fighting words by kimberly brubaker bradley

Della, whose reactions stand in for the burgeoning consciousness of this book’s intended readership, doesn’t quite understand the root of Suki’s depression or the reasons Suki so feared Clifton. Now in a foster home under the care of the gruff but endearing Francine, Suki descends into a swirl of depression and nightmares. Della and Suki lived an unhappy life with Clifton, their mother’s boyfriend, until the night they escaped. Now, more than 20 years later, two new books-Kimberly Brubaker Bradley’s Fighting Words, aimed at middle-grade readers, and Kate Reed Petty’s True Story, targeted at adults but with a distinctly YA feel-grapple with similar stories about sexual assault, silence, and the importance of survivors figuring out how to form narratives around their experiences.įighting Words, published on August 11, is about a 10-year-old girl named Della, who’s been on her own with her older sister, Suki, since their mother went to prison after an incident involving a meth explosion in a motel room. Melinda’s narrative arc lies not only in the assault itself but also in the aftermath of her socially imposed silence, which takes place over a painful freshman year in which she loses friends and nearly loses herself, before ultimately telling her story and finding that final rush of catharsis. Speak tells the story of a teenage girl named Melinda, who is ostracized by her classmates after being assaulted at a high-school party-and who, in the traumatic aftermath of this incident, stops speaking almost completely. Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak (1999) was my first exposure to stories about sexual assault. Fighting Words by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley and True Story by Kate Reed Petty (Photo credit: Dial Books/Viking)

Fighting words by kimberly brubaker bradley