Summary Of Out Of My Mind By Sharon Draper

In the novel Out of My Mind, by Sharon Draper the story begins with an eleven-year-old girl named Melody Brooks with cerebral palsy. “Words. Words have always swirled around me like snowflakes-each one delicate and different, each one melting untouched in my hands. Deep within me, words pile up in huge drifts. Mountains of phrases of sentences and connected ideas. Clever expressions. Jokes. Love songs.”(Draper 1-2) She is unable to talk, write and walk. Melody is the smartest kid in her whole school - but no one knows it. This story is from Melody’s point of view about her daily challenges that to us seem effortless. With her condition doctors to her teachers think she is a mindless retard who doesn’t take in anything, but she does. Everything

Melody’s strongest quality is her intelligence despite her condition. Since she can't talk in class she might as well listen. Melody has photographic memory, so she has all of these thoughts and facts inside her head that she can’t get rid of. If I was melody I would feel deprived that I can't communicate with others about how I feel and tell them anything I want whenever. An example would be if we were asked a question we would answer it then it would float away from our heads afterwards, but for melody she still has it trapped in her head. “Thoughts need words. Words need a voice.” (Draper 11) Melody is jealous because other people are able to walk, talk, feed themselves and do everything Melody can’t do. Melody feels like she is an outcast and people will never accept her for who she is. If Melody was at my school I would treat her like any other normal kid and make her proud to be herself. “I can’t talk. I can’t walk. I can’t feed myself or take myself to the bathroom. Big bummer.” (Draper 3) Another trait of Melody is confident. In the beginning of the book she has a low self-confidence because she cares what others think about her. But later in the story she gains a lot of confidence and learns to love herself, accept herself, and not care what others think. “I have spastic bilateral quadriplegia, also known as cerebral palsy. It limits my body, but not my mind.” (Draper

In Out of My Mind; Sharon Draper presents the idea that the only way to live a happy and present life is to accept what is and that is something you certainly can’t do if you don’t accept others for who they are. Acceptance is a part of life because everyone has imperfections and flaws. Nobody is perfect. Nobody will ever be perfect, but people will try too hard to be and to me they’re boring people. If a person is perfect they won't make mistakes, which means they won't learn and grow as a person and that comes of boring. So accepting others is important because it’s the only way you’ll live a positive life. Just like in the book everyone around Melody has to except her for whom she is, and that isn't always easy. Her family and teachers have to learn to accept her the most. People around Melody have to learn to tolerate her because of her disorder, but some people don't want to. Melody tries and wants to be a normal person, but some people around her don't let her. Only the people close to her except her and understand who she really is. “But a person is so much more than the name of the diagnosis on a chart.” (Draper 23) I connected this book to a fish bowl because life is like a fish bowl. I see us as the fish inside. When we are young we swim rapid, fast movements for everything is known fresh. But when time goes by we gradually slow down for we are used to getting to the fast pace road. Then there comes