Speak

While most of Syracuse's 14-year-olds are excited about starting high school, Melinda is dreading it. She has lost all of her friends after calling the police at a huge end-of-summer party just a few weeks before classes started, becoming a social outcast. Since things aren't going well, Miranda builds a hideout in an abandoned janitor's closet, begins to skip classes, and becomes more and more silent as time goes on. Her only solice is in her art class, where her teacher Mr. Freeman encourages her to add emotion to her work.

But as time goes on, Melinda can no longer ignore what happened to her on the night of the party. When her former best friend Rachel begins dating Andy, the boy who was involved in the incident at the party, Melinda realizes that she needs to warn her about what kind of person Andy really is. But will she find the strength to speak out? And if she does, will Rachel - or anyone else - believe her?

This is a book that I've been meaning to read for a long time, but had a difficult time actually picking up. There are plenty of awards and five-star reviews to recommend Speak (acclaimed YA author Laurie Halse Anderson's debut novel), including a Prinz Honor medal. But due to the content, I just never wanted to pick up the book. It seemed depressing and difficult. And in a lot of ways, this book is difficult - not in terms of language, but in terms of the complicated issues that it deals with. However, this is really an important book, probably because of the difficult issues that it deals with. And even if it is hard to get through at some points and your heart aches as Melinda struggles to deal with her depression and isolation, the writing is so beautiful that it will ease readers though Melinda's flood of emotions. There's plenty of great symbolism to be found that reflects Melinda's state of mind, and I don't know that I've cheered so hard for a character to do something as deceptively simple as speak. This book made me feel stronger for having read it because of the challenged it provided. A definite must-read for any teen.

Overall Grade: A+