Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, takes a powerful look at the perspective of a young girl named Melinda Sordino and how she had suddenly lost her “so-called” best friend after she busted an end-of-school party by calling the cops. This realistic fiction novel takes place around 20 years ago in Syracuse, New York at Melinda’s home and her school, Merryweather High School. I feel personally that the themes of this book should be redemption and coming-of-age. The reason these two words stood out to me some much as the theme in the book, Speak, is the whole book is about Melinda trying to rebuild herself and accept what happened at this party. This bring in a lot of conflict, especially person vs. self and person vs. person.

The book, Speak, is well written and has a very powerful and moving plot. Though Speak is a great book to read, I would not recommend it to anyone under the age of twelve. This novel, unique too any others that I have read, begins by telling you small bits of information about the climax of the book. From there the story proceeds by including more details about what actually happened that night (the party where Melinda called the cops). As you begin to understand more of what actually happened, the more powerful the plot appears. That is the main reason I love the book Speak and recommend it to all young teens.