Speak

 

Anderson, L. H. (1999). Speak. NY: Penguin

A novel about a teenage girl finding her voice when no one really wants to listen to her. She finds healing through art and gardening. Starting her freshman year, she is already an outcast for calling the cops to break up an end of summer party. She does make friends with a new girl who doesn’t know what happened, but this relationship fails her for a while as well. She barely speaks to anyone but there are a few people in her life that she is comfortable with but not enough so to tell her story about that party. In the spring she begins to take steps towards healing the wounds no one can see. Near the end of the school year, she comes face to face with the person who hurt her and finds her voice to speak up for herself, avoiding being hurt again. The story comes out about why she called the cops, and her peers end their shunning of her, and she finds her way back to a stronger version of her former self. This would be a great read for anyone struggling to speak their own truth.

You May Also Like: If I Stay by Gayle Forman or The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

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