A Night To Remember

     Finally after reading this book for so long, I have figured out what happened to Melinda at the party that night. She was at her friend Rachel's getting ready for the party. They convinced an upperclassmen to take them and told there parents they were going to a sleepover. Once they got there, they noticed it was very crowded and that everyone was drunk and smelled like beer. They decided to drink to fit in. Melinda described that the beer tasted terrible, yet she downed more than 2 so she would fit in. She was outside by everyone dancing when a senior took her hands out of nowhere and started dancing with her. He was handsome, strong, everything a girl wanted in a guy's appearance. Just after a couple of minutes dancing, he had kissed her twice. She couldn't believe this was happening. Surely it was a dream! But oh no, it was real alright. Before she knew it, she was in a dark room with just the guy. She didn't know what was happening but then she figured out. She struggled and fought but it was no use. Soon he was gone and it was over. The next second she was calling the cops to report she had just been raped and right before she ended the call, someone saw her talking to the cops on the phone. The next second everyone was gone, and from that moment on everyone hated her.

Snow Day?

It's the middle of winter. So far Melinda's school has not given one school day. Probably one of the reasons why is because she lives in Syracuse. This is because towns around Syracuse usually get an average of around 300-400 inches of snow a year. This means that they're used to having a lot of snow, so it's rare to get a snow day. I know this because I researched the top ten snowiest cities and a couple of them are within 20 minutes of Syracuse. Here is the website I used to find this information:

http://goldensnowglobe.com/current-top-10-snowiest-cities/

So, Melinda has just woken up and noticed when she looks outside, that they have almost a foot of snow! Instantly she thinks snow day, but nope, not in Syracuse. This makes Melinda very upset. As the rest of the day goes on, she keeps getting in worse and worse of a mood. Soon the day is over, but Melinda is still in a bad mood. She doesn't want to walk home in the snow so she decides to sneak into a closet near the girls locker room. For the rest of time, Melinda listens to the girls' basketball game as sits in the dark room alone. Soon the game is over and after everyone has left, she finally decides to go home.

Reward

     After Melinda's in-school suspension is over, she decides to not skip school anymore. She even gets her grades back up. Her parents don't know what to think. Her counsilor says that her parents should reward her for not skipping and doing good in class. Melinda's parents decide that new clothes is a good reward. So the next day, Melinda and her mom go to the mall and shop for clothes. Melinda ends up getting clothes that are more for warmer weather than colder. She doesn't even think about buying warm  clothes. So, the next day after school, Melinda is at the bus stop waiting to be picked up. And while she's waiting, snow is falling rapidly. She barely has enough clothing to keep her warm. Then out of nowhere, Mr. Freeman (art teacher) asks if she needs a ride and she says yes. So, Mr. Freeman gives her a ride downtown where he drops her off at her mom's work.

Discipline

     After all the times Melinda has skipped school so far, it has finally caught up with her. The teachers and principal have caught on to Melinda's absences. Now, Melinda is sitting in a room with her parents, the principal, and her guidance councilor. Her parents and the principal go back and forth on why she could possibly be getting back grades and skipping while Melinda has all the answers right inside her head. But she won't budge; she sits mute the whole session. This frustrates her parents more than anything. The guidance councilor asks if something is wrong between their marriage but they shake their head before he can even get the question off. Everyone besides Melinda is so clueless on why she is acting how she is. Since Melinda decides to not participate, they get nowhere on what the issue could be. They decide to punish her by giving her an in-school suspension. They hope this will rattle the truth out of her, though I'm not sure it will.

Betrayal

 
     As Melinda and Heather sit down for lunch, Melinda starts to notice that they've grown apart. They don't seem to be very good friends anymore. Then out of the blue,  Heather starts to talk. She tells Melinda how she's noticed that both of them are very different from each other. She then tells Melinda that they were never even friends. Melinda is astonished. Heather starts to push the conversation. She explains how Melinda is the most depressed person she's ever met and she tell her that she needs help. Melinda cannot believe what she's hearing. She begins to fight back; stating that at the beginning of the year, she was the only one to talk to Heather and try to make friends with her. But now Heather is blowing her off? Melinda is starting to wonder if they really weren't ever friends. After all is said and done, Heather gets up and walks over to the Martha's table. It is official; Heather and Melinda are no longer friends. But the real question is, were they ever?

Skipping

    Melinda wakes up for school and already realizes she's late. This is the second day in a row she's done this. Since she already missed the bus she decides not to rush on breakfast and takes her time eating. Melinda expects her mom to drive her to school but her mom gives her a straightforward no. Her reason why is because she is already late for work. Its snowing outside and the school is a good distance from her house, and Melinda has to walk there. She walks a good distance in a good amount of time. She actually might not be late if she keeps going at this pace. But she doesn't. Instead, when Melinda has gotten all the way to the town bakery, she decides to load up on a couple doughnuts. When she exits the bakery, Melinda spots IT in the parking lot. It's Andy Evans eating a jelly doughnut.  She freezes and hopes he won't see her, but of course, he does. And when he does, Melinda bolts, leaving footprints in the snow. After she assumes that she's run far enough she stops to catch her breath. And then she thinks, why go to school? For the rest of her day, Melinda wanders around the mall. No one seems to care that she's there though. When the day is over, Melinda decides that it's probably best to go to school for the rest of the week, and that's what she does.

