Speak
Sketches of sixteen of Churchill's favorite historical characters selected from his four-volume A history of the English-speaking Peoples, followed by a profile of Sir Winston drawn from autobiographical writings and speeches.
Where Speak keeps showing up
Two of our editors' lists feature this novel.
What you might want to know about Speak
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Melinda Sordino calls the cops at an end-of-summer party and starts ninth grade as the school pariah. She does not say why. Across one Syracuse school year, an art class slowly draws her story out of her.
The most commonly searched is Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson (1999), a YA novel about a high school girl processing a sexual assault. The metadata above lists Winston Churchill, who did not write a YA novel by this title.
Yes. Speak has been frequently challenged in American schools, primarily for its depiction of sexual assault. It remains widely read and is often cited as one of the most important YA novels of the past 25 years.
Speak is 345 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Speak takes most readers 5 to 7 hours to finish.
Speak is a standalone novel by Winston S. Churchill, not part of a series.
Speak is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
