Authors who write for teens love to write
about outcasts.
And why not?
Who doesn’t feel like at an outcast—at
least at some point during high school.
But the outcast at the center of the novel
Speak?
Her story’s a little different … as you’ll
discover in this week’s Pick.
Melinda Sordino had an impossible choice to
make.
Well, at the time she didn’t know it was
an impossible choice.
At the time, she wasn’t thinking about her
friends shunning her or her whole high school
calling her a loser.
She was only thinking about saving herself.
From what?
Ah.
That’s the question that motivates the action
in this book.
You know that there’s something wrong with
Melinda.
You know she’s holding something in.
You know she’s desperately trying to deal
with some tragedy or teenage crisis.
And Melinda’s growth as she makes her way
through the most difficult freshman year imaginable
is just one of the many elements of Speak
that make this novel so compelling.
Speak isn’t an easy book to read—especially
once you get an inkling of what might have
happened to Melinda.
But I wouldn’t recommend avoiding it.
Melinda is a wonderful, believable, completely
real character whose struggles capture the
essence, not just of what it means to deal
with tragedy, but how to grow up and figure
out who you are.
The light at the end of Speak is a promise
that no matter what you’ve been through,
you, like Melinda, can find a voice to speak
about it.
