Featured Company:

Speak

Today's shopping tips: "Be wise in purchasing ..... find best value one"

---

Manufacturer: Speak
List Price: $10.00
Our Price: $3.00
You Save: $ 7.00 ( 70% )
(prices subject to change)
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours

Average Ratings:

Melinda Sordino busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops. Now her old friends won't talk to her, and people she doesn't even know hate her from a distance. The safest place to be is alone, inside her own head. But even that's not safe. Because there's something she's trying not to think about, something about the night of the party that, if she let it in, would blow her carefully constructed disguise to smithereens. And then she would have to speak the truth. This extraordinary first novel has captured the imaginations of teenagers and adults across the country.

Awards for Speak

A 2000 Printz Honor Book
A 1999 National Book Award Finalist
An Edgar Allan Poe Award Finalist
A 1999 Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist
Winner of the SCBWI Golden Kite Award
An ALA Best Book for Young Adults
An ALA Quick Pick
A Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year
A Booklist Top Ten First Novel of 1999
A BCCB Blue Ribbon Book
A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year
A Horn Book Fanfare Title


DESCRIPTION:

Binding: Paperback
EAN: 9780142407325
ISBN: 0142407321
Label: Speak
Manufacturer: Speak
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 224
Publication Date: 2006-04-20
Publisher: Speak
Reading Level: Young Adult
Studio: Speak


SIMILAR ITEMS:

• Speak
• Monster
• Cut
• The Perks of Being a Wallflower
• The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian


CUSTOMER REVIEWS:

Customer Rating:
Summary: An important piece of literature
Comment: Melinda had always been a normal kid - a pretty good student with plenty of friends. During the summer between middle school and high school, she attended a party and something so horrific happened, she called the police during the party. Since she never revealed the reason for calling, she was ostracized when everyone discovered that she was the one who made the call.

As she entered her freshman year of high school, Melinda found herself an outcast. Heather, a new girl befriended her at first, but dumped her when she realized that their friendship was hurting her chances or being accepted by the popular kids. Melinda's parents became concerned when her grades suffered, but they were also very busy with work, so their attempts at helping her fell short. Melinda discovered that no one listened to her when she spoke, so she became a selective mute. She thought:

"It is easier not to say anything. Shut your trap, button your lip, can it. All that crap you hear on TV about communication and expressing feelings is a lie. Nobody really wants to hear what you have to say."

Before the year was over, Melinda decided that she couldn't let a former friend suffer the same way she had and by trying to help her, she began to take steps to take control of her life.

I bought Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson on Buy Indie Day and stacked it with some other books. It languished there until I read Molly's review and knew I had to read it next. This book follows Melinda's life through one school year. It is hard for me to express how I feel about this book - to say I "loved" it seems so cliched, but I don't know what else to say about a book that is so powerfully written that it stirred memories of what it felt like to be in high school. I don't think adolescents are selfish by nature - I just think they're all so busy trying to figure out who they are and how they fit into the world that they don't notice when someone else needs help. I think Anderson did a superb job of capturing the voice of a teen-ager, so the book felt very real to me, even though I knew it was a work of fiction.

There is a reason Speak has won so many awards and is being taught in middle schools and high schools. This is an important work of fiction that I think the parent of every teen-ager should read. I marked so many passages in this book that I can't possibly share them all, but I want to close with this one:

"Sometimes I think high school is one long hazing activity: if you are tough enough to survive this, they'll let you become an adult. I hope it's worth it."

Customer Rating:
Summary: powerful and inspiring
Comment:
This is a great book for teen girls, and anyone who knows a teen girl. It is a powerful and inspiring study of depression and recovery.
Melinda, a 9th grader begins freshman year as a social outcast, shunned because she called the police during a summer party. The reason she did so is misunderstood by her peers but becomes clear to the reader very quickly. She has suffered a very real trauma, has no friends, her parents are emotionally absent and her teachers, with the exception of her art teacher, treat her with suspicion. Melinda believes no one wants to hear what she has to say, so she decides to only speak when absolutely necessary and becomes almost mute. However, she does not stop feeling or thinking and a large part of this book is her internal dialogue. Her fear and confusion are clear but so too is her drive to recover. She really is trying to come out from under the weight of her pain but doesn't know how to ask for help.
I was completely sucked in by this book. Melinda has become one of my favorite YA girls (in books). I found the ending very satisfying, it brought me to tears of empathy, relief and joy.

Customer Rating:
Summary: A Great Read
Comment: This was a really great read. Melinda's voice compelled me to listen. Listen to her story. Learn how she lives.

This book covered a year in Melinda's life in under 200 pages. You don't get a day by day description of her life. This sparse writing worked well because you know that, for the most part, her life is monotonous, one day being the exact same as the last.

I wasn't really sure what to expect from this book. Thankfully, I was surprised in a good way. It's a lot deeper than I had imagined. While she battles her demons, Melinda walks anonymous among her schoolmates and family. I wanted to scream at them. Couldn't they see what she was going through? The pain she endures?

This was a fabulous read. You should definitely pick it up

Customer Rating:
Summary: Hard to understand at first but otherwise a great book overall
Comment: The beginning of the book was a little bit confusing, but once you got to know the characters it was much easier to understand. This book gives lots of detail that helps you practically be in the life of a lonely teenage girl. Although this book's themes have been criticized by the general public the themes aren't that bad considering all the other books out there about teenage life. Although the story is a little sad it is a great read for anybody.

Customer Rating:
Summary: 3.5 stars actually
Comment: Speak in the audio format feels realistic, as the reader sounds like a teenage girl whom narrates to us in the first person. She sarcastically and moodily goes through her disrupted life with the experiences of a typical teenager, and one whom has experienced a traumatic event. Its easy to sympathize with her as she fumbles her way through her cynicism, pain, and angst which are otherwise present in most untouched young people's lives. The audio book plays identically to the movie which was good, and had unfortunately watched before I listened to the audio book. Generally, I like to read the book before I watch the movie. I'd prefer not to read a book when I know its conclusion. It's more of a commitment to spend the time reading a book rather than watching an hour long movie, but I would say that this book was worth it.

---

NOTE: All online transactions are processed at Amazon.com's secure server, using the latest technology on internet's secure transactions.
| Children's Books | Children Education | Parenting |