Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson - Censorship and Review

Laurie Halse Anderson (one of my favorite authors) recently (one week ago) commented on her LJ that a guy called  Wesley Scroggins demanded the banishment of three books from schools and libraries shelves from his school district (you can read the article that Scroggins wrote  here). The filthy books, as he called them, were: "Speak" by Laurie Halse Anderson, "The Twenty Boy Summer" by Sarah Ockler, and "Slaughterhouse Five" by Kurt Vonnegut.

I never read "Twenty Boy Summer" or "Slaughterhouse Five" (though after reading this article and after consulting a few reviews about this two books I'll definitely read them) but "Speak" is one of my favorite books! After I finished Speak I was so touched by the courage of Melinda that I couldn't stop thinking about the book for a long time (sometimes I still think about it). Also the courage of Melinda inspire me to speak up about some stuff that was happening to me for a very long time and that I never said a word about it, so we can say that Speak changed my life!

 You can imagine that I was really mad when I read what Scroggins said about a book that helped me so much and for sure helped a bunch of other people too and will continue to help people threw the future!

In a rent post on her LJ Laurie Halse Anderson thanks to all the people that help her and enumerates some actions that readers, teachers, bloggers,.... have made for contesting the article without fundament of Scroggins!

I ask you if you can help and do something to stop the banishment of this and other books from schools! As I said in my last  post in my country we don't have the opportunity of studying YA novels inside the classrooms and that is really upsetting to me!

In case you are dealing with censorship in her website Laurie Halse Anderson has an incredible article about censorship with some ideas you can follow to stop it in your school or classroom!

And now here is my review of the incredible book "Speak":

SPOILLER ALLERT

Melinda Sordino (her last name is an Italian word that means mute or deaf) starts her freshman year at high school the worst way possible: she has no friends and most of the school hates her because she call the cops at a party where teenagers were drinking!

While the story continues we start to get some inside of Melinda’s troubled family, and past making us understand her better! We soon discover that Melinda was rape at the party and she never confessed it.

Melinda’s, life  is always getting more complicated: she stops talking and doesn’t tell anyone one about the attack , her only “friend” abandoned her, her rapist  is a senior at her high school, all adults in her life (except her art teacher) are mad with her and grounded her because her marks are low, …

But though Melinda’s life is falling apart her sense of humor (though sometimes a little morbid) never disappears providing the reader with sarcastic comments about her high school life!

But the question that is bugging us since the first pages remains: is Melinda going to speak up?

This book full of courage, emotions and humor is indispensable for any teenager !

READ IT!

10/10