11. Challenged · Censored Text | Our Voices Break Open

Y A L O L O G Y

YAL lover, librarian and Metro State professor, Adela Peskorz, asserts the study of Adolescent Literatures . . .

"is not about exploring the 'great books' that often populate curricular reading lists year after year (and as research has proven, often decade after decade), gathering more dust than fans and -- sometimes doing more harm than good in terms of cultivating a lifelong love and appreciation of reading."

"It is far more important to cultivate an avid appreciation of reading than to be restrictively selective about content. There are wonderful classics to consider, but they should be folded into the broader landscape of genres and formats available and shared through a spectrum of vibrant and active techniques."

Friday, August 12, 2011

11. Challenged · Censored Text

12:01 AM

Vance Holmes

Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson

Annotation:

Melinda Sordino is outcast. Nobody in her high school has spoken to her since summer when she called police and broke up a neighborhood party. There's more to the story, but nobody will listen -- and Melinda refuses to speak.

Recommendation:

While not original or ground-breaking, Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak is a solid effort. What's lacking in character, pacing and tone is made up for in intention.

Melinda Sordino, the teenaged protagonist of Speak, is alienated from her family and socially isolated from friends. As a result, Melinda is the only flesh and blood character in the book. We only know the other characters through the caustic descriptions and sarcastic names she assigns them (Principal Principal, Hairywoman, IT etc.). Even Melinda's best friend, Heather, seems to be a one-dimensional device -- not a real person -- a foil, stood up to later be knocked down. The end of the story offers some explanation for this, but structurally, the piece is problematic.

In what is essentially the running monologue of one who cannot speak, potential friends and love interests are not given voice. With no one to add tension, Melinda becomes her own subplot. Periodically, the novel shifts to her struggles with a long-term, school art project.

The tone and pacing of Anderson's novel are uneven. There are several sections in the first half of the book that seem to have no other purpose than the setting up of jokes. While much of the writing is indeed funny, it may not properly prepare readers for the serious events in the second part of the story. Pacing in the last third of the novel is excellent. Anderson seems to take over for Melinda and the change in tempo and tone put us on sure footing in the final chapters.

Thematically, Speak has a great deal to offer young adult readers. Beyond a discussion of the value and healing power of art, it addresses difficult issues such as peer pressure, dating, bullying, self-esteem and self-advocacy.

Written in 1999, Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak is dated, and not particularly original, but the novel still has plenty to say.

Nomination: No

Genre Classification: Challenged / Censored Title, Realistic/Edgy

Citation: Anderson, Laurie Halse. Speak. New York: Penguin Group, 1999. Print.

Laurie Halse Anderson biography