‘Out of my mind’ by Sharon Draper is a gripping page turner about melody an 11 year old 5th grader with cerebral palsy a physical disability taking away the ability to walk, talk and move your arms and legs when you want but doesn’t take away the ability to learn. Melody is a completely fictional character but the book is loosely based on Sharon’s daughter who had some difficulties of her own. This book follows melody through her life and her experiences at school with melody making friends but also some other negative relationships that give her a hard time. On the outside you may not think that melody is very smart and knowledgable but on the inside she is as smart as Eienstein. Being smart it makes it very stressful to be in a ‘not normal’ ‘helping’ class with other children who have disabilities but she does get to go to some ‘normal’ classes that they call inclusion class. Melody is very bright and happy in this book but has her difficulties trying to make the quiz team. Will she make it?

In ‘out of my mind’ Sharon Draper uses lots of amazing techniques including figurative language. One of the examples in the book is at the very first page where it says ‘words, I’m surrounded by thousands of them maybe even millions… words have always swirled around me like snowflakes each one delicate and different, each one melting untouched in my hands. this was using similes because it used the word like in the snowflake example. Sharon Draper also uses a very smart technique when she leaves lots of clues around the book leading up to the end. I won’t tell you the example because it will spoil the book but if you read this book make sure you read it very carefully!

Some of the themes that go around this book include don’t judge a book by its covers. This one is great and melody is about the best example for it that you can find because she has cerebral palsy on the outside but that is only a physical disability because she is probably the smartest and most knowledgeable character in this book so don’t judge someone by how they look. Another one is ability vs disability. This means that you should look at what she can do known as her abilities and not what she can’t do yet known as her disabilities. You shouldn’t just look at the negative but look at the positive. In this book her abilities are being funny, smart, kind and so creative.

In this book the relationships with melody and others are so important especially later in the book and here are some. First is the obvious which is the family. This includes penny, the mum and the dad. The dad didn’t appear much in the book but the mum always stood up for melody when some of her teachers weren’t helping melody as well as possible including Mrs billups. Penny has also been very nice to melody because there are probably 200 times where penny says didi (what she calls melody) if you where in Melody’s situation wouldn’t you just smiled your little sister said this? Then her friends and ‘enemies’. Rose one of Melody’s friends in the book is very nice to her because even if she might want to be ‘popular’ and ‘cool’ she also plays with melody when others won’t. One of the examples would be when she goes to the aquarium with her. Then her dog butterscotch. Butterscotch has really cheered melody up a lot when she is sad and helped her get through her sad times. Then the teachers. Melody has had lots of teachers. Mrs billups hasn’t had the best relationship with melody and Melody’s family because she never really listened to the notes that were wrote about her and didn’t teach her well. Then there is someone like Mrs Shannon. Mrs shannon is the opposite To Mrs billups because she did read the notes and help melody. There is also one other teacher but it will spoil about half of the book so I won’t mention him.

‘Out of my mind’ bu Sharon Draper is a massive page turner and a very gripping book that makes you feel like your on an emotional rollercoaster with the sad, funny, happy and exciting times. Be prepared to cry, laugh and get really excited also be prepared to go to bed a lot later because you will NOT be able to put this amazing book down. I recommend this book for ages anywhere from 11 to 999 because there are some things that are quite deep and you need to understand. I hope you enjoyed this and read ‘out of my mind’ by Sharon Draper soon