SPEAK by Laurie Halse Anderson

Bibliography
Anderson, Laurie Halse. 1999. SPEAK. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux. ISBN: 9780142414736

Plot Summary
Just before the start of her freshman year in high school, Melinda calls the police during a party.  This causes her to be the outcast once school starts.  She has no friends and hardly speaks to anyone, but Melinda has a secret.   Something awful happened at the party, and she struggles to find the courage to tell someone.

Critical Analysis
The protagonist of this contemporary fiction novel is Melinda Sordino.  She is a a freshman outcast at Merryweather High  for calling the cops during a party just prior to the beginning of the school year.  What everyone doesn't know is the reason she called the police is because a popular senior named Andy Evans raped her.  She keeps this to herself while trying to go through the motions of school.  Her grades suffer and the only friend she makes is a new girl from Ohio named Heather who ends up ditching her, because she wants to be part of a popular social club known as the "Marthas."  Even Melinda's former best friend, Rachel, will not talk to her.  However, Melinda does find some peace in Mr. Freeman's art class where she is slowly able to work through her trauma.

Melinda's story takes place at her school which is Merryweather High in Syracuse, NY, but it may very well be any high school in America.  The descriptions of the "clans" are typical of any of today's high schools such as cheerleaders, jocks, thespians, and goths.  As Melinda goes through the school year, she has issues with the principal, guidance counselor, and her parents for being late, skipping school, and poor grades.  She even makes herself a safe haven in an old janitor's closet, but Melinda can't escape "IT."  "IT" is Andy Evans.  Yes, her attacker goes to her school and continues to torment her by giving her looks and making comments.  The last straw is when Melinda notices that her ex best friend Rachel is interested in Andy.  She feels obligated to warn her.  Melinda finally speaks up and tells Rachel what happened, writes a note in the girl's bathroom warning people about Andy, and when Andy attacks her on one of the last days of the school year she is able to scream, fight back, and say no.  Although it seems as though things are definitely going to be better for Melinda, the story is left with an open ending.

The main theme of this story is strength.  Although Melinda temporarily shuts down and loses her ability to communicate, she eventually finds the will to fight and believe in herself again.  Laurie Halse Anderson writes prose that is descriptive and captivating. This book is definitely an eye-opener that many high school students can relate to. SPEAK is narrated in the first person by Melinda in the present tense which helps make the reader feel as though they are encountering everything alongside Melinda.  The book is divided into four sections labeled "Marking Periods,"  and also includes brief chapters that do not begin on new pages, but instead are separated by titles in all capital letters. This book will connect with students as it depicts a realistic portrayal of high school life.

Review Excerpt(s)
2000 Michael L. Printz Award Nominee
2000 Edgar Allan Poe Awards Nominee
1999 National Book Awards Nominee
1999 School Library Journal Best Books of the Year Award Winner

BOOKLIST review: "Having broken up an end-of-summer party by calling the police, high-school freshman Melinda Sordino begins the school year as a social outcast. She's the only person who knows the real reason behind her call: she was raped at the party by Andy Evans, a popular senior at her school. Slowly, with the help of an eccentric and understanding art teacher, she begins to recover from the trauma, only to find Andy threatening her again. Melinda's voice is distinct, unusual, and very real as she recounts her past and present experiences in bitterly ironic, occasionally even amusing vignettes. In her YA fiction debut, Anderson perfectly captures the harsh conformity of high-school cliques and one teen's struggle to find acceptance from her peers. Melinda's sarcastic wit, honesty, and courage make her a memorable character whose ultimate triumph will inspire and empower readers."

KIRKUS review: "A frightening and sobering look at the cruelty and viciousness that pervade much of contemporary high school life, as real as today’s headlines. . . . The plot is gripping and the characters are powerfully drawn . . . a novel that will be hard for readers to forget."

LIBRARY JOURNAL review: "A ninth grader becomes a social pariah when she calls the police to bust a summer bash and spends the year coming to terms with the secret fact that she was raped during the party. A story told with acute insight, acid wit, and affecting prose."

Starred review in PUBLISHERS WEEKLY: "In a stunning first novel, Anderson uses keen observations and vivid imagery to pull readers into the head of an isolated teenager. . . . Yet Anderson infuses the narrative with a wit that sustains the heroine through her pain and holds readers’ empathy. . . . But the book’s overall gritty realism and Melinda’s hard-won metamorphosis will leave readers touched and inspired."

SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL review: "Melinda’s pain is palpable, and readers will totally empathize with her. This is a compelling book, with sharp, crisp writing that draws readers in, engulfing them in the story."

Connections

• Hopefully this book will encourage teens to tell someone about any traumatic events that happen to them instead of keeping the pain bottled up.
• Readers can watch the 2004 film also titled SPEAK based on this book.