"IT"

   Melinda is hanging up a poster for Heather when a boy walks by her. She refers to him as "IT" and it doesn't seem like she likes him. In fact, it seems like she strongly dislikes him. She explains how when she smells him it wants to make her throw up. Though I'm still clueless on what happened between the boy and Melinda. I'm guessing it has to do with the party that took place over the summer. After that it skips to where Melinda is at home being lectured by her mom. Melinda's teacher called her mom about her report card. Her mom yells at her but she zones her out and thinks about other things. She's tired of dealing with her parents. They ground Melinda and even take cable away from her. She has to go straight home from school unless her mother tells her otherwise. When she goes to school the next day she notices that Heather has fallen behind in the Marthas group. All of the other people match besides her. The next thing I know, Heather is up and running into the bathrooms. Melinda decides to stay at her lunch table. Then "IT" walks in and she gives us his name. The boy is Andy Evans; a rich, popular kid. All of the girls adore him, besides Melinda. Though no one knows why, and neither do I.

Thirteen Reason Why; A Book Recommendation

   I would recommend this book for anyone who seems to be interested in the book "Speak." This is because both of these books deal with depression and the thought of suicide. Though, Thirteen Reasons Why is more about suicide than "Speak" is. This book is about a girl who committed suicide and no one in the school knows why. Though she leaves tapes; specifically thirteen of them. Each tape is for a different person. Once the person listens to their tape, they're supposed to pass it on to the next person in line and not tell anyone anything. The main character is a boy that goes to the school the girl went to. He finds out he's part of the tapes when he gets them at his door. The boy's life changes forever after he listens to all of the tapes. To learn more and to see the summary of the book "Thirteen Reasons Why", please click on the link below.

http://www.thirteenreasonswhy.com/book.php

Reading Skills in Speak

   In the book so far, not much has happended. Melinda is starting the third trimester and she is still hasn't tried to interact with anyone. All day she just keeps to herself. The one thing that keeps popping up is a guy in her high school. A lot of the time she refers to him as "IT". I can tell that she strongly dislikes him for some reason. But why? That is the main question I have. Another question I have is why doesn't she talk to her parents or the counsler about it? That would probably help her and make her feel better. I'm predicting that soon, we'll find out why she hates him and that it has something to do with the party. And I also predict that the rest of the school will found out what happened and they will feel bad for Melinda. A text to world connection I have is that thousands of teenagers today are depressed for a reason but no one even knows because they keep to themselves. I think if you notice someone is down, you should help them get back up. A text to text connection I have is between Speak and Thirteen Reasons Why. Thirteen Reasons Why is about a girl who commited suicide and a boy finds her tapes she made before she died and he finds out why she did it. Both of these books talk and describe depression in teenagers. If it seems like you would like the book Speak, you would probably like Thirteen Reasons Why also.

Analyzation of Melinda

"I open up a paper clip and scratch it across the inside of my left wrist. Pitiful. If a suicide attempt is a cry for help, then what is this? A whimper, a peep? I draw little window cracks of blood, etching line after line until it stops hurting. It looks like I arm-wrestled a rosebush."

"IT found me again. I thought I could ignore IT... I can smell him over the noise of the metal shop and I drop my poster and the masking tape and I want to throw up and I can smell him and I run and he remembers and he knows. He whispers in my ear."
   

     In the story, the text is describing how depressed Melinda is. She keeps talking about just wanting to give up on everything and disappear. I haven't really seen her happy yet during the story. She keeps quiet and doesn't try to interact with anyone. I feel like her depressing is affecting her grades because for the second trimester, most of her grades are a C. I can tell she is depressed because in this quote, it shows her talking about hurting herself and she does not seem happy. In the other quote, she refers to a person but calls them "IT". It is a boy that goes to her high school and she seems to have a strong hate for him. I infer that the reason she is depressed is because this boy did something to her but no one knows. I also infer that this boy was probably present at the party during the summer.

Wombats & Holiday Break

   After many arguments from the ecology club, the school has decided to change their mascot. Instead of being the Tigers, they are now the Wombats, which is a pretty weird name to me. They decided to change the mascot because they felt using a Tiger shows "shocking disrespect" since they're an endangered species. When the pointless assembly ends, Melinda heads to her History class with Mr.Neck. He starts the class by opening up a free debate that America should have closed her borders in 1900. The reason why he starts this debate is because he's angered that his son cannot get a job when his family has paid taxes and served for their country. One brave kid decides to speak up say that maybe the reason why his son can't get job is because he doesn't worked hard enough. This makes Mr.Neck fire back a quick response which shuts up the kid. But then, a kid by the name of David Petrakis stands up. He is know to be a very smart and quiet kid who never gets in trouble. As he stands up, he fights back to the teacher saying that since he opened up the free debate, every kid has the right to say what they feel. And that can't just close up the debate because it isn't going his way. This gets Mr.Neck so heated that he threatens to send him to the principals, but instead, David walks out of class with his books. Melinda is stunned as much as the rest of the class. The rest of the day is a blur and before she knows it, it's thanksgiving. The holiday flies by quickly and before you know it. the book is already into Christmas day. For christmas, Melinda gets a TV, ice skates, and a sketch pad. Her parents explained how they noticed she had been drawing lately. This scares her because if her parents have been watching her closely, it means they might know that she snuck out to the party during summer.

