This year, I reached out to friends and family this year for ideas for Banned Books Week posts. A friend suggested “banned books that are also classics or fantasies that might be outside your usual reading type.”
For this challenge, I considered Gone With the Wind, Lolita, and I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. But all of them are decently long, and I was concerned that as close to BBW as I’d had the idea that I wouldn’t be able to finish one of them before Banned Books Week started. (Let’s be honest – I’d have had to started Gone With the Wind six months ago to finish in time…)
I had also been curious about Speak for a while, in part because I write Young Adult fiction, in part because it’s a relatively new addition to the Banned Books Lists, and also in part because I saw it a lot on the Young Adult holds list when I worked in the children’s department at a library.
I was never a big fan of the “slice of life” high school books, even when I was in high school. I almost passed on it for this challenge – for the idea of reading a “classic” you might not normally read - until I checked the publication date and saw that it was published in 1999, when I was in high school. It’s older than the high school students it’s being assigned to now. I decided that qualified. It’s also only 200 pages long, giving me a much better chance of finishing in the two weeks I had from when I decided to start the challenge to the first day of Banned Books Week.
Speak is about Melinda, a ninth grader struggling to find her way in high school. Over the summer, she called the police at a party and most of the school has not forgiven her for that. Melinda becomes more and more withdrawn, to the point that she is in danger of failing and nearly stops speaking altogether.
I’m glad I chose it. I really enjoyed it. I ploughed through it much more quickly than the much shorter H.P. Lovecraft novella that I put aside in favor of getting this one done for my blog. I can’t put my finger on what made me keep reading – it’s not suspenseful or action packed. Maybe it’s because I knew a little about the storyline and that made me curious. In any case, I loved it and, not only do I see no reason to ban or challenge it, I also do agree that it should be read and discussed in schools.
Let’s speak more about that…
Speak has appeared on the following Banned and Challenged lists, per the American Library Association:
Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books: 2000-2009 (#60) – You’ll recall it was published in 1999.
Top 100 Most Banned and Challenged Books: 2010-2019 (#25)
Top 10 Most Challenged Books of 2020 (#4) – For reasons of: “it was thought to contain a political viewpoint and it was claimed to be biased against male students, and for the novel’s inclusion of rape and profanity.”
Frequently Challenged Young Adult Books
Additionally, Wikipedia notes that Speak has been challenged for "exposing children to immorality," being "classified as soft pornography," glorification of drinking, cursing, and premarital sex."
Examination of some of these reasons behind this cut due to spoilers.
“Political viewpoint” – As best I can tell, this refers to either the nearly-satirical saga of the school board continually changing the school mascot so as not to tread on the toes of any cultural groups, or to the debate started and then abruptly stopped in Melinda’s social studies class.
In said “debate,” her teacher goes off on an anti-immigration rant; half the class disagrees with him, while half agree. That seems to me to be less a political viewpoint and more, “hey, half the class is pro-immigrant and half is anti” – y’know, kind of like a real-world split. The teacher’s point of view isn’t even presented as wrong. Melinda is a very neutral narrator of the scene as far as politics goes; what she takes exception to is the teacher shutting down the discussion once it starts going against him, rather than letting the students continue to debate.
“Biased against male students” – Not at all. There are plenty of male students. Most are presented in a neutral light, aside from the fact that many of them are annoyed with Melinda for calling the police at a party over the summer. Indeed, the girls in the book are presented much more harshly than most of the boys. Melinda’s male lab partner is presented as a character of admiration – he is willing to stand up and speak his mind. The only male student presented in a negative light is a student she refers to as “IT” until she finds out his name. Melinda is right to see him in a negative light, as she finally reveals that the reason she called the police at that party is that “IT” raped her.
Profanity – There’s really not that much. I just flipped through the book looking for some bad words. I found “sucks.” After quite a bit more flipping I found “bitch” and “bastard.” Oh dear. Heavens to Betsy. I finally found “bullshit.” My, oh, my such a dirty book that I had to flip through most of the book to find that.
Rape, immorality, softcore pornography, and glorifying premarital sex: Rape. Yes, OK, you got me there. That’s the whole point. Melinda goes to a party over the summer between 8th and 9th grade. Yes, there is alcohol. Yes, she drinks some. Yes, she gets drunk. And, yes, she is raped. We don’t find this out (though it's hinted at) until halfway through the book. She is THIRTEEN when it happens: a handsome older boy compliments her, kisses her. She thinks she’s going to start high school with a boyfriend. She is A CHILD. She doesn’t understand what is happening to her until it’s too late. Even then, she barely describes it. He pushes her shirt down and her shorts up. “I’m not really here,” she thinks desperately before declaring “he hurts me he hurts me he hurts me and gets up.” That’s it. He could just as well be punching her in the face. Immorality. Are we calling the rapist immoral? Then hell yeah, I’m all about that. Are we calling a 13-year-old immoral for a bad decision? If so, that’s stupid. What I find more immoral is the lack of support and understanding this girl gets from her parents and guidance counselor. Softcore pornography. You gotta be kidding me. Was the passage I just quoted sexy or titillating? Reading it as an adult you barely understand what happened to her. The “hurts me” line just happened to be the last line of the page in my edition. I read it. Turned the page. Turned it back to double check. Yeah, that just happened. But it is most definitely not explicit and in no way pornographic. Glorifying premarital sex. Excuse me? EXCUSE ME? Did we just read the same book? I am certain that the people claiming this have most definitely not read the book. Glorifying getting raped at a party and not even really understanding what happened to you? Glorifying being so traumatized by your first sexual experience that you tank your grades and stop speaking? This book glorifies nothing – except maybe the need for approachable adults who might have been able to help this poor girl.
In fact, Melinda’s biology class highlights the very fact that premarital sex is NOT glorified… or even mentioned. Bored, Melinda flips through the textbook – “Nothing about sex. We aren’t scheduled to learn about that until eleventh grade.” Maybe if someone had bothered teaching these kids about sex earlier Melinda would have had a better understanding of what was happening to her.
.....
This is the story of a girl – a CHILD – who wants to be mature and wants to fit in, and wants to understand who she is, and what has happened to her. This is a story of high school: the story of being forced to go to pep rallies you don’t care about, deal with the minutiae of what each social clique wants from you, of dealing with the whole school demonizing you for doing what was right in a bad situation. It’s about dealing with unobservant parents, unhelpful guidance counselors, and unevenly enforced school rules (Melinda frequently bemoans her need for hall passes while popular senior jock Andy waltzes off and back onto campus with fast food takeout). And that’s on top of classes, homework, and, in Melinda’s case, trauma.
And as much as I disliked most of high school, I loved it.