Review: Out Of My Mind By Sharon M. Draper

“Out of My Mind” by Sharon M. Draper has an unusual cover. It is of a goldfish jumping out of it’s bowl. Before reading the book, we wonder why that is. Also, why is the book called Out of My Mind and not something else? There are several reasons for this. Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper is about a girl named Melody, who has cerebral palsy, restricting her from walking, talking, and many other things. Throughout the book, we listen to her thoughts, most of which is consumed by frustration of not being able to talk. This relates to the title because everyone thinks she is too “retarded” to understand anything, even though she is super smart. In fact, even her doctor thinks so. He says, “ ‘Mrs. Brooks,’ he then said, ‘it is my opinion that Melody is severely brain-damaged and profoundly retarded.’ ” (p. 15). Though Melody is not at all dumb, she is the only one that knows that. She is out of her mind, because it drives her

The goldfish is a symbol that keeps showing up again and again throughout the book. This is because one day, when Melody was listening to music, her fish jumped out of it’s bowl and died minutes later. Her guess was that Ollie was sick and tired of swimming around and around all day. According to her, “Ollie spent all day long swimming around that small bowl, ducking through the fake log, and then swimming around again.” (p. 32). Like Ollie, Melody is sick and tired of not fitting in and not being able to talk normally. Fortunately, towards the end of the book, Melody gets a machine specially designed for her, called the Medi-Talker. She can type whatever she wants to say, and it says it for her. Super excited that she will finally fit in at school, Melody “jumps” out of her bowl, but is hit with reality of society. People judge by looks. She is stuck in a wheelchair after all. Her hopes of fitting in die when she realizes that people won’t talk to