Review: Speak by Leslie Halse Anderson

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I liked this book a lot. It's the story of a high school student who is dealing with a traumatic event, and feels unable to talk about what happened. The story is about how she copes, or at times, doesn't cope, and eventually finds the strength to speak up.

My students and I were moved out of our classroom a couple of week ago as a result of a competition our school was hosting. I took my things to the library, planning to do some work, but finding myself in a room surrounded by books, not much work is going to get done.

I've been hearing a lot about this book because the author recently wrote a follow up called Shout. Speak was written twenty or so years ago, but that was a time when I wasn't reading young adult. I was in my twenties, and didn't become a teacher until my 30s. Even now, I don't read a lot of young adult because I spend all day with young adults, my reading time is my escape from them. But on that particular morning, I noticed the book prominently displayed as part of the library's March Madness competition, so I picked it up to look at it. Started reading and kept reading. (This was during my planning period, no worries, I wasn't neglecting my students.) When my students arrived, I asked the librarian if I could check out the book - I really wasn't sure if teachers were allowed to check out books, but I learned that we can.

My biggest concern as a teacher, was the way the student perceived school and her teachers. I started asking my students if they'd read the book, and if they had, do they view school the way the student in the book does? "Do students really think teachers don't care?" - I kept asking my students, even if they hadn't read the book. One student said, "Yeah, we think that about most teachers, but not you." (Well, I am the art teacher - the one teacher in the book that shows some compassion and understanding.) "What about cliques? Does that exist at our school? Is this something that's here that I'm not seeing because I never leave the art hall?" and I got a resounding "No, our school isn't like that. That school was bad, we don't have that here." And that made me feel a little better.

I didn't finish the book that day, and it remained in my classroom for the next week. Students kept noticing the book on my desk, and asking about it. So I would tell them what had happened so far - and then they started telling me things: "Oh, that happened to my friend at a party," one student said. A boy asked, "Did they arrest the guy?" "No, she won't tell anybody." Boy: "Why not?" And then it was explained to him that no one believes girls when they tell, and the girls are often told they wanted it or was in some way their fault. And these boys seemed so confused.

I'm glad I read this book, because while I think I understand my students and I believe they know they can talk to me, it made me realize that there are always things happening in their lives that we don't understand, that they can't talk about. This book is powerful in that it shows students they aren't alone, that bad things do happen, but that a person can survive and overcome those things.


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