Getting Through the Beginning of School

   Getting through the first week of school is very rough for Melinda, but she manages to do it. And she probably couldn't have done it without her only friend in the school, Heather. Starting the second week of school, Heather decides to try to join the members on probation, and somehow she does it. Melinda is stunned and also jealous. The first project that the other members give Heather is to decorate the teachers' lounge for halloween. Melinda has nothing better to do so she decides to go and help Heather. So, after school they sneak in the teachers' lounge and start to set up. The reason why they're doing it after school is because they don't want the teachers to know who did it; that's part of her job. So they go in the lounge and start setting up fall colors and leaves and all sorts of ornaments, and soon, they're finished. The other members come in and take a look and are astonished at what they see. They now call Heather a "decorating genius." Most of the older members had thought she was going to fail but she proved them wrong. While everyone is chatting in the lounge, Melinda overhears a girl asking Heather why she hangs around Melinda. She starts to say all of these bad things about Melinda and she hears all of them. As soon as Melinda knows that Heather has left the school, she breaks down in tears.

Characters in Speak

The main character in the book Speak is Melinda Sordino. Before the party and before school started, Melinda was a happy, fun, and outgoing teenager who had lots of friends. She was full of energy and everyone loved to be around her. But ever since that party, she has been completely different. Now she's quiet, awkward, lonely, and depressed. The only person that will talk to her is Heather. Everyone else hates Melinda, even people she's never met in her lifetime. That party completely changed her forever, and things will never be the same.

Heather is one of the other main characters in the story. She is a new girl who has just moved to Melinda's school. On the first day, Melinda and her talk and become their only friends. Heather is everything Melinda was before the party; fun, outgoing, excited, and always full of energy. She never went to the party and has never heard about what Melinda did, so she has no reason to hate her. So far, Heather always has a positive attitude and is always wanting to get involved with the communtiy and her school. She seems like a girl who does good in school and never gets involved with the wrong kids.

There is one more character that I've been introduced to who is more of a side character. It is Rachel Bruin; a young, pretty, popular teenager girl. Before the party and everything, her and Melinda used to be best friends. They would hang out every weekend and talk about the new gossip that happened. But now, Rachel acts as though they were never friends. She wants nothing to do with Melinda and doesn't care to hear about her side of the story. Rachel is very outgoing girl who has many friends, so losing one doesn't make a big difference to her.

Beginnning of Speak

   It starts out with Melinda going to the first day of school. After what had happened at the party, no one will talk to her. Even her best friend Rachel acts like she has never met Melinda in her life. So you could probably say ex-best friend now. As Melinda goes through all her classes, she thinks about the negatives in each one. She tries her best to make a new friend so she doesn't seem lonely. Luckily, during the assembly, Melinda ends up sitting next to a new girl named Heather who had just moved from Ohio. They start to talk and it seems like Melinda has made her first friend. But from that point on, the day only gets worse. Melinda drags through all of her classes and finally makes it to lunch; though, there is a little problem. As she walks into the cafeteria, she is nailed by a lump of potatoes. This only makes her life worse as she is already the most hated girl in the school. The day goes on and Melinda somehow manages to make it through the day as the sun sets. After reading the beginning of this book, I can tell that the society has a big effect on the main character. I know this because all of the kids in the high school, even people she’s never met, hate her. And this makes her really depressed and un-confident because nobody knows her side of the story, and no one wants to.   

The before look of the book "Speak"

 The book I have chose read this tri is Speak. I chose this book because the outline of the story seems interesting and the cover caught my eye. On the cover, it looks like a person is being restricted from talking, which probably has to do with the title of the book. The mysterious title isn't the onoly reason I chose it though. After reading the summary, I knew this was the book I was going to read. The main character in this story is teenage girl named Melinda Sordino, who got herself into quite a bit of trouble with the other teenagers. Melinda was at an end-of-summer party with a load of other teenagers, and busted the party by calling the cops. So now, her friends, or even people she doesn't know, hate her. The  only safe place for Melinda, is inside her head, but that isn't even safe because there's something she's trying not to think about that happened at the party, but if she admitted, she would have to speak the truth. Here is another summary of the book Speak: http://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/s/speak/book-summary

Another reason I chose this book is because I can relate to it. This is because I am also a teenager and I have also been to parties with many teenagers. And also because I've made a decision before that has made poeple mad at me, so I know what it feels like. I'm excited to read this book and share with everyone how it's going!