Speaking up for Speak

I first read Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak after I bought it at a conference that I attended where she was giving the key note speech. I had just sold my first novel Boy Proof and she signed my book.

The inscription read:

To Cecil, Who is speaking out in her own books now.

Maybe she signs that in everyone's books. I don't know. It doesn't matter. It meant a lot to me.

I went home and read the book and thought it to be quite brilliant. I put it on my shelf. "A treasure," I thought. "A c...