Out of My Mind - Sharon M. Draper

 

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.

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My daughter brought this book home for me after seeing it on one of her (numerous) book orders at school.  She said that it "just sounded so interesting, mommy".  I am truly one blessed Momma. 

There is no doubt that this book will stay with you for the rest of your life.  It's message will reside there somewhere in the depths and reaches of your being, fluttering just on the edges of your conscience it will speak to you, I guarantee that.  It will most likely change your world view. You will probably not see anyone the same again, you will never look upon the sea of human faces and simply dismiss them flippantly.  No, you will forever be changed if you read 'Out of My Mind'.

"You've got it easy-you have all of your physical functions working properly.  You never have to struggle just to be understood...you're just lucky...all of us who have our faculties intact are just plain blessed.  Melody is able to figure out things, communicate, and manage in a world where nothing works right for her."

Not even Melody's mother has any idea what is really going on inside of Melody.  Melody is trapped inside and she can't communicate the simplest things to those around her.  She wants to share memories with her parents and can't, the things she loves about them most she can't tell them, she hears a song and can not tell anyone that she likes it.  Oh, how I fell in love with Melody and how desperately I wanted to make it all okay...make it all go away.  Sometimes, I am struck by how much we take for granted.  Sometimes, this realization brings tears to my eyes.



ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sharon Draper is a two-time Coretta Scott King Award-winning author, most recently for Copper Sun, and previously for Forged by Fire. She's also the recipient of the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Author Award for New Talent for Tears of a Tiger and the Coretta Scott King Author Honor for The Battle of Jericho and November Blues. Her other books include Romiette and Julio, Darkness Before Dawn, and Double Dutch. She lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, where she taught high school English for twenty-five years. She's a popular conference speaker, addressing educational and literary groups both nationally and internationally.

This biography was provided by the author or their representative.

*The opinions stated herein are all my own.