Out Of My Mind Analysis

Out of My Mind Out of My Mind is a realistic fiction story written by Sharon M. Draper. The theme for this book is that everyone has the right to be respected and treated like everyone else, no matter what they look like. I have never spoken one single word. I am almost eleven years old (2 Draper). The story is told through the eyes of Melody Brooks, a ten year old girl who was bron with cerebral palsy. She can’t walk or talk, and the only parts of her body she can control are her head and thumbs. Everyday she has to be strapped tight in her wheelchair since she is unable to sit up on her own, and can’t do anything for herself other than point to things with her thumbs and make grunting noises. Everyone believes that she is retarted because

There are many people in Melody’s life, whether they have been there from the beginning or came later in her life.
The beginning of the story takes place as mostly flashbacks about her past, talking about doctor appointments and her first starting school. Melody goes to Spaulding Street Elementry School and has to be in a classroom for special needs children called room H-5. Her class is small and consists of people just like her. There are other kids in wheelchairs, someone with down syndrome, and someone with autism. Later on in the story the kids in room H-5 join the ‘normal’ kids in what the schools calls inclusion classes. This is when the H-5 students join normal classes like English, History, and so on instead of sitting in their classroom listening to nursery rhymes and watching cartoons. These inclusion classes helps Melody feel somewhat of a normal person, making friends and even getting a couple of bullies. Some of the H-5 teachers they’ve had in the past have realized Melody’s smarts, but it really isn’t until the inclusion classes that she is really recognized and is even given a personal assistant to help her write down her answers on her