Speak

Bibliography

Anderson, Laurie Halse. 1999. Speak. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 978-0374371524.

Brief plot summary

Melinda is a friendless outcast at Merryweather High School. She broke up an end-of-summer party by calling the cops, and now nobody will talk to her, let alone listen to her. As time passes, she becomes increasingly isolated and practically stops talking altogether. It is through her work on an art project that she is finally able to face what really happened at that terrible party.

Critical analysis

For anyone who has ever felt the depths of teenage vulnerability, the raw, naked sense of exposure that seems to be so much a part of adolescence for so many of us, Melinda’s character will resonate deeply and immediately. While she may be sharper, and more biting and witty in her scathing observations of father, mother, former friends, and the idiotic realities of public education, she is at the very least the heroine we all wish we could be in the face of such tragic victimization.

Anderson’s debut novel cuts like a razor in its dissection of a dysfunctional family where father and mother are even more self-absorbed than their daughter. The unsung hero of the novel is (almost amazingly) an art teacher who doesn’t go out of his way to mentor his students, but who by his standard classroom practice manages to create the climate where Melinda is able to work out her grief through her year’s project, learning to depict a tree. Especially effective for me is the germinal, womb-like janitor’s closet where Melinda hides out. Anderson uses this as the novel’s central symbol, reflected in the seemingly dead tree outside Melinda’s bedroom window. Like the tree, Melinda is eventually brought back to life.

She finds her voice, convincingly at the novel’s climax, which is both harrowing and plausible. With it she is able to renegotiate her relationships with her parents, her friends, and the boy who victimized her and comes to a new understanding of her own power and dignity.

Review excerpts

"An uncannily funny book even as it plumbs the darkness, Speak will hold readers from first word to last." – Horn Book, Starred Review
"In her YA fiction debut, Anderson perfectly captures the harsh conformity of high-school cliques and one teen's struggle to find acceptance from her peers. Melinda's sarcastic wit, honesty, and courage make her a memorable character whose ultimate triumph will inspire and empower readers." – Booklist

"A frightening and sobering look at the cruelty and viciousness that pervade much of contemporary high school life, as real as today's headlines…. The plot is gripping and the characters are powerfully drawn, but it is its raw and unvarnished look at the dynamics of the high school experience that makes this a novel that will be hard for readers to forget." – Kirkus Reviews
"Anderson expresses the emotions and the struggles of teenagers perfectly. Melinda's pain is palpable, and readers will totally empathize with her. This is a compelling book, with sharp, crisp writing that draws readers in, engulfing them in the story." – School Library Journal
"In a stunning first novel, Anderson uses keen observations and vivid imagery to pull readers into the head of an isolated teenager. . . . Yet Anderson infuses the narrative with a wit that sustains the heroine through her pain and holds readers’ empathy. . . . But the book’s overall gritty realism and Melinda’s hard-won metamorphosis will leave readers touched and inspired." – Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

"A story told with acute insight, acid wit, and affecting prose." – Library Journal

Awards / Best Books

Michael L. Printz Honor Book, 2000

National Book Award Finalist, 2000

Edgar Allan Poe Award Finalist, 2000

Publisher’s Weekly Best Book of the Year, 1999

Booklist Editors’ Choice, 1999

Bulletin Blue Ribbons, 1999 (Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books)

School Library Journal Best Books, 1999

Horn Book Fanfare, 1999

New York Times Bestseller

YALSA Best Books for Young Adults, 2000

YALSA Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers, 2000

Young Adults’ Choices, 2001 (International Reading Association)

Classroom Connections

Listen to Laurie Halse Anderson read her poem “Listen” and then respond to the poem and make connections. What might you want to say to Ms. Anderson about your reaction to Speak and how it has affected you personally?

Watch the film version of Speak and debate which is better, the movie or the book?

Pair the reading of Speak with Nathaniel Hawthorne’s classic novel The Scarlet Letter.  Students compare and contrast the two novels through a variety of activities. An excellent guide is available at http://madwomanintheforest.com/teachers/deceit-despair-and-dejection/.

Pair the reading of Speak with Maya Angelou’s I know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Look for commonalities and connections between Melinda Sordino and Maya Angelou.

Pair Speak with one of the following poems: “Elephant in the Room” (author unknown) and “I’m Nobody” (Emily Dickinson). Find connections between these poems and Speak.

View the scene where Susanna is forced to see the psychiatrist by her parents in the movie Girl, Interrupted. Students identify things that this scene has in common with Speak.

Have students organize a Clothesline Project in their school or community to address the issue of violence against women. The Clothesline Project is a visual display of shirts with graphic messages and illustrations that have been designed by women survivors of violence or by someone who loves a woman who has been killed. The purpose of the Project is to increase awareness of the impact of violence against women, to celebrate a woman's strength to survive and to provide another avenue for her to courageously break the silence that often surrounds her experience.

