"Speak" by Laurie Halse Anderson

I knew that from the start of the second quarter I would have trouble meeting the requirements (Read one award winning book). Most award winning books don't please me, but "Speak" looked very promising, and it was a great read. Speak is about a young girl named Melinda who makes it seem like she has no friends and hates most of the people that go to her school because of the cliques that they are in. There is a clique for everyone, even for the people that aren't very popular. I love the characterization in this book. Melinda starts out as a insecure girl that is cold towards everyone. However, at the end of the book, she makes a few friends and becomes a much  better person, both on the inside and outside. At one point of the story, Melinda decides to hide a secret from everyone which causes everyone to leave her, but who can blame her? Melinda was raped at the party, and she doesn't know how to tell everyone about this; she doesn't know how to recover. Because of Melinda's character, it is difficult to not feel bad for her. She is being mistreated just because of the fact that she refuses to admit what happened at the party. Melinda isn't the only memorable character either. The art teacher is a personal favorite of mine, he encourages the class to think outside of the box and he seems to really like Melinda. In fact, the art teacher is the only person that was nice to her on the first day of school. Before I spoil anymore, I'll end the summary there. Laurie Halse Anderson did an outstanding job with creating this book. The plot, characterization and characters are unique and designed in such a way that the readers will not forget them. I recommend this book for everyone .