Speak or Silence by Laurie Halse Anderson

Jackie Chapman
Mr. DuBose
M&W Pd 1
5/4/16

Speak or Silence

        How would you feel if your friends turned their backs against you? What if everyone hated you for busting an end of the summer party where everyone was? Melinda Sordino knows exactly how it feels. When everyone is mad at you and it forces you to go mute and shy. Laurie Halse Anderson is able to illustrate that for us in her book Speak. She published the book on October 22 1999. When you think about it you would want the world for your daughter. Melinda’s parents are too busy for her to even notice that something was wrong. What if a terrible incident happened to her and she kept it to herself? How do you protect her from the world? Laurie Halse Anderson will help explain more in the book along with how she felt about it and the awards she received.

        Laurie Halse Anderson was born in Potsdam New York on October 23 1961. Laurie Halse Anderson is the New York Times bestselling author who writes for children of all ages. Laurie lives in northern New York, with the love of her life, best friend, and soulmate. Her husband built her a little woodland cottage so she can spend countless hours writing when she is not with her family and her large garden. She is known for tackling tough subjects with humor, sensitivity and her work has earned numerous national and state awards, as well as international recognition.  Laurie Halse Anderson’s books Speak and Chains, were National Book Award finalists and she was rewarded with the 2009 Margaret A. Edwards Award that was given by YALSA division of the American Library Association for the significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature. Now is the right time to clear up the pronunciation of Laurie’s name, because it is her name after all and she wants it to be pronounced right. Well-meaning people mess up the pronunciation of it and she gets tired of it. Laurie said Halse rhymes with waltz it is not “hal-see”. Laurie said if she could have anything in the world that it would be world peace. Sounds familiar right it is what everyone wants. She also said that if she could have a second thing would be for people to have people pronounce her name correctly.

        Laurie’s second grade teacher showed her just how cool it was to write during a lesson on haiku’s. Laurie read books all the time and was very bad at math but then, most creative literature people are and she overcame that. Her favorite genre as a little tike would have been historical fiction, then as a teenager it would of ben science fiction and fantasy. Laurie did not think that she would be a good author but a great doctor. Her biology teacher found this information to be plausible, her chemistry teacher would have found this information to be funny and would have laughed due to her grades in the class you would of too. She was fascinated with foreign cultures and languages Laurie studied abroad in Denmark her senior year for thirteen months. When she came home she worked for minimum wage at a clothing store which guided her to go to college s she did not get stuck in a low paying job. She attended Onondaga Community College for two years and worked on a pig farm. She transferred to Georgetown University in nineteen eighty-one and graduated from therein nineteen eighty-four with a Bachelor Science of Languages and Linguistics (B.S.L.L.) in Linguistics and Languages which was inadequate in getting a job.  Laurie loved writing but had considered it a little more as a hobby and not a profession. Eventually it dawned on her that people would pay to read what she was writing and became a freelance reporter She wrote multiple books. Ndito Runs in nineteen sixty-four along with Turkey Pox.  In nineteen ninety-eight No Time For Mother’s Day was published featuring the same characters of Turkey Pox. Laurie wrote nonfiction for extra cash when needed. The first book was about Saudi Arabia for children. She loved working with the children and learning about their culture and religion. She also co-authored a book with Dr. Ward Swallow about parenting children who are shy and had plenty experience with her oldest daughter Stephanie.

        Laurie took a break from rewriting the book Fever seventeen ninety-three and wrote Speak which turned out to be a phenomenal book. She enjoyed writing Speak and loved the outcome of the book. Her book Speak won award after award after award. It was a National Book Award Finalist, a Printz Honor book, Booklist Top Ten First Novels of nineteen ninety-nine and many more. Everyone thought that the book was written from her own perspective and then her daughters perspective but luckily it was not and that they did not have to go through that emotional ride and grieve. Everyone had loved the book and enjoyed the wonderful way Laurie wrote it. Laurie had time to clear her head, so when she focused back on the book Fever seventeen ninety-three she got it finished and had it published in two thousand.