Banned Book Project

by Elaine Barnett

Speak
by Laurie Halse Anderson

There is an average of 293,066 victims that are 12 and older that get raped a year.
There is 1 sexual assault every 107 seconds. 68% of sexual assault are not reported to the
police, and 98% of rapist will never spend a day in jail.
A preteen book that tells a story about a young girl getting rape before her first
year at highschool, and at the end being able to speak up and tell someone was called a
soft porn.

Not only has it been called a soft porn, but Speak by Laurie Halse

Anderson has been challenged by parents, teachers, and others. Anderson writes that Speak
is about the emotional trauma suffered by a teen after a sexual assault and that it is
not a pornography (childrensbooks.about.com).

Author; Laurie HAlse Anderson

Born October 31, 1961.

Age 54.
Laurie lived in Potsdam, New York. On her senior year of
highschool she became a exchange student in Denmark where
she lived on a pig farm for 13 months.
The first book she was recognized was Speak published in
1999.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJU7b3C8QMk

Laurie had no intention of publishing the book at first,

but after a while she sent it in.
Also the story came to her when she had a bad dream about
a young girl sobbing.

The history behind the book being banned

The book was challenged for a couple of things like self

harm, suicide thoughts, the rape scene, and the inoperate
language used.
The self harm was when the main character Melinda cut
herself because she was depressed. Also the suicide
thoughts were because she was depressed.
One major conflict brought up about the book was the rape
scene being called soft porn or a pornagraphy.

What was going on in society when the book came out.

IN 1999 (when the book was published)

Killing spree at Columbine High School

JFK jr. dies in a plane accident

In 2010 (Wesley Scroggins challenged Speak)

Winter olympics
Oil spill in Gulf of Mexico

Should this book be banned or challenge?

This book shouldnt be challenged because teens need to
know that getting rape is not ok. People shouldnt look at
the book because of the sexual content but why the writer
did pick this topic to write about. Also Speak doesnt just
show people about rape and how to speak up, but also how
friends change when you get to highschool.

Speak vs. Fahrenheit 451

Speak

Melinda Sordino also started

happy until she got tapped at a
high school party.
At the end Melinda finally spoke
up and started to get her life
back.

Fahrenheit 451
Guy Montag was happy at
the beginning until his
neighbor open his eyes to
reality.
Guy started to get a better
grasp on his life when he
left his town, and found
other people that wanted to
open peoples eyes about
books.

Sites
http://madwomanintheforest.com/laurie/
http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/contributor/laurie-halseanderson
http://childrensbooks.about.com/od/censorship/a/BookBanning-Censorship-Of-Kids-Books.htm

http://madwomanintheforest.com/this-guy-thinks-speak-ispornography/
http://history1900s.about.com/od/timelines/tp/1990timeline.
htm
http://www.vox.com/2014/5/9/5696162/6-facts-about-sexualassault-on-campus
https://rainn.org/statistics