Speak

 

Author: Laurie Halse Anderson

Title: Speak

Genre: YA Fiction, Buildingsroman 

Bibliographic Data in MLA format: Anderson, Laurie Halse. Speak. Hodder Children's Books, 2019.

Recommended Grade Level(s): 10-12

Number of Pages: 197

*Brief, concise plot description (no more than one paragraph): 

Speak is a novel written in a unique format, where it reads like diary entries and is not chronologically ordered. This novel tells the story of Melinda, a freshman in high school who goes to a party and is raped. She calls the police and ends the party, but she does not speak about what happened to her and loses many friends, who still stay friends with her attacker, even after some of them are told but they do not believe. This story is about Melinda finding her voice to speak out and talk about what happened to her, something that she only expresses through work in her art class for a long time. 

Possible Teaching Concerns (may refer back to the text(s) used in class): 

This book is fairly graphic and has a first-person account of the rape. I would absolutely not read this in class because of that. It can be very triggering and also not well received by an immature class, so it would definitely also depend on the maturity levels of the students when thinking about teaching this in class. 

Personal Reaction to/and/or Evaluation of novel: 

I thought this novel was powerful but too graphic. I did not want to have to read this in class and I was uncomfortable with it, so I can't imagine how a student who may have had a similar experience to Melinda would take it. I think there are ways to talk about important topics like sexual assault without having to read what it's like when it happens. On the other hand, I did think about how this novel helped many victims better understand what happened to them and give them a way to put a name on their assault, so I do think that is a good thing. It is just a very sensitive and dangerous thing to read something like this to a group without knowing how every student is going to take it. 

Canonical work with which to juxtapose this novel & a brief (one paragraph) description of the rationale to connect the 2 works: 

I would pair this with Silent to the Bone, which is about a boy who witnesses a crime and stops speaking for weeks because he is dealing with shame, fear, and guilt about what happened. These two books are both based on silence and how trauma impacts the ability for one to speak up for themselves, which is a great way to teach about the power or words and the ability to speak.