Summary Of Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson

“Speak” by Laurie Halse Anderson was first recognized as an inappropriate book in 2001 by Wesley Scroggins. Speak is about a girl named Melinda who is raped at a party by Andy Evans during the summer and she calls the police. She is socially rejected by her old friends. Her friends don’t know the whole story but only know that Melinda called the cops and ruined the most important part of the summer. But Melinda manages to find solace in her art class taught by Mr. Freemen. Wesley challenged the use of the books arguing they teach principles contrary to the bible. He states that it is just “soft pornography”. In my opinion speak shouldn’t have been banned. Speak sends a “message” and relates to real world problems.
Speak was challenged and banned temporarily in

When reading the book readers are attentive, which allows them to understand what Melinda goes through as she buries her feelings within her. This allows Melinda to express her feelings through art which captures the sentimental feeling in the story. It also allows readers to apprehend what victims of rape go through. People should know not to keep their feelings locked up inside like Melinda did. It's so different from anything that most readers read the style, the tone, and the way it was written keeps the readers in attention to the book. The story is not written as your average outcast "popular people are stupid" cliché. It's an original, the tone is like Melinda is just relaying on her thoughts and what she sees to the reader, rather than her feelings and rage and anger against the people that hurt her. As readers near the end of speak Melinda gets stronger and begins to stand up for herself. The community that challenged the book couldn’t connect with the book because they thought too much of the negatives in the book then what Laurie actually tries to