It probably takes place in the late 1990s, since the book was first published in 1999.

Why is speak a banned book?

In 2020, the book was named the fourth most banned and challenged book in the United States “because it was thought to contain a political viewpoint and it was claimed to be biased against male students, and for the novel’s inclusion of rape and profanity.”

How old was Kristen Stewart in speak?

Stewart starred in the Lifetime/Showtime television film Speak (2004), based on the novel by the same name by Laurie Halse Anderson. Stewart, aged 13 at the time of filming, played a high school freshman, Melinda Sordino, who nearly stops speaking after being raped.