Justine Regan

Justine Regan
Speak
Laurie Halse Anderson
realistic fiction
Holiday
Pg. 91



1. Right now in my book Melinda has become friends with Heather even though she always seems to be annoyed by her. Melinda never really seems to be happy, I'm not really sure why. Melinda's gym teacher has discovered her talent in shooting foul shots, but she can't join the basketball team because, Melinda's grades are too low. Melinda's parents seem like they're having lots of problems because, they always fight with each other- nonstop. I think this make Melinda feel bad because, she thinks that it's her fault that her parents are always fighting- which probably isn't even true. Melinda is now sitting with the Martha's. The Martha's are these girls that are completely perfect, and mean. They always wear coordinating outfits, and they do tons of community service projects. When they do a project they don't give anyone credit for the work they do. They make Heather through out their lunch trays for them. Heather is just following them around because other then Melinda, they are her only friends.




2. Up until now, my book has been really boring, all Melinda has been doing is moping around. Melinda kept talking about this person she calls IT. Until just now she hasn't given any information about IT which has been bugging me. I think this IT is going to make this book much more interesting. I'm really hoping I get more information as the book goes on, I hate not knowing what's going on because, I can't understand what's going on as much. I also want to know what is going on with Melinda's parents and their jobs. I don't think I'm ever going to find out why they fight so much though.



3. A main theme in this book is reaching out. Throughout the book, Melinda keeps talking about this huge secret she has. No one knows about the truth and she always says how much she wishes she could tell her old friends. The reason reaching out is the theme is because, Melinda is not reaching out. If Melinda just told one of her old friends the truth and reached out to them, they would most likely accept her and be willing to listen to her. Since she chooses not to tell anyone, she doesn't even give them the chance to prove that they would listen to her. Heather reaches out to Melinda a lot in this book. She is really nice to Melinda, who doesn't act like she cares about anything. Heather is always trying to think of ways they can hang out and have fun and all Melinda ever wants to do is take a nap, sit around her house and watch T.V. or mope around. By doing this, she is just going to push Heather away from her




4. My favorite character is Heather. Heather is really nice to Melinda even though Melinda doesn't make any effort to be nice back to her. Heather is really open to meeting new people, and she is always nice to people (no matter how mean they are). When the Martha's are mean to Heather she just brushes is off. I like that she has a really good temper and she rarely gets mad. This is that same when she is with Melinda. I also like that Heather treats everyone the same. She seems really fair which I like, she is the type of caring person that Melinda should want to be friends with.




5. My least favorite characters are the Martha's. They don't ever put anyone other than themselves into consideration. They always take credit for work- even if they didn't actually do it, and they make up rules as to why that's OK to do. "Part of being on probation means she's not allowed to take credit for her work"(pg. 45). This shows how the Martha's make up rules, that are only fair to them. They ended up taking credit for all the hard work Heather did to set up for that party. I also don't like that the Martha's don't seem to want to give Melinda a chance at being friends with them. They decide by only looking at her once that she's weird and then want nothing to do with her.



6. Next, I think this IT kid is going to be revealed a lot more. I think IT will become a main character in the book and be a main source of upcoming problems. I think something is going to happen with Melinda and the Martha's, maybe they will decide to give her a chance and not make any more snap judgements of her. I also think that Melinda's gym teacher will get her to join the basketball team, even though she doesn't want to. I think that Melinda will end up being glad she gave it a chance, even if she decides that she doesn't actually like the sport. She seems really bored, I think this will give her something to do in her spare time. I also have a feeling that Melinda's parent's fighting will get worse and create some sort of huge drama where Melinda has to choose between one side or another. I think Melinda will choose her mom because, she got really mad at her dad when he wasn't really doing his job, partially because Melinda knew her mom worked really hard all day at her store. Another reason I think Melinda will choose her mom is because, her mom's store isn't doing too well and Melinda could probably help her mom fix that.