BOOK REVIEW: Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper

I was really excited to read this book. It has been on the New York Times Middle Grade bestsellers list for weeks. I also have had several students over the last couple of years enjoy it, and I thought it just seemed like a unique idea for a novel.

Melody, the main character, is an elementary student who has cerebral palsy. The story is told from the first person point of view of Melody. Unfortunately, the CP prevents her from being able to speak. The only way she is able to connect with the outside world is to use a talking board.

Personally, I had some issues with the book. First, at the start of the book Melody has a basic talking board with just letters and basic words. She points at them to try and communicate with others. A small portion of the book is devoted to Melody acquiring a “Medi-Talker.” This is a computer based  talking device (think Stephen Hawking). What I thought was odd was the way this was written. I am a parent, and if I had a child like Melody who was only able to communicate through a board with words and letters on it, the first thing that would come to mind would be to find some way to use a computer to improve their life. This part of the book reads almost like Draper wrote it in the 1990s. The concept of a digital device to help someone talk is not knew, but she treats it as if it is a brand new idea. It was a lot of time and pages wasted on something that didn’t need to be there.

Second, Draper’s writing comes off as too mature for the character. There were parts in the book when I hard time believing that Melody was in upper elementary school. She seemed too mature for her voice. The story often read like an adult trying to write in the voice of a young child.

Third, there is this strange tragedy thrown in at the end of the book. It was almost like Draper got to the end of the manuscript and decided that she needed to throw something else in. It caused the book to drag on and didn’t really improve the story. Add this to the issue with the Medi-Talker and this book easily comes in fifty to seventy-five pages less than it is written.

I think this novel is worth the read for most younger readers. Despite my criticisms, the book asks a child to think about others with disabilities in a positive way, and there is certainly no harm done there. As I mentioned above, the narrative point of view is an interesting idea even if it is not pulled off successfully. Overall, I would give this book 3 out of 5 stars.