Out of My Mind

By Sharon Draper
Rating: 3 3/4 stars

Melody is 11 years old and has never said a word.  Melody has a severe case of cerebral palsy that leaves her in a wheelchair with few motor functions, but her brain works just fine.  Sadly, she cannot make her intelligence known beyond her family until the day she gets her Medi-Talker--a computer that she can type into and get it to speak for her.  Finally Melody can make herself heard!  Now that she is in 5th grade, her classroom gets to go to inclusion classes in school and Melody is thrilled to make a "normal" friend in Rose.  But even more exciting is when Melody scores high on the history teacher's Whiz Kids test to see who should be on their competitive quiz team.  At first no one can believe it, but when Melody is able to repeat her show of intelligence, she makes the team and studies hard to be able to represent the school in the competition.  They make it past the first round and are ready to go on to Washington D.C., but then disaster strikes at the worst moment.  Will Melody ever catch a break?  An important story, told in Melody's own voice, about how we look at and treat people who are different.