Finding Your Voice In Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson

“Speak” is a novel written by Laurie Halse Anderson in 1999, which follows the life of Melinda Sordino. Melinda, a freshman at MerryWheather High School has entered her first year as an outcast because she called the police at a summer party. As Melinda navigates through her first year in high school, she faces constant bullying and resentment from her classmates and former friends because of this decision. Melinda struggles with PTSD and decides to remove herself from any social circle and becomes a selective mute as a result of a traumatic event that took place at this party. Through Melinda’s internal monologues and interactions with her peers, the novel explores themes of trauma and the power of communication. As the story unravels, Melinda

The main theme in the novel “Speak” is finding your voice. Throughout the novel, we see the main character Melinda Sordino distance herself and becomes a selective mute. On page 9, Melinda states “Nobody wants to hear what you have to say,” which is a nod to the main theme of “finding your voice.” Just by reading this, we can infer that Melinda believes that she is a “nobody” and that what she says isn’t important. I believe that this is a reference to what girls go through in this generation. The entire novel is about finding your voice and speaking up about something that traumatized you in the past. I believe that the author, Laurie Halse Anderson, wrote the novel to inspire girls of all ages to come forward and know they are not alone. Melinda, a freshman who just wanted to have fun the summer before her first year in high school, was raped

The only thing I can get behind is what I would refer to as “limited books.” Children shouldn’t be reading about inappropriate stuff, like adult novels BUT I believe that once you get to a certain age you should be able to read any book you want. The only reasons people want certain books gone are because those books go against their values. A majority of the time, it’s parents who don’t want their kids to read certain things, and when you look into the reason why they want these books out of their children’s reach, they all have the same themes, LGBTQ+ awareness or race. The only harm that comes from banning books is having a small mindset, not an open mindset. By banning books in schools, you are preventing children from being their person. The term “age-appropriateness” reminds me of movies. Movies are rated from “E” to “R” so if we wanted to ban books based on their “age-appropriateness” we might as well rate them like movies. “Age-appropriateness” is pointless and is not a valid reason whatsoever. The idea of banning books and challenging books has been among schools for many years. It is important to know that a majority of the time, a book is only banned or challenged because of the information it possesses. We as readers, need to know that banned/challenged books may hold an answer we could potentially be looking for and the only way we can learn what it is, is by learning about banned/challenged books. Some