Summary Of Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson

Speak is a novel by Laurie Halse Anderson. The author’s purpose in writing this book was to tell a story about sexual assault and to show real-life victims that things do get better. There are 198 pages present. Speak has won many awards such as A Michael L. Printz Honor Book, a SCBWI Golden Kite Award, and BCCB Blue Ribbon, along with many others. Every character in this book plays an important role; however, three important roles in particular are Melinda, Heather, and David Petrakis. Melinda is important because she is the main character and the victim; the story is told from her point of view. Heather’s place in the story is special because she gives Melinda some hope, only to take it away from her half way through the year, which adds another conflict to the story; Heather exhibits the shallowness that young people tend to contain. Finally, David is important because he is a small character who provides a sort of background support for Melinda; he speaks up for himself to Mr. Neck, which is shows her that she can do the same for herself.

It is set in New York, sometime in the late 1990’s, during a school year. The mood, personally, is sad or lonely. The climax of the book, or the point after which there is no more suspense, is when Andy Evans (Melinda’s rapist) attacks her again while she is cleaning out her closet and she fends him off by holding a piece of glass to his neck. The outcome is about as happy as it could get given the situation. Melinda gets justice and no longer has to worry about further attacks from Andy, her peers understand why she called the police and want to become her friends again, and she feels ready to tell her story to Mr. Freeman (and gets an A+ on the year-long project for his