Please browse here to find books that I think are worth your time.... or are real stinkers. I will let you know what I REALLY think of what I am reading. You might not find the newest and most popular books here, but I would LOVE it if you find something unexpectedly great!

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Happy Reading!

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Out of My Mind


By Sharon Draper
Lexile = 700

Oh wow…. This book has got me thinking. First: I love the cover. You will too when you get the connection with the story. Hate to ruin it for you here, so I will just tell you that the story of Ollie the fish is on page 62.

Melody is a smart, smart, fifth grade girl. She actually has a photographic memory, which helps a lot in school, except for the fact that Melody has cerebral palsy and has never spoken. As she says (or writes), “It limits my body, but not my mind.” She has a wheelchair and has very limited control over her body. Melody is telling the story, so we know how smart she is, but she can’t tell anyone around her anything.

Because of her obvious physical challenges, everyone treats Melody differently. Of course many kids at school make fun of her. Most people talk “over” her as if she can’t hear or isn’t even there. Her life changes when she gets a “Medi-talker” that is a keyboard that Melody can use to speak for her. Suddenly, it becomes obvious that Melody is not only intelligent, but also has a sharp wit and has a lot going on in that head.

Her class is involved in a trivia challenge that will be televised. Only a few classmates will actually be chosen, and they have to be the best. I’ll let you read the rest. I think you’ll love it.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

So, I read this book and in my opinion is a great book because (spoilers) it tells the story about this girls called Melody that has a problem, and she can't talk at all. She doesn't have the control of her body, just her thumb. One day their parents bought her a machine that she called Elvira, and she could talk with everyone with using it. After that people start to know that she is so smart and she even participate in a quiz contest, doing pretty good actually. I think with this book we can learn that we don't have to judge a person just because they can't talk, maybe they could be smarter than us... And that's my opinion about "Out of my mind".

Unknown said...

So, I read this book and in my opinion is a great book because (spoilers) it tells the story about this girls called Melody that has a problem, and she can't talk at all. She doesn't have the control of her body, just her thumb. One day their parents bought her a machine that she called Elvira, and she could talk with everyone with using it. After that people start to know that she is so smart and she even participate in a quiz contest, doing pretty good actually. I think with this book we can learn that we don't have to judge a person just because they can't talk, maybe they could be smarter than us... And that's my opinion about "Out of my mind".

Anonymous said...

For my second book i read Out of my Mind by Sharon Draper. This book is about a girl named Melody who can't speak because she has a disability but she is actually really smart. I liked reading the parts that shows how she lives and how she communicates with people even though it is really hard for her. I didn't really like reading the parts about when she gets frustrated because people can't understand her cause I understand how that makes her very frustrated. I think this is a very good book and I would recommend it to other people because I think it shows a good message that we should know judge people when we first meet them and maybe just because a person can't talk doesn't mean that they are dumb or have no idea what is going on.
Naomi Nilson