After a blurred trauma over the summer, Melinda enters high school a selective mute. Struggling with school, friends, and family, she tells the dark tale of her experiences, and why she has chosen not to speak.
In the book Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, Melinda Sordino is forced into the worst year of her life. Her best friend, Rachel Bruin, has turned against her with all other of Melinda's fellow students looking away; not daring to take a single glance at Melinda. All because of one stupid end-of-summer party.
Freshman high-school student Melinda "Kristen Stewart" has refused to speak ever since she called the cops on a popular summer party. With her old friends snubbing her for being a rat, and her parents "Elizabeth Perkins, D.B. Sweeney" too busy to notice her troubles, she folds into herself, trying to hide her secret: that star senior Andy "Eric Lively" raped her at the party. But Melinda does manage to find solace in her art class headed by Mr. Freeman "Steve Zahn".—yusufpiskin
The young adolescent Melinda Sordino arrives at high school feeling confused, depressed and alone. Her school peers call her "squealer", because she alerted the police during a summer party after she was sexually assaulted by Andy Evans. She refuses to tell anyone the events that took place. Her depression and distance from people is made worse by the increasingly large gap between her and her parents. She finds great support with her art teacher Mr. Freeman and her school friend David Petrakis. Her feelings threaten to engulf her but Melinda learns to grow from her experiences instead of repressing the past emotions that have scarred her for the rest of her life.—Andrew Rodriguez, Tinton Falls New Jersey