SPEAK

By Laurie Halse Anderson. After she calls the police at an end-of-summer house party, Melinda’s freshman year of high school is off to a terribly friendless and isolating start. No one will talk to her, and eventually she stops speaking altogether. It’s through an art project that she’s finally able to face what really happened at that party—her rape by a senior boy—and confront her attacker before he’s able to harm anyone else. The 2004 film stars Kristen Stewart. Square Fish. 197 pages. ©1999.

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