COMING OF AGE FINAL READING RESPONSE

My reading response is about the book SPEAK by Laurie Halse Anderson. This book is about a teenage girl named Melinda who is having trouble going through her Freshman year of Highschool. She doesnt have any friends and she still was going through her Freshman Year without any. I thought she matured alot since the beginning of the book.

Melinda had matured a little from the beginning of the book to the middle of the book by her art project. Her art project is about Melinda having to draw a tree, and make it look creative. But while i was reading the book, I realized that the Tree wasnt just an art project, it reflected Melinda's Life. For Example, In the beginning of the book when she first got the assignment of the Tree Project, she thought it was going to be really easy. But then when she works on her project, she finds it hard to make a Tree look creative. She starts carving little trees onto blocks but then when she's finished, they come out looking all messed up and deformed. This is a reflection of how Melinda was feeling about what had happened to her during her summer before High School. But then at the End of the book, when she finally matured and told people about what had happened to her, her tree looked so much better and it was just the way she wanted it to look without it looking deformed and messed up.

In the beginning of the book, I thought Melinda was being ignorant because she could have just told somebody about what Andy Evans had done to her during the summer before High School. But she decided not to tell anyone, and then her Freshman Year became very bad for her without any friends until the end of the year. But then near the End of the book she became Wise and Mature because she finally came out and told her art teacher what had happened to her last summer.

I also thought Melinda Matured during the End of the book because when Andy Evans was going to Rape Melinda again in the Coat Closet where she hangs out in during class, she said no and she got away from him. The part that I thought she matured in was when she had said No to Andy, and had also got away from him. She also matured because the had the guts to break a mirror and get a sharp piece from it and hold it up to Andy's neck.

I thought this text related to me in a way because I've matured alot since when I was younger and also since the beginning of the 8th grade.
I thought the Reader should feel glad for Melinda because she finally became Wise and Mature about telling people what had happened to her and also learn this for in the future to always become wise and make the right decisions.