Other books by Laurie Halse Anderson:

• Anderson, Laurie Halse. 2002. CATALYST. New York: Viking. ISBN: 9780670035663
• Anderson, Laurie Halse. 2009. WINTERGIRLS. New York: Viking. ISBN: 9780670011100

WHEN YOU REACH ME by Rebecca Stead

Bibliography

Stead, Rebecca. 2009. WHEN YOU REACH ME. New York: Wendy Lamb Books. ISBN: 9780385737425

Plot Summary

Miranda is a 12-year-old who lives in New York City.  Her mother is preparing to appear on the television game show called the $20,000 Pyramid.  Everything is pretty routine in Miranda's life until one day, while walking home from school, Miranda's best friend Sal gets punched by a new kid for what seems like no reason.  Things start becoming peculiar from that point on.  The spare key she and her mother hid in the fire hose disappears, and she starts receiving mysterious notes in random places.  It is up to Miranda to figure out the importance of these notes because someone's life is in danger.

Critical Analysis

WHEN YOU REACH ME is an example of a low fantasy book as it is set in New York City during the late seventies.  This story is told in the first person by the protagonist Miranda.  The book starts out with letting the reader know that Miranda's mother is going to be a contestant on the $20,000 Pyramid.  Throughout the story, Miranda and Richard (Miranda's mother's boyfriend) help Miranda's mother practice before she is set to appear on the show on April 27, 1979.  

Miranda is in sixth grade and her best friend is Sal.  He is lives in her building with his mother Louisa, and they've known each other almost their whole lives.  Everyday they walk to school together and pass by a strange homeless man who Miranda refers to as the "Laughing Man."  One day while walking home from school a boy named Marcus punches Sal and then just walks away.  After this happened, Sal stopped hanging out with Miranda, so she started hanging out with school friends Colin and Annemarie.  They even got a job at a sandwich shop where they worked during lunch.  Miranda's favorite book which she reads over and over is A WRINKLE IN TIME by Madeleine L'Engle.  One day Miranda confronts the boy who punched Sal (Marcus), and they start talking about time travel which is the theme of both this book and a A WRINKLE OF TIME.  Marcus confuses Miranda when explaining his theory on time travel, but she doesn't care because she doesn't believe it is actually possible.

One day Miranda finds a mysterious note sticking out of her library book.  The note was addressed to "M," so she wasn't sure if it was to her, but it was strange that the note asked about her spare apartment key a few days after their spare key had been stolen.  A second note appears, but this time it is addressed to Miranda and whoever wrote it knows she told her mother about it.  This note asks her not to share it with others.  They also remind Miranda to write them a letter and that her letter must tell a story.  On the first really cold day of December, Miranda's mom tells her she needs to wear her hooded jacket, and Miranda finds the third note in the pocket.  The note has clues, but Miranda doesn't know what they mean.  It won't be until later that all of the clues on this note will make sense.  One afternoon, Miranda was walking home from school and noticed Marcus trying to catch up to Sal, because he wanted to apologize for punching him.  Sal believes Marcus is going to hurt him, so he starts running.  He runs into the street and the laughing man kicks Sal out of the way of a moving truck.  The laughing man is hit by the truck.  As all of this is happening, Miranda finds a shoe containing the last note.  Miranda eventually figures out what the notes mean after thinking about past events and conversations.  She figures all of this out during the 55 seconds it took her mom "to guess six categories and win ten thousand dollars."

WHEN YOU REACH ME will appeal to readers interested in science fiction and time travel.  It is well written in very brief chapters with the majority of the chapters cleverly titled in a $20,000 Pyramid theme.  The author reveals each piece of the mystery in a way readers can discover what happens as Miranda discovers it.  The style of writing is conversational and includes a great deal of dialogue of the many characters in the book.  Besides the element of time travel, the story is very realistic and has a universal theme of the importance of friendship and the bond between mother and daughter.

Review Excerpt(s)

2010 Newbery Medal Winner

2010 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award Winner

2010 Book Sense Book of the Year Award Winner

2009 Publishers Weekly Best Children's Books Award Winner

2009 School Library Journal Best Books of the Year Award Winner

Starred review in BOOKLIST: "If this book makes your head hurt, you're not alone. Sixth-grader Miranda admits that the events she relates make her head hurt, too. Time travel will do that to you. The story takes place in 1979, though time frames, as readers learn, are relative. Miranda and Sal have been best friends since way before that. They both live in a tired Manhattan apartment building and walk home together from school. One day everything changes. Sal is kicked and punched by a schoolmate and afterward barely acknowledges Miranda. Which leaves her to make new friends, even as she continues to reread her ratty copy of A Wrinkle in Time and tutor her mother for a chance to compete on The $20,000 Pyramid. She also ponders a puzzling, even alarming series of events that begins with a note: I am coming to save your friend's life, and my own . . . you must write me a letter. Miranda's first-person narrative is the letter she is sending to the future. Or is it the past? It's hard to know if the key events ultimately make sense (head hurting!), and it seems the whys, if not the hows, of a pivotal character's actions are not truly explained. Yet everything else is quite wonderful. The '70s New York setting is an honest reverberation of the era; the mental gymnastics required of readers are invigorating; and the characters, children and adults, are honest bits of humanity no matter in what place or time their souls rest. Just as Miranda rereads L'Engle, children will return to this."

