Middle Grade Mondays: Out of My Mind

Author: Sharon M. Draper
Publisher: Antheneum (March 9, 2010)
Pages: 295
Reading Level: Grades 4 to 8
Source: Personal Copy

Description from GoodReads:

Eleven-year-old Melody has a photographic memory. Her head is like a video camera that is always recording. Always. And there's no delete button. She's the smartest kid in her whole school - but no one knows it. Most people - her teachers and doctors included - don't think she's capable of learning, and up until recently her school days consisted of listening to the same preschool-level alphabet lessons again and again and again.

If only she could speak up, if only she could tell people what she thinks and knows... but she can't, because Melody can't talk. She can't walk. She can't write.
Being stuck inside her head is making Melody go out of her mind - that is, until she discovers something that will allow her to speak for the first time ever. At last Melody has a voice... but not everyone around her is ready to hear it.

From multiple Coretta Scott King Award winner Sharon M. Draper comes a story full of heartache and hope. Get ready to meet a girl whose voice you'll never, ever forget.

For several years, I was a special education teacher working with young children with severe disabilities. Several of my students had severe cerebral palsy and others had Autism, or other Special Needs. I remember the challenges and frustration in trying to find a way for one of my students to communicate even simple thoughts or wants and needs. Also, I remember the challenges that the parents faced daily.

When I picked up Sharon Draper's OUT OF MY MIND, I was blown away at how she captured so many of the emotions, questions, frustrations, challenges facing children with cerebral palsy and the parents who love them. As I read Melody's story, I kept thinking "yes, I remember that" or "wow, that is so right on". Granted with any book that attempts to address these issues, there are some things that readers may challenge as not being portrayed appropriately, but I would have to remind readers that 1. This is a fictional novel and 2. Every child with a disability and his/her family has a different story.

While reading every chapter, I kept thinking that this book should be required reading for every special education and general education teacher out there. Though I think we are making more and more progress in addressing discrimination in many areas, I still believe we as a society still participate and support many attitudes and practices that enforce inappropriate stereotypes of children and adults with special needs. Draper has created an amazingly poignant story about discrimination and perceptions that still occur in present day. Her book will make you laugh, and cry. But most importantly it will likely make you think differently about a person trapped within a body that does not function with ease.

I highly encourage everyone to read OUT OF MY MIND. I have no doubt that it will be a contender for an ALA/Schneider Family Award (MG) for a character with a disability. This is going on my read aloud list for my students this fall.

-Aly