Speak Book Quiz
Eight multiple-choice questions on Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak (1999) — plot, characters and the moments everyone quotes. Two minutes, instant score, every answer explained below. For the full mixed-classics version, take the original book quiz — 15 questions across the whole canon.
All 8 questions and answers
Prefer to read the quiz instead of taking it? Expand for every question, answer and a one-line explanation.
- Why do Melinda's classmates shun her at the start of the year? — She called the police at a party, but they do not know why. Melinda called the police during a party; her classmates blame her for ending it, while she has not told them the reason.
- What grade is Melinda entering? — Freshman year of high school. The novel follows Melinda through the four quarters of her freshman year.
- What assignment does Mr. Freeman give his art students? — Make art around one subject, and Melinda chooses a tree. Mr. Freeman asks each student to work with one subject; Melinda is assigned a tree and returns to it all year.
- What does Melinda use to communicate when she cannot speak openly? — Her art and the notes she writes. Her sketchbook and small acts of communication carry what Melinda cannot yet say aloud.
- Who is Rachel in Melinda's life? — Her former best friend, now called Rachelle. Rachel was Melinda's best friend before the party; she changes her name to Rachelle and joins Andy's circle.
- What does Melinda eventually understand about Andy Evans? — He raped her at the party. Melinda gradually names what happened at the party and realizes Andy is still targeting other girls.
- What does Melinda do when Andy attacks her again in the closet? — She fights back with a piece of broken glass. During the final confrontation, Melinda fights back and tells Andy to stop.
- How does the novel end? — Melinda begins to tell the truth to a teacher. The novel closes as Melinda begins to speak to Mr. Freeman, the first step toward telling the truth.
About Speak
Melinda Sordino starts high school isolated: she called the police at a party, and the friends who do not know why have made her an outcast. Laurie Halse Anderson's novel moves through the four quarters of freshman year as Melinda's silence, art, and anger circle the truth about Andy Evans. A landmark young adult novel about trauma, with a narrator who has to find a way to speak again. The novel runs about 47,000 words (roughly 208 pages in a standard paperback) — about 3 hours and 17 minutes of reading at an average pace. Before you commit, see the full breakdown in how long it takes to read Speak or calculate reading time for any other book.
Easy - short, direct first-person passages and a diary-like voice; the subject matter includes sexual assault and its aftermath. If you get 6 or more of the eight questions right, the book clearly stuck.
What this quiz covers
Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak sits in our romance & coming-of-age shelf, and the eight questions follow the book the way a reader experiences it: how the story opens, the turn in the middle, the characters who carry it, and the ending people still argue about. You will not be asked for page numbers or publication trivia — but three or four questions are built to separate people who read the book from people who read a summary. If a question stumps you, that gap is your reading list talking.
Fair warning for the ambitious: readers who clear this quiz often move straight to the reading-time breakdown for Speak to plan the reread, then test the rest of their shelf against the mixed classic literature quiz.
More book quizzes
Twilight quiz, The Fault in Our Stars quiz, It Ends with Us quiz, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo quiz, 1984 quiz, Animal Farm quiz, Brave New World quiz — or browse every book quiz on the site. For scale, Speak is the 106th longest of the 133 classics timed here — shorter than Holes but longer than The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
Frequently asked questions
How many questions are in the Speak quiz?
Eight multiple-choice questions covering Laurie Halse Anderson's plot, characters and most famous moments. The quiz takes about two minutes and your score is instant.
Is the Speak book quiz free?
Yes — no signup, no email, nothing to install. Answer the eight questions and get your score immediately.
What score should I aim for?
8/8 means you know the book cold; 6+ is a solid score. Below 4, the book is calling you back for a reread.
Is the Speak quiz hard?
Easy - short, direct first-person passages and a diary-like voice; the subject matter includes sexual assault and its aftermath. The questions themselves stick to famous, load-bearing moments — the scenes and lines the book is remembered for — so a genuine read usually scores 6+.
How long is the Speak reading itself?
About 47,000 words — roughly 208 pages, or about 3 hours and 17 minutes at an average pace. The full pace breakdown is in how long it takes to read Speak.