Read Alikes:

Catalyst by Laurie Halse Anderson

Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson

Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

Go Ask Alice by Anonymous

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

If I Stay by Gayle Forman

Looking for Alaska by John Green

Brutal by Michael B. Harmon

Crank by Ellen Hopkins

Identical by Ellen Hopkins

You Don’t Know Me by David Klass

Cut by Patricia McCormick

Beautiful by Amy Lynn Reed

What My Girlfriend Doesn’t Know by Sonya Sones

What My Mother Doesn’t Know by Sonya Sones

Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli

The Rules of Survival by Nancy Werlin

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon

Bibliography

Lin, Grace. 2009. Where the Mountain Meets the Moon. New York: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. ISBN 978-0316114271.

Brief plot summary

Minli is raised in poverty at the base of Fruitless Mountain. After her mother scolds her for spending what little money they had on a goldfish, Minli is inspired by the folktales her father has told her to set off alone to find the Old Man of the Moon with the hopes that he will tell her how to bring prosperity and happiness to her family and village. Along the way she encounters an assortment of characters and magical creatures, including a dragon that accompanies her on her quest to learn the secret to happiness.

Critical analysis

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon begins with a happy, but poor, Minli content growing up at home. She is fascinated by the folktales that her father Ba tells her. After spending most of the family's money to buy a goldfish, she soon begins to understand her mother's disgruntlement with the family's lack of means and food. Minli decides to set off on a quest to find the Old Man of the Moon, a character she heard about in Ba's tales. Because of the tales she is certain that the Old Man of the Moon will be able to help her family find wealth and happiness. This is the beginning of Minli's adventure into a lush, mythical world that includes dragons, talking goldfish, an evil tiger, kings, trickery, riddles, and plenty of magic.

This fast-paced, timeless story of greed, gratitude, faith and friendship is highly accessible. Minli's adventures are interwoven with stories drawn from Chinese folk and fairy tales. These tales not only strengthen and advance the plot, but they also add to characterizations and the setting. Typeface changes are used to differentiate between Minli's story and the folktales. The story stays partially rooted in reality as chapters cut to Minli's worried parents who are desperately waiting back home for Minli's safe return. Throughout these chapters we watch as Minli's parents grow and find the secret to happiness.

The book design is striking and includes artwork by the author. A list of books about the Chinese folktales and fairy tales that inspired the story is provided. Where the Mountain Meets the Moon is often compared to The Wizard of Oz. As a devotee of Baum’s Oz books, I agree that there are some similarities: Minli like Dorothy goes on a quest and picks up friends who both help and need to be helped. But I don’t think Linn had Oz in mind when she wrote this book—the similarities are simply coincidental in her original and compelling work.

Review excerpts

"Children will embrace this accessible, timeless story about the evil of greed and the joy of gratitude." – Booklist, Starred Review

"With her ‘lively and impulsive spirit,’ Minli emerges a stalwart female role model who learns the importance of family, friendship and faith during her amazing journey." – Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review
"The author's writing is elegant, and her full-color illustrations are stunning. Minli's determination to help her family, as well as the grief her parents feel at her absence, is compelling and thoroughly human." – School Library Journal, Starred Review
"Readers will love this extraordinary tale with its fanciful characters, colorful illustrations, and the hopes and dreams of a determined and courageous young girl." – Library Media Connection, Highly Recommended

"Gorgeous book design augments this fast-paced fantasy…" – Cooperative Children’s Book Center Choices (CCBC)

Awards / Best Books

Cybil Award Finalist, 2009

Indies Choice Book Award Honor Book, 2010

John Newbery Medal Honor Book, 2010

Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children’s Literature Winner, 2010

ALSC Notable Children’s Books, 2010

Booklist Top 10 SF/Fantasy for Youth, 2009

Choices, 2010

Teachers’ Choices, 2010; International Reading Association

Classroom Connections

Students write their own original fantasy story based on a folk/fairy tale from another culture.

Students work in groups to create a board game based on the book. An example created by an 11 year old can be seen here: http://www.gracelin.com/content.php?page=wherethemountainmeetsthemoon&display=activities

Students research and identify examples of dragons that are found in literature and depicted in artwork from other cultures. They then create their own dragons and identify how their dragon is similar/different from the dragons they researched.

Read-Alikes:

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo

The Conch Bearer by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

City of Embers by Jeanne DuPrau

Treasury of Chinese Folktales: Beloved Myths and Legends from the Middle Kingdom by Shelley Fu

Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones 

Tale of Emily Windsnap by Liz Kessler

Dumpling Days (Pacy Series) by Grace Lin

The Year of the Dog (Pacy Series) by Grace Lin

The Year of the Rat (Pacy Series) by Grace Lin

The Five Ancestors series by Jeff Stone

The Dragon Keepers series by Carole Wilkinson

The Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia C. Wrede

The Arrival

Bibliography

Tan, Shaun. 2007. The Arrival. New York: Arthur A. Levine Books. ISBN 978-0439895293.

