Book Title – Out of My Mind
Author – Sharon M. Draper
Published by Simon & Schuster India
Type – Paperback
Recommended Age – 10 and above
I am posting this review on behalf of my daughter Prisha Ambi (9 years old) who loves books, books and more books and is an advanced reader. This particular book is her most loved and favourite amongst her collection.
Story in short
Melody Brooks was a genius girl! Words always floated around her. She was neither able to walk nor talk.
She had cerebral palsy, but she was awfully smart. She had a photographic memory; she remembered every moment of her life. This is a story about when she was finally able to talk and express herself.
Her mother took her from one hospital to another asking if it was right to take her to school. Even though the doctors took tests, they were not smart enough to understand that Melody was smarter than them and needed tricky questions to be asked.
Her mother knew that Melody was smart and took her to Spaulding Street Elementary School. There she was taken to Room No. H5 where she met other kids who also had some sort of health issues.
There the teachers treated children like nursery kids. Even after the sixth month, her teacher hadn’t taught the letters after letter B.
Melody hated the stuff which seemed just plain stupid to her. One day, during the session of how to pronounce buh, her friend started throwing crayons on the ground because of the irritating teaching style of Mrs. Billups, and so Melody started screeching, shrieking, and crying. She cried like a two-year-old. Mrs. Billups didn’t know what to do so she asked the principal and in turn principal asked the teacher to call Melody’s mother.
There was a fight between the teacher and her mother. Everyone was happy that there were no boring nursery classes because the teacher had quit her job after the fight. Mrs Shannon was the new replacement. She was a fun teacher and taught the children what they needed to learn – what a fifth-grader had to learn instead of ABC.
She also took them to inclusion classes where normal students studied. There, Melody met a girl called Rose and they became close friends eventually. After few months Melody’s mother gave birth to a baby girl and named her Penny. And wait, have I mentioned Mrs.V? Well, she was Melody’s neighbour and her baby sitter. She also used to babysit Penny.
At school Melody also had her own aide called Catherine. One day when Rose brought her new laptop, Melody realised that she needed a device specially designed for people like herself. After searching for a while, she and Catherine found a device called Medi-Talker. After waiting for several days, when the Medi-Talker arrived, they added all the words, names, sentences, and phrases she needed to use.
The story takes another twist. She was to participate in Whiz Kids’ competition which was being held in Washington DC. But unfortunately she had to miss her flight because her friends betrayed her. Meanwhile, Penny fractured her leg and had to be rushed to the hospital. When Melody got to know that her friends came in the 9th place, she laughed seeing the plastic painted trophy and thinking if they did not betray her, they would have bagged the first place.
My take
My favourite part is when Melody gets her life, her destiny, the Medi- talker. Whenever I see people happy, it makes me happy and that’s why I read that part again and again.
Why do I recommend this book?
It doesn’t matter what others say, but it highly matters when you give your 100% in everything! The author narrated it perfectly “Nothing is impossible! Believe in yourself!”
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