Book review blog, elijah runcorn

Runcorn, Elijah

Period 2

11/14/08

The book Speak, written by Laurie Halse Anderson was a very compelling book to read. I had never read this book before and probably would not have, had it not been introduced to me in my English class. The title wasn't very compelling, but once I started to read it, I was immediately drawn in. If I had judged the book on the title alone, I would have missed reading a truly good book. I decided to report on this book because I would like other people to read it and look beyond the title.

The story centers on the character Melinda, who loses all of her friends at the end of the summer, after a traumatic and horrifying event. She enters high school without any friends and begins to feel like an outcast. Her friends from eighth grade have joined other small clicks and have left her alone. She wants desperately to fit in, but the events that happened that summer begin to eat away at her. What happened is constantly in the back of her mind and she is unable shake it. She finally is able to make one friend, whom she begins to depend on, but this is not enough. She still has many difficult roads to travel.

One significant quote from the book is, "It's the cops. How could you do that?" No matter what anyone says, if you are in trouble, you need to do whatever it takes to right it. You need to be honest. Even if it means that you will lose friends. Your well- being is much more important than your social life. Some people think that they will lose friendships over horrible events. However, if people were really your friend they would stand by you regardless of the circumstances. I chose this quote because it shows how some people care more about social status than true friendship. If something terrible happens to you then you need to be honest and tell someone immediately. You have rights and are protected by the law.

The rating system I chose for this book is the tree system. I chose the symbol of a tree because Melinda is focused on making a perfect tree in art class. This is prominent throughout the whole story. However, she realized after much struggle, that there is no such thing as a perfect tree. Trees have gnarled branches, imperfections and scars. I thought this was a symbol that represented Melinda and this book well. This book is rated 9 trees out of 10, ten being the best book I have ever read and one being the worst. I only gave it 9 trees because of the strong language.

This book is best suited for an audience of thirteen to eighteen years old because of the intense subject manner and strong language. It is also best identified by this age group because it is about a high-school girl. This book should be read because of tragedies that take place every year during parties during the teenage years. It is a true, but sad reality that needs to be addressed. This book shows how peer pressure can have a negative effect on your life and demonstrates how cruel teenagers can be. It is important to note that this book suggests explicit sexual content.