Life
      Anderson’s father was a Methodist minister and occasional poet.  As a child, she entertained herself by writing on her father’s old typewriter.
     Anderson attended high school outside Syracuse, NY.  She remembers being an outsider during her freshman year of high school, as a new and relatively poor student in the school district; she later shifted her high school “group” as she became involved in athletics (swimming and track).  For her senior year, she was an exchange student in Denmark, where she lived on a pig farm.
     She married while working on a degree in languages at Georgetown University; she and her husband have two daughters. Despite material ready to hand, she says she does not base any of her characters on her daughters, though she does borrow some lines of dialogue:  “I am always concerned about accidentally taking something from their lives that they don’t want the world to know about, so I make sure they read everything I write.  They have veto power.” (Schwartz)  While her children were young, she worked as a reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer and as a freelance writer/editor.
    Speak, her first novel for young adults, won several awards, including being named an honor book for the first-ever Printz Award and a finalist for the National Book Award for children's books.  In addition to Speak, she has written another YA novel, Fever 1793, three picture books, and a series of books for the American Girl people.

Speak
    Speak was inspired by a nightmare Anderson had one night.  She awoke to the sound of a girl crying, then realized it was her dream rather than one of her children; she then got up and went to the computer to write, and Melinda’s story began to flow.  At that time, she had been reading Reviving Ophelia (a psychological study of preteen girls), which informs her work.
    “Melinda’s act of calling the police . .  . and the reason why no one else ever bothered to find out why she did it, seems characteristic of teen behavior.  Her peers assume that she simply wanted to get everyone else in trouble.” (Anderson, qtd. in Contemporary Authors)  Anderson notes that Melinda’s ostracism gives the other kids an easy out: “by being angry at Melinda (the scapegoat), they don’t have to take responsibility for their own actions."
     The tree as Melinda’s art subject (p. 12) originated in Anderson’s memories of being frustrated trying to carve a linoleum block of a tree when she was in ninth grade art class.  “That was the conscious decision. My subconscious (the smart part) probably knew that trees and growth would become a major theme of the book.  But I had no clue about this when I picked ‘tree,’ honest.  And don’t let any English teacher tell you I did it on purpose.  I will admit that when I was revising, I finally saw the tree and its meaning (duh), and tweaked the manuscript so that the current ran through the story cleanly.” (Schwartz)
     The issue of identity:  Heather’s room identifies her in a way that Melinda’s room does not (33); note that Melinda begins to shape her school identity by reappropriating the janitor’s closet rather than her own room.  Melinda washes her face to oblivion (p. 45).
     Several of Melinda’s class activities, as described in the novel, resonate with the issues involved in her silence.  For example, in biology class they discuss the “birds and the bees,” seeds, and genetics (reproduction – but nothing about sex until 11th grade), and she empathizes with the frog being dissected, which is in a posture similar to that of the helpless rape victim (p. 81).  In Spanish, there is a profound breakdown of communication as the teacher insists on not using English to the first-year class.  Algebra, too, is something that Melinda cannot understand (see funny passage p. 52).  In English, they are reading The Scarlet Letter, which is about adultery but also about scapegoating.  In art, Melinda is frustrated by her blocked emotions and general difficulties in self-expression.
 
Study Questions:

• We often talk about helping young people learn to make good decisions.  Consider the decisions Melinda and her friends make in this book; what are the consequences of those decisions?  Could they have been reasonably accepted? (modified from Smith)
• Think about family relationships here.  (Note description of her family’s “communication system,” p. 14)  What kind of relationship does Melinda have with her family?  (Contrast to Heather’s mom, p. 22) Could a less dysfunctional family (“It’s a shame we can’t just admit we failed family living” p. 70) have helped her to cope better?  What does this suggest about the role of family in shaping adolescent lives? (modified from Smith)
• What images stand out for you from the book?  Are there any passages that particularly impressed you?  Which ones? (modified from Smith)
• Do you think teenagers should read this book?  Why or why not?  At what level would you see it being appropriate?  Why that level? (modified from Smith)
• Is date rape too sensitive of a topic for a YA novel? (modified from Smith)
• [A parent in Smith’s class said the book made her both laugh and cry.]  How does Anderson use the tragic/comic voice effectively? (modified from Smith)
• Note how Melinda’s account of the first day of school stresses the need to locate oneself socially in high school, while at the same time revealing that she belongs to none of the groups, but is instead a social pariah (“I am clanless” p. 4).  Does this reflect your experience of high school?
• What do you make of the repeated name changes for the school mascot?  How does this reflect the need for adolescents to establish a stable identity (cf. Honor Society petition p. 141)?  Is it tied to Melinda’s problems in any way?
• Compare Heather’s “Martha project” for Thanksgiving (p. 43) to Goober’s assignment from the Vigils in The Chocolate War.  Are these two situations parallel?  In what sense?
• How does David’s stand for the First Amendment and freedom of expression reflect on Melinda’s dilemma?  In what sense is Mr. Neck’s coercion of his classroom like Andy Beast’s rape of Melinda? (Note too the issue of speech in the English discussion of The Scarlet Letter, p. 102)

SOURCES: Laurie Halse Anderson, “Laurie’s Bookshelf: About Laurie Halse Anderson,” http://www.writerlady.com/about_me.html; “Laurie Halse Anderson,” Contemporary Authors Online, The Gale Group, 2002,  http://web2.infotrac.galegroup.com/itw/… January 2, 2002; Dana Schwartz, “Author Profile: Laurie Halse Anderson,” Teenreads.com,  http://www.teenreads.com/authors/au-anderson-laurie.asp 2000; Grant T. Smith, “Lesson Plan for Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson,” http://www.viterbo.edu/personalpages/faculty/Gsmith/LessonPlanforSpeak.htm

LINKS FOR LAURIE HALSE ANDERSON:

• Anderson's On-Line Journal - Daily Entries: http://www.livejournal.com/users/halseanderson/
• "About Me" - Anderson's Autobiographic Note: http://www.writerlady.com/me.html

A. Waller Hastings
Professor of English
Northern State University
Aberdeen, SD  57401

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