Okay, I'm ready to admit a shameful, teen librarian secret: I never read Speak. Whew, that was tough. So coming from that angle, here is my review of this book:
It is a follow up of the author's life, response to her first book, and her book tours and the teens she met there. For the second half at least. As a person who didn't read Speak I'm thankful she included the story of her life in the beginning. My favorite part of the whole book was her time in Denmark. It was very soothing, which I'm sure was her intention. I'm not a fan of prose and it takes me a while to get into it. The POV switch every once in a while was jarring and any reading rhythm I had going was lost.

Anyway, that was my personal review, now on to my Mock Printz review: Has a sequel book ever won the Printz award? Not that it matters. When it comes to Laurie, her books are always well researched, including references and help lines at the end, and as for the material, it's based off her real life, so I should HOPE the content is well researched. Setting... would teens be confused about when this all took place? The author does a good job keeping the story timeless (and sadly teens of today can relate to growing up in a broken family and sexual abuse and rape just as teens in the 1970s could). The book layout was pretty nice, echoes of Speak are evident.
Dunno, I wasn't too thrilled with this one, but that doesn't mean it's not a bad book or doesn't have a chance in winning the Printz!