Speak Reader Response

   In the book "Speak" the main character Melinda is hated in her high school. She is only in her freshman year too! How did this all happen? When she walks down the halls everyone stares at her like she is an animal. Some people even punch her and call her names. She's in misery she is depressed and moody all the time, she is desperate for friends and none of her old friends will talk to her because she called the cops at a wild senior party... but if they only knew why.
   Melinda in the beginning of the book is terrified for her first day of high school. why though? In our world high school is supposed to be exciting. Well the year before she and her friend Rachel went to a senior party and everything was good until Melinda started to dance with a dangerous senior named Any Beast. She says "He started to unzip his jeans before I could process what was happening, my lips tired to say no but I couldn't he was like a boulder on me, as soon as I find my voice it was too late. I rushed to the phone to call the cops but Rachel shot me a look that made me feel awful but I had too." This shows that Melinda was raped but everybody sees it as she is just busting the party. This happens in real life a lot, were people only see one side of things and it can make the person look bad but in reality the person might just trying to do the right thing.
    Through the book she is constantly being tortured, people punch and slap and throw things at her all the time. Her teacher don't understand.Her parents just yell at her. Her best friend is going through strange phases and won't talk to her. On the first day her best friend Rachel mouths to her "I hate you". Woah harsh. A another issue is through the book Andy keeps popping up which is not helping her. Once Rachel starts to go out with Andy Melinda tries to warn her. When her and Rachel finally talk and Melinda tells her what really happens Rachel dosen't believe her and thinks she is just jealous. This is a recurring and it shows what Melinda is really like. She has been knocked down the whole book and even in the end she is trying to do the right thing even though she didn't do anything in the first, and when even trying to do the right and look out for the people that hurt her and didn't even try to figure out what really happened, the people still turn around and leave her. This shows how Melinda is loyal and this seems to happen alot through out the book.
    So in this book Melinda has been through a lot of things mostly bad but she pulls through. And she reall didn't deserve this kind of treatment. in fact she should have gotten the exact opposite treatment. She should have been comforted not shuned she should have been loved not yelled at. But it shows how strong she was and how she was truley breaking though, you could see by the end of the book she was in pieces she couldn't take much more of any of it.
                                                                                              

Responding to Responses

   Response #1- Hannah's

  I really liked Hannah's. I liked it because  I like the way she wrote it. What I mean is I like how it was
kinda casual and she has alot of her own unique opions in there. She really summerized the story, which I also think is good, beacuse after a while if you just keep summerizing the book its like u are giving every little detail and the point of a summery is to keep it brief and just give the reader an overview. Also I like how she is talking about human desire and war together ans how it happens to everyone. Anyway I thought it was well written and intersting.


 Response #2- Aaron

  I liked Aaron's because I think he gives good descriptions on the charachters. He lets you know who everybody is and what their role is the book, which can be helpful.  He also gives a good summery it is very breif and just gives you a quick overview. Which i think is important. I think that is important because you can loose the readers attention. I liked it and would consider reading the book now.

A Long Walk to Water: Reader Response

    “A Long Walk to Water” is based on the a true story about about  two different time

period in Southern Sudan, 2008 and 1996. The main  character  Salva’s  country

is in the middle of a war between Southern  and Northern Sudan.

His school is bombed and he is forced to flee. He ends up with a

group of  people from his village. He must survive wild animals the enemy tribe and

starvation until   finally he leads 150 people to Kenya. But soon he is forced to move

 to numerous fugitive  camps.

      He is soon offered a chance to go to America. Meanwhile in 2008 Nya is a young

11 year old girl  who lives in Sudan. She has a job that she must   get fresh water

 from the top of a mountain that is a long hard hike Back in 1996  Salva  is in

  America with his with his new family in upstate New York. He continues to learn

 and goes to college learns of his father’s survival. Finally he goes back to Southern

 Sudan and finds him. He starts to try to help Sudan in their time of need. He starts

to build wells and schools all  over Sudan. In 2008 Nya  sees a man help building   

wells and schools. The man she sees turns out to be Salva.

      Salva has been struggling through out the book.   Whether it be starvation,

almost  being abandoned by people in his own village, or watching his own

uncle get  killed by the enemy tribe or waiting to finally get to America.

But he keeps going like when he is  going to  the camp in Kenya  he must guide

150 people and he  didn’t abandon anyone of them. He tries to protect then

as best he can, especially because he already lost his friend to a lion before this.

 I think that he is connecting his own personal  experiences   and I think that he

trying to prevent the same thing from happening to his group, maybe it is because

he doesn’t want anybody to have to go through the same painful sadness he had

to go through.

    When Salva  found his uncle he was overjoyed. His uncle was a great leader.

He tried to protect everyone and he gave everybody an equal  amount of food,

went hunting and tried not to leave anybody behind. But eventuslly his uncle was

killed by the enemy tribe. After that he was still very young. The survivors are very

greedy and only look out for themselves. The exact opposite of the kind of group the

uncle was running. So Salva is fed very little  and is not treated well. Sometimes it

seems when a groups  leader is killed or they are just no longer there the group

 tends to fall apart because they are so used to relying on that one specific person

and they are so used to the way the leader did things. So when the leader isn’t there

 anymore the people have no idea what to do especially when there is no one to take

 the leaders place. But Salva later in the book  follows his uncles leadership

skills when he lead 150 people to Kenya. This shows that even though he might

not had been treated well he still is a good leader. This also shows Salva is a

forgiving person and doesn’t hold grudges even though people may have

done wrong to him.

    When Salva comes back to Sudan at the end of the book to help build more schools

and  help find fresh water. He is in his enemy tribe’s village. But the feud between

the two tribes isn’t as strong as it used to be. He is still helping the  village even t

though it is the enemy tribe, the same tribe who killed his uncle. Nya sees him

working and Nyas’ father points out that Salva is the enemy tribe. Nya is surprised

but this is another example of  how Salva doesn’t hold grudges. He is a forgiving  

person. Through the whole book Salva struggles and having people that he loves

and cares about being killed but  he keeps going. This showed the readers that 

Salva is forgiving, determined and good hearted.