Speechless by Valerie Sherrard is an intriguing book about a boy named Griffin Maxwell, who is dreading the upcoming yearly speeches in his class. He's worried that this speech will end up like his last one, which was a complete disaster. Finally his best friend, Bryan, comes up with a solution, to go on a protest of silence for all the children fighting in wars in African countries. At first all of this is just a big scam, something to get him out of giving the speech. But after fighting with the school bully and many other outrageous things (all without speaking) Griffin starts to realize what he's actually doing. That's when Griffin realizes he wants to do something to help the children fighting in the war. The question is, what can he do, after all he's just a kid.
Speechless is a very interesting and gripping book. It is definitely a page turner that grips the reader's attention until the very end. The book was also very touching, the plight of the young children fighting in wars made me want to do something for the children as well. But the book was not completely realistic, I know that it's a work of fiction and it's not something that actually happened but at times everything seemed strange and hard to believe. Overall, the book was fantastic and though it's not my favorite I would definitely recommend it to others.
Reviewer Age:13
Reviewer City, State and Country: Champaign, IL USA
