Family Book of The Day:
Speak
– Learn MoreThe first ten lies they tell you in high school.“Speak up for yourself–we want to know what you have to say.” From the first moment of her freshman year at Merryweather High, Melinda knows this is a big fat lie, part of the nonsense of high school. She is friendless, outcast, because she busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops, so now nobody will talk to her, let alone listen to her. As time passes, she becomes increasingly isolated and practically stops talking altogether. Only her art class offers any solace, and it is through her work on an art project that she is finally able to face what really happened at that terrible party: she was raped by an upperclassman, a guy who still attends Merryweather and is still a threat to her. Her healing process has just begun when she has another violent encounter with him. But this time Melinda fights back, refuses to be silent, and thereby achieves a measure of vindication.
In Laurie Halse Anderson’s powerful novel, an utterly believable heroine with a bitterly ironic voice delivers a blow to the hypocritical world of high school. She speaks for many a disenfranchised teenager while demonstrating the importance of speaking up for oneself.
Speak was a 1999 National Book Award Finalist for Young People’s Literature.
Today’s Book of The Day is sponsored by this week’s Kids’ eBook of The Week:
Journey to Twilight: Book One
– Learn MoreAvid sixth-grade trail biker, Lorna Wilson, moves to Arizona with her mom and baby brother leaving her dad behind.
Unpacking, Lorna knows she needs to find a way to fit in. When the girl next door knocks on Lorna’s front door, she opens up to an idea to solve her problem.
Splashing in the pool at Ally’s house, Lorna learns about the bike challenge created by a scar-faced neighborhood legend, Samuel Black. Then, she hears herself boasting that she can take on Samuel Black in his own race and win.
Lorna’s words quickly come back to bite her. Although none of the kids will root for the new girl, an ancient cairn opens to Lorna showing her the Land of Twilight, a time between times, a land not in real time.
What she thinks she wants forks and changes as her friendships grow deeper. This story offers a ladder to emotional growth for a kid endangered by divorce.
Get all three of the action-adventure fantasies in Twilight for intermediate and middle school grades. Illustrations are by award-winning artist, Brianna Osaseri. Themes: Time travel ages 9-12; action-adventure; Female protagonist; diversity; Book one in a series. Synopsis: Riding over a manhole at sunset, new kid Lorna Wilson surfaces in Twilight, where she is given three impossible tasks to complete.