num_pages: 198
description: The first ten lies they tell you in high school."Speak up for yourself—we want to know what you have to say." From the first moment of her freshman year at Merryweather High, Melinda knows this is a big fat lie, part of the nonsense of high school. She is friendless, outcast, because she busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops, so now nobody will talk to her, let alone listen to her. As time passes, she becomes increasingly isolated and practically stops talking altogether. Only her art class offers any solace, and it is through her work on an art project that she is finally able to face what really happened at that terrible party: she was raped by an upperclassman, a guy who still attends Merryweather and is still a threat to her. Her healing process has just begun when she has another violent encounter with him. But this time Melinda fights back, refuses to be silent, and thereby achieves a measure of vindication. In Laurie Halse Anderson's powerful novel, an utterly believable heroine with a bitterly ironic voice delivers a blow to the hypocritical world of high school. She speaks for many a disenfranchised teenager while demonstrating the importance of speaking up for oneself.Speak was a 1999 National Book Award Finalist for Young People's Literature.
language: English
title: Speak
titlecomplete: Speak
characters: Mr. Freeman, Ivy Hall, Rachel Bruin, Nichole Smythe Burnell, David Petrakis, Andy Evans, Melinda Sordino, Heather
genres: Banned Books, Mental Health, Teen, Coming Of Age, Young Adult, High School, School, Contemporary, Fiction, Realistic Fiction
ratings_count: 576237
places: Syracuse, New York
awards: awardedAt: 915177600000
name: SCBWI Golden Kite Award
category: Fiction, awardedAt: 946713600000
name: Edgar Award
category: Best Young Adult, awardedAt: 946713600000
name: Michael L. Printz Award, awardedAt: 1009872000000
name: South Carolina Book Award
category: Young Adult Book Award, awardedAt: 978336000000
name: Rhode Island Teen Book Award, awardedAt: 978336000000
name: Vermont Golden Dome Book Award, awardedAt: 1009872000000
name: Evergreen Teen Book Award, awardedAt: 946713600000
name: Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, awardedAt: 1041408000000
name: California Young Readers Medal
category: Young Adult, awardedAt: 1104566400000
name: Lincoln Award, awardedAt: 915177600000
name: National Book Award Finalist
category: Young People's Literature, awardedAt: 1009872000000
name: Oklahoma Sequoyah Award
category: YA, awardedAt: 1230796800000
name: Margaret A. Edwards Award