Anderson, L. (1999). Speak. Puffin Books. Melinda is a about to start her freshman year in high school when she attends a party and ends up calling the police and everyone hates her for it. Little do they now the reason she did it. Not even her best friend Rachel takes the time to ask her why she did it. Because of this Melinda's freshman year is ruined. She has not friends and feels like an outcast. Her grades and attitude change drastically but no seems to ask why. She never told anyone that she was raped at the party by a handsome popular boy and that's the reason she called the police. She didn't speak about it because she felt no one would believe her. A new girl comes to school and at first befriends her, but Heather, the new girl, ends taking advantage of her and tells her she can't be her friend because she is always depressed and doesn't like doing anything. Yet she never took the time to ask her why she was so depressed. Melinda though she had a friend in her, but she was wrong. In the end Andy, the boy who raped her, invite Rachel to prom and Melinda finally confided in her about what happened that night. Rachel didn't believe her and at the dance told Andy about it. Andy denied it and attacked Melinda in a closet at school. This time Melinda didn't stay quiet and screamed as loud as she could. Everyone found out about it and finally they didn't see her as the girl who called the police to break up the party. A strength I found in the book was when Melinda showed her emotions through her art class. She tried showing how she felt when she trying to work on her tree project. Other books by Anderson are Winter Girls, Catalyst, and Twisted. A book similar in theme to Speak is A Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger. Something I learned is that we should never keep quiet especially when it deals with rape. Melinda went into a depression because of what happened to her. Especially since her best friend never bothered to ask her why she called the police that night. We should always be on the look out for changes in teenagers. If  a teenager's grades start to drop or they seem depressed we need to try and find out why this is happening.