Teaser Tuesday (16): Speak

Title: Speak
Author: Laurie Halse Anderson



I'm saved by a Centro bus. It coughs and rumbles and spits out two old women in front of the grocery store.



I know, I know, I should have read this book already, but better late than never!

I really like the way this book is written, like a whole bunch of small scenes stuck together to make Melinda's story. It is fascinating to read about how she sees the world and labels the things around her. I am really enjoying (is that the right word to use with this kind of story? Well you know what I mean) it, especially as this is a character I find myself relating very strongly to.


Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme hosted by MizB of Should be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read.
• Open to a random page.
• Share two "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page.
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! Make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away! You don't want to ruin the book for others!
• Share the title and author too so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers!

Speak Loudly against Rape

Book bloggers fingers sprang furiously into action yesterday as heartfelt responses from all over the place were written in response to Dr Wesley Scroggins' article, Filthy books demeaning to republic education, in which he expresses his shock that school children are required to read material that borders on pornography.

A book that he specifically refers to is SPEAK, by Laurie Halse Anderson. This highly acclaimed and controversial novel is about a girl finding her voice after having been raped.

 

Scroggins says:

This is a book about a very dysfunctional family. Schoolteachers are losers, adults are losers and the cheerleading squad scores more than the football team. They have sex on Saturday night and then are goddesses at church on Sunday morning. The cheer squad also gets their group-rate abortions at prom time. As the main character in the book is alone with a boy who is touching her female parts, she makes the statement that this is what high school is supposed to feel like. The boy then rapes her on the next page.

Okay, so this book doesn't describe the perfect example of Christian living, I get that wholly and completely. But it's REAL. Rape is REAL. Rape is NOT PORNOGRAPHY. People should be allowed to SPEAK about it and those who want to LISTEN should be allowed to.

There are some heartbreaking and powerful responses out there (several are listed below) and I don't feel I need to add too much. I just wanted to do my part for getting the word out there.

Laurie Halse Anderson

Making Stuff Up for a Living

Mundie Moms

Myra McEntire

The Story Siren

I had not heard of this book, and there seem to be a number of other people who hadn't either, but thanks to Dr Scroggins' article and the powerful response it brought out from so many, we all know about it now. And I think the effect of his article will, in fact, be the opposite of what he intended.