It is faithful to the original text, and the illustrations are brilliant and really help to emphasise the important messages of Speak. The graphic novel is a brilliant adaptation. I definitely wanted to come across an abandoned closet to hide in! Not the assault she is subject to, but with her isolation and lack of friends at school, and her home life. She finds refuge in an abandoned supply closet at the school, and in her art lessons where her teacher encourages her to show emotion in her work. As a teen, I definitely identified with Melinda as a character. She is not popular at school after calling the police at a party, and the hatred she is subject to is a lot to deal with. It is a gripping and absorbing perspective, but also suffocating at times as you cannot escape from her feelings, and it is like you are feeling everything alongside her.

Our football team will win the championship this year. You will have time to get to your class before the bell rings. Both are brilliant.īoth are written in the present tense, in first person, so we are very much inside Melinda’s head. Quotes by Laurie Halse Anderson () THE FIRST TEN LIES THEY TELL YOU IN HIGH SCHOOL 1. The cover for the graphic novel is very different but really highlights her feelings of loneliness and isolation. The recent cover of the novel is stunning, depicting the trees that are a big part of Melinda’s story as she works on an art project which helps her to heal from the trauma she has suffered. So, when Team Bkmrk sent me a copy along with the graphic novel adaptation, I was beyond thrilled! I borrowed it repeatedly from Lancaster Library, before investing in my own copy, which I still have somewhere, although it is somewhat battered and falling apart.

Speak was genuinely one of my favourite books as a teenager. Today I’m sharing my reviews of the original novel and the recent graphic novel of Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson.