"If there is one book teens and parents (and everyone else) should read this year, Out of My Mind should be it" (Denver Post). Reviewįrom award-winning author Sharon Draper comes Out of My Mind, the story of a brilliant girl who cannot speak or write. If you are brave enough, strong enough, if you can bear to listen, hers is a story you need to hear. and teaching the world how to communicate with her. Melody is learning to communicate with the world. But, what if people - teachers, classmates, friends - don’t want Melody to succeed? And what if Melody’s new voice isn’t loud enough to be heard over all her difficulties?įrom multiple Coretta Scott King Award winner Sharon Draper comes a story full of heartache and hope. She’s showing everyone what she is really capable of and surprising even herself with the power of her computerized voice. A dream come true! At last, she's able to talk, to be in a regular classroom, and have regular conversations! Melody even joins the Whiz Kids Quiz Team - and becomes one of their most valuable members. All most people see is a special needs kid - never suspecting that trapped inside this eleven-year old girl is more information and insight than they ever imagined.īeing stuck inside her head is making Melody go out of her mind - that is until she discovers a computerized talking device that will allow her communicate for the first time ever. She’s the smartest kid in her whole school - but, NO ONE knows because she has virtually no way of communicating. Her head is like a video camera that is always recording. She also knows thousands and thousands of facts. She remembers everything that has ever happened to her in precise, exact detail - from the words to a song she once heard when she was little to what she ate for a typical mundane breakfast. This is one you really don’t want to miss.Melody has a photographic memory. You should read it, too - especially if you work with kids, but really, even if you don’t. And even though Melody is a little younger than the 7th graders I teach, this is definitely going to be one of the books I share as a read-aloud with my students this year. Sharon Draper’s OUT OF MY MIND is smart, funny, touching, and dare I say it… really important. What happened was not what I expected, and yet it was exactly what needed to happen for this book to pack the real and powerful punch that it does. Without giving too much away, I have to say that the last fifty pages of this book absolutely floored me. The new computer empowers her to try out for the school’s quiz team, and she surprises her classmates and her teacher with her performance. All of that leads up to fifth grade - the year Melody begins to leave her special education classroom for inclusion classes and starts using a piece of assistive technology that helps her communicate. Melody tells her life story, a story of parents who try their hardest, doctors who didn’t understand and a wonderful neighbor who always did, a little sister who seemed to be born perfect, a school that sometimes fails her, and classmates who react to her in ways that are heartbreaking and authentic. Being inside her head makes it a little easier to understand what it’s like to feel trapped inside a body that doesn’t work right, and readers will indeed feel Melody’s frustration, anger, triumph, and determination. Melody is almost eleven and has never walked on her own or spoken a single word because she was born with cerebral palsy. The narrator of this middle grade novel is Melody, a fifth grader who is smart, spirited, and funny. (Don’t worry, library people…I was dry by then.) Sharon Draper’s OUT OF MY MIND is definitely one of the best books I’ve read so far this year. …and then I sighed and just held onto it for a few minutes. Yesterday afternoon went something like this:ĭry off for five minutes to avoid dripping on library book.
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