Out Of My Mind

Melody has Cerebral Palsy. She has to sit in a wheelchair and cannot talk, walk, write, feed herself, change, … basically, she can’t do a lot of stuff that her fellow classmates can.

Throughout all her years in school, almost all her teachers think that Melody is some stupid girl. One teacher even makes everyone in her third grade class listen to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Old Macdonald, The Itsy Bitsy Spider, and a bunch of other preschool songs. Melody was also forced to go over the alphabet every single day, even though she knew it perfectly well.

But Melody is NOT stupid. Just because someone has a disability doesn’t mean they’re stupid, in fact, they might even be a genius, which Melody is. She has photographic memory, knows about a million trivia answers, AND is the smartest kid in the school.

Yet no one knows.

I can’t IMAGINE what it’s like to be Melody. I would NEVER be able to stand the thought of people laughing at me and calling me a dolt when I can’t even talk back to defend myself. All the thoughts in my head bottled up for, in Melody’s case, 11 years.

Obviously, she is annoyed.

Finally, Melody discovers a machine that could change her life – one that can TALK FOR HER! She applies for it – and gets it. Now she can speak her mind! And talk to her new friend Rose!

Unfortunately, some kids opinions of Melody take a turn for the worse, especially after Melody gets the highest score on a test and is accepted into the school quiz team. She and her teammates could win a trip to the finals in Washington D.C.!

Yup. Jealous mean girls Molly and Claire totally hate Melody now.

So to cut things short, Melody’s quiz team earns a trip to the finals and they are all so excited! Including Melody, that is, until she and her mom arrive at the airport. It turns out their fight was canceled. Melody is confused. If the flight is canceled, then where are her teammates?

Turns out they ditched her on an earlier flight. On purpose.

Ouch.

And the even worse thing is that Rose was on the quiz team. She could have easily called Melody to tell her to come. But Rose thought about it and didn’t.

Will Melody ever use her amazing voice again? Or will she stay quiet, in fear of being betrayed again?

Melody is amazing and I really enjoyed reading about her. The book portrays a story of perseverance and voicing your opinion. Probably 5th to 7th graders would like Out Of My Mind. After all, it deserves 5 stars!