9) Speak-Laurie Halse Anderson

Melinda Sordino is a social pariah and it's only her first day of high school. None of her former best friends will speak to her and no one will ask her why she called the cops to the party over the summer. Would anyone believe her if she were to even tell them the truth? Instead, she refuses to speak. She does the bare minimum in every aspect. She stops showering all that often, bites her lips until they bleed, chews on her nails until there's almost nothing left and stops participating in school. The only somewhat glimmer of hope is her art class with Mr.Freeman. It's here that she learns to express herself and see life differently. It's in the art room that she realizes that she can't hide from what happened or pretend that it was all made up in her head. It happened and it's how she chooses to deal with and come to terms with it that she needs to figure out.

Lit in Secondary Schools assignment. I hadn't read this book since before my freshman year of high school, so I was interested to see how I would react to it now. When I read it before, I wasn't very impressed by it. I honestly hadn't finished the last 30 pages because I had to take the test for it in the next class. However, I still got an A+ because I sort of figured out where it was going and made educated guesses. Having read it now, though, was a different experience. You catch small little details that you didn't catch before that sort of help you understand what she's going through a little more. 

My problem with this book is how she let it all get to her and really wreck her life. Yes, I understand that this is a terrible ordeal. I couldn't even imagine myself in her position, but had this happened to me, I would have done everything I could have to fix it. There's a part where she attends a pep rally and the two girls behind her give her grief over calling the cops to that party. One knees her in the back and the other pulls her hair. I'm sorry, but that would certainly not fly with me. Maybe that's my problem with the book. I can't really get behind her not sticking up for herself. I liked the diary aspect and the stream of consciousness, though. I always find books like that interesting. It really gets you into the head of the character.

Whether you read this book or not, a word of caution: Avoid the movie. This was a good book and it was made into an awful movie. No, thank you!