Going back to school this year has been incredibly difficult for Melinda. Last year she had friends. This year they all shun her and won't talk to her. Last year she had a voice. This year she cannot communicate with her teachers and classmates, due to the traumatic experience she had over the summer holidays. Unable to speak, Melinda lets only the readers of Speak inside her head, telling us all what happened, as she slowly learns to embrace her new reality and find a new voice.
Resonant and fiercely authentic. This timely, critically acclaimed and award-winning modern classic is now a powerful graphic novel.
'I said no.'
Melinda is an outcast at Merryweather High. Something happened over the summer - something bad - and now nobody will talk to her, let alone listen. So what's the point in speaking at all?
Through her work on an art project, Melinda is finally able to face what really happened that night. But before she can make peace with the ghosts of the past, she has to confront the reality of the present - and stop someone who still wishes to do her harm. Only words can save her. She can't stay silent. Not any more.
'With the rise of women finding their voices and speaking out about sexual assault in the media, this should be on everyone's radar... Powerful, necessary, and essential.' Kirkus
Laurie Halse Anderson is the 2023 winner of the prestigious Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award.