Brief plot summary

A small, poor family in an oppressive country decides they must immigrate to a new land. The father must set out alone to find work and create a place for his wife and child so that he can send for them to join him in the new land.

Critical analysis

In this unprecedented graphic novel, both wordless and filmic, the strangeness of leaving one’s home and going to an alien country is evoked in a vision that owes as much to sepia-tinted silent film as it does to such fantasy masterworks as David Lindsey’s Voyage to Arcturus and its imitators in C.S. Lewis’s Space Trilogy and Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time.

Once “read” it is remembered by the mind’s eye as a silent film, but experienced in the heart with a depth of strangeness and otherness that only the most original works of art and poetry and music offer up. I don’t think that it is entirely unintentional that the creatures and cityscapes remind one of Hieronymus Bosch and the German expressionists as strange as this juxtaposition might seem.

While The Arrival is often scary, it never becomes terrifying. There are new friends to be made in this strange, new land where the architecture, the machinery, and the plants and animals are all only just recognizable in their shape and function, and their size seems to be portrayed according to their emotional impact on the father. This could easily become a terrifying descent of nightmare proportions; however, the deep humanity the protagonist finds at critical junctures and in humorous situations always rescues the reader if sometimes at the last moment.

A great deal of soft humor and deep empathy emerges in this immigrant’s relationships with his house-pet, landlady, and new friends as he learns to navigate this unfamiliar world. At the right time and in the right way he is at last able to send for his wife and child in the deeply satisfying conclusion. I can’t get this book out of my mind. It is the greatest artistic expression of the immigrant experience that has ever come my way.

Review excerpts

"Considering the terror that fuels debates about immigration throughout the western world, Tan's message is pointed and utterly relevant, not just to teens struggling with their own feelings of alienation, but to all humankind. It is an absolutely marvelous book." – VOYA
"… the story's immediacy and fantasy elements will appeal even to readers younger than the target audience, though they may miss many of the complexities. Filled with subtlety and grandeur, the book is a unique work that not only fulfills but also expands the potential of its form." – Booklist, Starred Review

"An astonishing wordless graphic novel blends historical imagery with science-fiction elements to depict—brilliantly—the journey of an immigrant man from his terror-beset land of origin to a new, more peaceful home." – Kirkus Reviews

"…Tan has created a powerful yet wholly accessible visual metaphor that conveys the complete sense of displacement and confusion that is part of the immigrant experience." – Cooperative Children’s Book Center Choices

"Tan captures the displacement and awe with which immigrants respond to their new surroundings in this wordless graphic novel." – School Library Journal, Starred Review

"The artwork is ornate with detail. Tan has created a whimsical, fantastical world that will be so foreign to the reader that they will understand what the man is experiencing. Wordless graphic novels can be a hard sell sometimes, but Tan has successfully told this elaborate story." – Library Media Connection

Awards / Best Books

Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Excellence in Children’s Literature, 2008

Cybil Award Finalist, 2007

New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Books of the Year, 2007

Parents’ Choice Award Gold, 2007

ALSC Notable Children’s Books, 2008

Amazon Editors’ Top 10 Books, 2007

Booklist Editors’ Choice, 2007

Bulletin Blue Ribbons, 2007 (Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books)

Choices, 2008 (Cooperative Children’s Book Center)

Horn Book Fanfare, 2007

Kirkus Best Young Adult Books, 2007

Publishers Weekly Best Children’s Books, 2007

School Library Journal Best Books, 2007

YALSA Best Books for Young Adults, 2008

YALSA Great Graphic Novels for Teens, 2008

Classroom Connections

Dorothy Gish’s 1916 short feature Gretchen the Greenhorn will give students the sepia feeling of early 20^th century European immigrants coming to America.

Paintings by Hieronymus Bosch will give students some context for the frightening sense of shape and form the father encounters in the new world.

A Wrinkle in Time will give imaginative young readers a taste of otherworldly narrative.

Include The Arrival as part of a unit on immigration. Students can search for key facts in the history of immigration to the United States.  Include information about reasons for migration, statistics, and trends. As a culminating activity students can write a letter to a friend or relative back home from the point-of-view of an immigrant at the turn of the century. In your letter describe your journey over to America, your arrival at Ellis Island, and how you are adapting to life in your new country.

Students view some of the images that inspired Shaun Tan in his illustrations. Some examples include:

1.   Coming South, 1886, Tom Roberts

2.   Over Land by Rail by Gustave Dore, 1870

3.   Photographs of Ellis Island, New York, 1892–1954

4.   1912 photography of a newsboy announcing the sinking of Titanic

Locate the illustrations where Tan has referenced these images, and compare them with the original images. Look for similarities and differences in the images, the effect of visual referencing, why those particular images may have been used.

Read Alikes:

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay
The Red Tree by Shaun Tan
Tales From Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan

Lost and Found, Three by Shaun Tan

Habibi by Craig Thompson

American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang