Shout

by Laurie Halse Anderson

This is the story of a girl who lost her voice and wrote herself a new one.

Looking back, I wonder how many girls he hurt and if someone hurt him first or if he was simply a felony-committing shithead.

Some people grow up knowing what they want to do: they color inside the lines, study at the right school, check off the boxes, and in the end they are handed the grown-up life they’ve dreamed of. That’s mostly bullshit, for the record.

Censorship is the child of fear the father of ignorance and the desperate weapon of fascists everywhere.

So afraid, manly men, you’re unmade by the mirror, horrified cuz no matter how hard you try, how loud the cheers amplified by a surround-sound system of institutional lies you can still hear us. The Reckoning

She hated every minute, but she taught me the same way, and when my daughters shot up and towered over us both their long arms, strong hands snatching basketballs and softballs, playing trumpet, slamming gavels, leaping over mountains and storming castle walls, my mother rested in their shade and finally relaxed into the shape of her own satisfaction.

that after you speak after you shout your open mouth will breathe in the light for which you’ve hungered and your backbone will unfurl until you can again dance to the beat of your steadfast heart