Starred review in SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL: "Miranda lives in 1978 New York City with her mother, and her life compass is Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time. When she receives a series of enigmatic notes that claim to want to save her life, she comes to believe that they are from someone who knows the future. Miranda spends considerable time observing a raving vagrant who her mother calls the laughing man and trying to find the connection between the notes and her everyday life. Discerning readers will realize the ties between Miranda's mystery and L'Engle's plot, but will enjoy hints of fantasy and descriptions of middle school dynamics. Stead's novel is as much about character as story. Miranda's voice rings true with its faltering attempts at maturity and observation. The story builds slowly, emerging naturally from a sturdy premise. As Miranda reminisces, the time sequencing is somewhat challenging, but in an intriguing way. The setting is consistently strong. The stores and even the streets–in Miranda's neighborhood act as physical entities and impact the plot in tangible ways. This unusual, thought-provoking mystery will appeal to several types of readers."

Connections

• Students could talk about their views on the possibility of time travel.
• Readers of this book may want to also read A WRINKLE IN TIME by Madeleine L'Engle.

Other books by Rebecca Stead:

• Stead, Rebecca. 2007. FIRST LIGHT. New York: Wendy Lamb Books. ISBN: 9780375840173
• Stead, Rebecca. 2012. LIAR & SPY. New York: Wendy Lamb Books. ISBN: 9780385737432

BABYMOUSE #5: HEARTBREAKER by Jennifer L. Holm and Matthew Holm

Bibliography

Holm, Jennifer L., and Matthew Holm. 2006. BABYMOUSE #5: HEARTBREAKER. New York: Random House Children's Books. ISBN: 9780375837982

Plot Summary

Babymouse is a girl mouse who loves to daydream.  When someone reminds her it's almost Valentine's Day, she becomes excited as it is her favorite holiday.  However, when she finds out her school is hosting a Valentine's Day dance Babymouse panics, because she is afraid she will not be able to find a date.

Critical Analysis

BABYMOUSE: HEARTBREAKER features Babymouse as the protagonist in this cute and funny graphic novel.  She is a school age girl mouse that faces problems with mean girls, uncooperative lockers, and gym class like everyone else.  This time her dilemma is finding a date to her school's Valentine's Day dance.  At first she is excited about the dance, and is certain someone will ask her.  She sees other girls being asked to the dance, so she consults her beauty magazines for tips, but it backfires.  During this whole process, Babymouse's vivid daydreaming is illustrated humorously throughout the book.  A friend suggests she ask someone to the dance herself, so she does, but unfortunately everyone she asks already has a date.  Babymouse's parents suggest that she go to the dance alone, so she does, but at first it seems as though it was a bad idea until Georgie asks her why she isn't dancing.  It turns out Georgie wanted to go to the dance with Babymouse, but he didn't ask her to the dance because he thought she already had a date.  He asks her to dance, and they end up being each other's date.  This made Babymouse very happy.

The illustrations in this book are in black and white with hints of pink throughout the book.  The illustrations do a great job of showing Babymouse's school life as well as her daydreams.  Several examples of onomatopoeia accompany illustrations throughout the book.  Even the page numbers are within pink hearts on every page.  This is only one book in a series of BABYMOUSE graphic novels, so readers who enjoy this book will be able to read more about Babymouse's adventures.

Review Excerpt(s) 

Books For Growing Minds-November/December 2006

BOOKLIST review: "Cute, smart, sassy Babymouse is fun and funny, and this book, like its predecessors, will draw reluctant readers as well as Babymouse fans."

THE BULLETIN review: "An almost absurdly likeable heroine."

THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES review: "Move over, Superman, here comes Babymouse"

THE HORN BOOK review: "Nobody puts Babymouse in the corner!"

Connections

• This book could prompt a discussion about school dances and dating.
• This would be a fun book for kids to read on Valentine's Day.

Related books:

• Holm, Jennifer L., and Matthew Holm. BABYMOUSE: QUEEN OF THE WORLD!  New York: Random House Children's Books. ISBN: 9780375932298
• Krosoczka, Jarrett. 2012. LUNCH LADY AND THE PICTURE DAY PERIL. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN: 9780375870354