Speak

Speak

Anderson, L.H. (1999). Speak. New York: Penguin.

Melinda Sordino, raped at a party by a popular jock from school, begins her freshman year as an outcast because she had the courage to call the police when the rape first took place.  Because of the backlash she experiences for speaking out, Melinda, who has lost even her best friend, retreats into herself to the point that she does not even speak much.  However, she has one place where she feels peace and that is in her art class where she is able to work through the trauma of not only being raped, but how she has been treated because of it.  When Melinda’s former best friend begins dating Andy, the boy who raped her, Melinda summons the courage to speak out against him only to incur further abuse from him.  When he corners Melinda in the janitor’s closet, she reaches an emotional and mental breakthrough and fights back, drawing the attention of others and is defended, finally, by Andy’s peers and others see him for what he really is, allowing Melinda the emotional freedom to talk about the rape with her art teacher—the first step toward healing for her.

I believe mature upper middle grade students on up through high school can appreciate Speak for its emotional content as well as its real-life, real-world conflicts.  While not every girl will be raped, many will and it is important for all of them to be able to identify, even if it is through vicarious experience.