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!