Vals+Rationale

At the end of summer, right before Melina enters high school, two bad things happen to her: she falls to peer pressure and gets drunk, and she is raped. A once confident well-rounded teenager, who had a close group of friends, now finds herself in a constant state of shock and disbelief and all alone. As you turn the pages of this dramatically real novel, you see Melina’s life unravel before you – and you feel it, too.

//Speak// by Laurie Halse Anderson has been on the Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books from 2000-2009 – why you may ask? In my opinion, the general public feels it is too real for students to handle. But what they do not realize it hits home some way or somehow to every teenager within the four walls of your classroom. Students face peer pressure, the need to fit in, losing friends, rumors, gossip, depression, sexual harassment, domestic violence within relationships and fear during their adolescence – and they must know they are not alone if they have. Speak is a book in which, if taught respectfully and thoroughly will open the eyes of all the students in your classroom.