Speak

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In a post-Halloween frenzy, the school board has come out against calling us the Devils. We are now the Merryweather Tigers. Roar. Errant Student races down hall, waving and smiling. Principal Principal walks the other way, replaying the conversation in his mind, trying to figure out what went wrong. I ponder this and laugh. I sneak a peek behind me. The eyebrow telegraph is flashing fast. This guy is weird. He must see it, he must know what we are thinking. He keeps on talking. He says we will graduate knowing how to read and write because we'll spend a million hours learning how to read and write. (I could argue that point.) Glenn, Wendy (2010). Laurie Halse Anderson: Speaking in Tongues. Maryland: Scarecrow Press, Inc. p.43. ISBN 978-0-8108-7282-0.

Heather: "How can you say that? Why does everyone have that attitude? I don't understand any of this. If we want to be in the musical, then they should let us. We could just stand onstage or something if they don't like our singing. It's not fair. I hate high school." But I can't get my head around algebra. I knew why I had to memorize my multiplication tables. Understanding fractions, and decimals, and percentages, and even geometry—all that was practical. Toolz eye kan youz. It made so much sense I never thought about it. I did the work. Made honor roll. But algebra? Every single day, someone asks Mr. Stetman why we have to learn algebra. You can tell this causes him great personal pain. Mr. Stetman loves algebra. He is poetic about it, in an integral-number sort of way. He talks about algebra the way some guys talk about their cars. Ask him why algebra and he launches into a thousand and one stories why algebra. None of them makes sense. From 2023 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award laureate Laurie Halse Anderson, the groundbreaking modern classic Speak is a bestselling National Book Award Finalist for Young People's Literature with more than 3.5 million copies sold. Aviso que es una historia muy dura, pero aún así muy necesaria y que me ha apasionado de principio a fin. Es difícil ya de por sí plasmar este tipo de historias, y más en una novela gráfica, pero tanto la autora ha adaptado su libro a la perfección a guión de novela gráfica y los dibujos son increíbles, y ha sido apasionante leerlo así, ya que el arte en sí es muy importante para nuestra protagonista, que después de un altercado durante el verano, todos sus compañeros la odian y la han convertido en una marginada. Ir descubriendo qué pasó y cómo eso afectó a Melinda es indescriptible.In the following weeks, Melinda has an icy interaction with Rachel, spends time with Heather, works on her tree, and begins to use an old abandoned janitor’s closet in school as a hiding spot. Although she was once “happy” and “driven,” she now feels detached and depressed. This depression worsens when students at a pep rally recognize her as “the one who called the cops at Kyle Rodgers’s party” and torment her. a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae Tannert-Smith, Barbara (Winter 2010). " 'Like Falling up into a Storybook': Trauma and Intertextual Repetition in Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak". Children's Literature Association Quarterly. 35 (4): 395–414. doi: 10.1353/chq.2010.0018. S2CID 145074033. Springtime arrives, and Melinda finds solace working in the garden. She and David plan a protest in social studies class over an oral report she is supposed to present, and she stands up to Heather by refusing to help her decorate for the Senior Prom. She writes on a stall in the bathroom, “Guys to Stay Away From: Andy Evans.” Andy Evans continues to bully her. I asked my library to buy this graphic novel for me and they did! I love my library! I was under the delusion that I’d read this once and then move on. Hah! As if I wasn’t going to then buy a copy for myself immediately so I could reread it to my heart’s content! My brain doesn't think we should spend any time hanging around algebra. We have better things to think about. It's a shame. Mr. Stetman seems like a nice guy.

Heather: You are so great! I owe you big time! What if I help you redecorate your room? I know, a nice seafoam green!

We groan. He's off on the school-board thing again. The school board has cut his supply budget, telling him to make do with the stuff left over from last year. No new paint, no extra paper. He'll rant for the rest of the period, forty-three minutes. The room is warm, filled with sun and paint fumes. Three kids fall dead asleep, eye twitches, snores, and everything. School starts and Melinda struggles with her tree. She helps Heather with a Martha poster project, and faints during a frog dissection in biology (after identifying with the dead frog). Heather, having been hired as a model, asks Melinda to hang posters; as she does, Melinda encounters IT, who whispers “Freshmeat” in her ear as she stands frozen.

Rich Fisher, "A Chat with Laurie Halse Anderson, Winner of the 2017 Anne V. Zarrow Award", KWGS, May 4, 2017. Heather has found a clan—the Marthas. She is a freshman member on probation. I have no idea how she did it. I suspect money changed hands. This is part of her strategy to make a place for herself at school. I am supposed to be tagging along. But the Marthas!Speak's difficult subject matter has led to censorship of the novel. [7] Speak is ranked 60th on the ALA's list of Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books for 2000–2009 [28] and 25th for 2010–2019. [29] In 2020, the book was named the fourth most banned and challenged book in the United States "because it was thought to contain a political viewpoint and it was claimed to be biased against male students, and for the novel’s inclusion of rape and profanity." [30] I see a few friends—people I used to think were my friends—but they look away. Think fast, think fast. There's that new girl, Heather, reading by the window. I could sit across from her. Or I could crawl behind a trash can. Or maybe I could dump my lunch straight into the trash and keep moving right on out the door. Because of Melinda’s artwork and art as a metaphor, SPEAK transfers seamlessly to a graphic novel. Emily Carroll’s illustrations brought the characters to life. I’ve seen the movie, listened to the audio and read the book countless times, so Carroll’s drawings could have felt “wrong” if she hadn’t imagined the people as Anderson depicted them. Carroll’s Melinda looked different than Kristen Steward in the movie and seemed different than the reader in the audio version, but she **was** just as much Melinda.