Brief Summary Of Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson

The realistic fiction novel, Speak, written by Laurie Halse Anderson, begins with a confused, depressed, and alone 14- year old girl named Melinda Sordino. She enters her freshman year at Merryweather High School in Syracuse not knowing many people. Even on the very first day, Melinda feels like an outcast. She realizes that everyone belongs to a clan, whether it was the Jocks, Cheerleaders, Marthas, Goths, ect. Melinda, however, is clanless. Everybody in the school is angry at Melinda, taunting her, for calling the cops at a party thrown over the summer. She stands in silence, not even her ex-best friends Ivy and Rachel will talk to her. Little does anyone know, Melinda was raped at that party by Andy Evans, a popular senior at her school because she was too drunk to

Heather isn’t popular, but she is determined to make it into the crowd. Heather constantly asks Melinda for help on many things but never defends Melinda from a clique she wants to join called "The Marthas". Heather soon dumps Melinda, and decides to hang out with her group instead. Throughout the year, Melinda skips some of her classes and ends up with horrid grades. All of her teachers hate her, except for her art teacher Mr. Freeman. For his class, he gave out an assignment in which the students need to focus on one topic, using their emotion and dedication to create something by the end of the year. Melinda got assigned “Tree”, which she seems will be easy, but ends up majorly struggling with it before she seeks help from Mr. Freeman. As Spring arrives, Rachel and Andy start dating. When Melinda tries to reconnect with Rachel, it doesn’t go well. During catching up, the summer party gets brought up in their conversation. After Melinda tells Rachel that Andy raped her, Rachel freaks out and doesn’t believe her. All through the book, if Melinda needs somewhere to go to be alone during school, she goes to an abandoned janitors