She was speaking as loud as she could yet nobody heard.  Nobody listened.
 
Everybody whether you be mother, child, father, teacher, pastor, sister, friend, or other needs to read Speak so you will be able to listen.