Teen Lib.

If you’re at all involved with young adult literature you have probably already read Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson.  For those of you who haven’t, you need to.  It is one of the more important books in the genre and it deals with some very big teen issues.  You will get a brief idea of what the book is about from the book talk.  I can’t recommend this book enough to librarians.  While it may not be appropriate for every young adult, it can be very helpful to others and librarians need to be aware of it. If you like this book talk, please use it. For more info check out Amazon or Laurie’s website.

Laurie Halse Anderson:  Speak

Do you remember your first day of high school?  You probably felt small, scared, or insignificant.  Everybody was trying to find his or her way into a new clique.  Old friends are not nearly as close as they used to be and you don’t know many of the people around you.  These are just a few of the feelings that Melinda Sordino is feeling as she begins her first year of high school.  Only for her they are all much worse.  Over the summer something happened that caused everybody to hate her.  Her old friends won’t have anything to do with her and all the potential new friends have heard about the incident and wont talk to her.  If only she could talk to them, tell them what happened, then maybe everything would be ok, but she can’t, she won’t.

Her only refuge is found in an art class where she lets her frustration out into her art, and in an old, unused janitors closet where she has found a place to hide.  It seems like things could not get worse but they sure don’t show any signs of getting better.  What would you do in her situation I wonder?  Would you open up and let everything out thinking that life might get better, or would you keep everything bottled up until you cant take it anymore.  Melinda sure doesn’t know what to do; the only thing she knows is she can talk about it.  Anything is better then speaking.