Friday Memes: Shout by Laurie Halse Anderson

Book Beginnings is hosted by Rose City Reader and Friday 56 is hosted by Freda's Voice. Wow, it has been awhile since I posted a Friday Meme! It has been so busy since school started. This book demands attention!

I can't believe it has been twenty years since Speak was birthed. I can believe the impact the book has had on countless readers. It was such a privilege to hear Anderson talk earlier this month and to receive an arc of SHOUT. 

SHOUT by Laurie Halse Anderson. 290 p. Viking/ Penguin Young Readers Group, March 12, 2019. 9780670012107. 

Publisher synopsis: Bestselling author Laurie Halse Anderson is known for the unflinching way she writes about, and advocates for, survivors of sexual assault. Now, inspired by her fans and enraged by how little in our culture has changed since her groundbreaking novel Speak was first published twenty years ago, she has written a poetry memoir that is as vulnerable as it is rallying, as timely as it is timeless. In free verse, Anderson shares reflections, rants, and calls to action woven between deeply personal stories from her life that she's never written about before. Searing and soul-searching, this important memoir is a denouncement of our society's failures and a love letter to all the people with the courage to say #MeToo and #TimesUp, whether aloud, online, or only in their own hearts. Shout speaks truth to power in a loud, clear voice— and once you hear it, it is impossible to ignore.

First Line: Kinda tough with blank verse. Here's the first stanza of the first poem: PRELUDE: mic test

this book smells like me
woodsmoke
salt
honey and strawberries
sunscreen, libraries
failures and sweat
green nights in the mountains
cold dawns by the sea

Page 56: IT, part 3-playing chicken with the devil

Lots of boys at my school played chicken,
countless varieties of the game.