Anderson, Laurie Halse. Speak

Anderson, Laurie Halse. Speak. Speak/Penguin, 2001 [0-14-131088-x]
Melinda starts HS as a loner. One reason is that she broke up the end of summer party by calling 911. None of her former friends want to speak to her. At school nothing goes right except in Art class where they teacher tries to get her to express herself. As the story moves on the read finds out that Melinda called 911 because she was raped at the party and she did not stick around to tell the police. The writing by Anderson is wonderful as usual. The reader enters Melinda's head as she tries to face and deal with her situation. At the end of the 197 page book the person who raped her in August assaults her again in June. The initial rape is not described sexually but the reader knows what happened. The description of the assault is June is much more descriptive but is not sexual. This is a powerful, well written book that gets into the mind of a first year HS student. Because of the rape and assault, I would not give it to younger than 7th grade. But that is your call, with your population.