Speak Loudly

With Banned Book Week fast approaching a movement has begun, a movement to remind us to Speak Loudly. I stumbled upon it first thing this morning on twitter, where the hashtag #speakloudly was showing up on nearly every tweet that popped up on my screen. It appears that a Wesley Scroggins, in an oped piece for his local paper, has decided that Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson is soft-core porn because it depicts the rape of a high school girl. He then goes on the lambast other books including Slaughterhouse Five and Twenty Boy Summer. He believes that these books should be removed from not only the curriculum, but from the school library. He is calling for the banning of this book. Laurie Halse Anderson responded on her website, and from there it has spread. Perhaps Scroggins didn't realize the bee's nest he was kicking.

I admit to hesitating on this post. There are so many other bloggers who have posted elequent and brave stories of how Speak helped them, let them know they were not alone, and gave them an outlet. They talk about things that, as someone who has not had first hand experience with these horrible issues, can not possibly relate to. It's for those people that Speak is a lifesaver. To remove Speak from the shelves only reinforces the false idea that the victim is somehow to blame, that there is a shame attached to rape and that it should be kept a secret. That is unexceptable. For me, Speak was merely a book. One, I'll admit that I didn't really like, for reasons that are not at all relevant to the controversy currently swirling. Even so, I appreciate the message that it sends, and I think that it's a book that needs to be out there, so that those who need it can find it and to serve as a reminder that for some people life is full of bad things, and that it's not their fault.

Scroggins has every right to his opinion, whether I agree with it or not. He even has the right to send in those opinion peices to the paper and share his view with the world. So does Anderson, so do you, and so do I. If he doesn't want to read Speak, or if he doesn't want his children to read it, that is absolutly his choice. Let's just remember that for every Scroggin's who wants to keep the book from everyone, there are those of us who are willing to Speak Loudly and keep those books available to those who need them.

Speak

By: Laurie Halse Anderson

http://www.writerlady.com/

Melinda Sordino busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops. Now her old friends won't talk to her, and people she doesn't even know hate her from a distance. The safest place to be is alone, inside her own head. But even that's not safe. Because there's something she's trying not to think about, something about the night of the party that, if she let it in, would blow her carefully constructed disguise to smithereens. And then she would have to speak the truth. (from goodreads.com)
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I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with this book. I'm not a huge fan of giving a bad review to books because I think that alot of it is personal opinion and that every book out there has value to someone. This book in particular I'd imagine has a great value to alot of young girls. There were just some glaring issues for me. I'll start with what killed this book for me and then give the good parts (we can at least end on a positive note).

This book was set in Syracuse, NY circa 1999(ish)- I happen to be a born and raised Syracuse native, who was a high schooler circa 1999. Immediately I'm thinking this should be pretty good. Anderson made up a high school, which I'm okay with, but as the book goes on I realize that almost every landmark in the book is also made up. This for me was a huge distraction and literally ruined this book. Every few pages I'd be trying to place the bakery or store mentioned, trying to figure out where exactly this person lives because it certainely doesn't sound like Syracuse. Perhaps a suburb, but then she wouldn't live in Syracuse- She travels west to get to the big city...so she must be an east-sider. East Syracuse maybe, Dewitt? But wait, the prom is at the Route 11 Holiday in- Route 11 is in North Syracuse, but there's no Holiday in on Route 11 in the Syracuse area. These are the little things that went through my mind the entire time I read the book. I literally had to google just about eery landmark trying to figure this book out- what did I find? Nothing. No Fayette's bakery (could she mean Harrison's, Columbus'?), no Holiday in on Route 11, no Efferts Department store and no fountains at any of the area malls. I realize that this would not be an issue for the vast majority of the readers on Speak, but for those of us who live in this area, it is a glaring issue, and in this instance, pretty much killed this book for me.

Now on to the good stuff. Barring the Syracuse issues- this book was awesome. Her charecter of Melinda was spot on, as were the dynamics of high school. She showed the cliques and how it feels to be an outsider excellently. She also really dealt with Melinda's trauma and how she tried to live with the aftermath in a way that was relatable. The relationships in the book were well written, especially the deterioration of the relationship with her parents, who are so wrapped up in their own worlds, to realize that Melinda's is falling apart. I also loved the teachers in the book- they were spot on, especially the Art teacher, who offers a little guidance and alot of freedom to Melinda as she tries to work through her problems.

Overall, I would recommend this book to just about everyone. The issues I had with it are certainly not ones that would effect 99% of the readers out there and it would be a shame for them to miss out on a great book.