Speak

Speak

by: Laurie Halse Anderson
published by: Puffin Books

Summary: Melinda is only a freshman in high school. And already she has a black secret lying on her shoulders. She is already unpopular for calling the cops at a party over the summer. But she didn't mean to call the cops on the party, she called them for another reason, a personal reason. A reason that was bubbling up and growing inside of her like a sticky poison blackening her insides. She had to talk, but she wouldn't.

Personal review: I was touched by this book; it was a pretty intense read! It was very realistic but drove home the feelings I think the author intended. It was a very beautiful book and I would recommend it to a teenage girl.

Cautionary notes: scenes of rape and violence

Every Time a Rainbow Dies

Every Time a Rainbow Dies
by Rita Williams-Garcia
published by: Amistad

Summary: Thulani is a Jamaican teenager living in Brooklyn, New York, with his older brother and his brother's pregnant wife. He has a cage full of pigeons he keeps on his roof and lets out every morning, and every night they return. One night as he is welcoming the birds home, he spies something going on down in the alley he can see from his roof. A girl is being raped. Thulani doesn't feel brave or strong, but he yells for the men to leave her alone and runs down to them. When he gets there they are gone and he helps the girl back to her home. Ever since that night he has not been able to stop thinking about this girl who wears such bright, beautiful colors. Will she ever be his? Will she ever allow him to even talk to her? He wants to tell her that she is so filled with color that every time she steps outside, a rainbow dies.

Personal Review: I adored this book. It holds so much truth about life, love, loss and sadness, yet still carries hope and beauty. Thulani is a sensetive, kind boy who has found himself truly in love with a girl and he doesn't give up easily. I feel like it was perfect because Ysa, the girl he was in love with, would never let anyone in easily, so she needed someone who would make a perpetual nuisance of himself to get to know her.

Cautionary Notes: Graphic rape scene and teen sex