Overview: Out Of My Mind By Sharon Draper

Since birth, a little girl by the name of Melody was diagnosed with cerebral palsy. That is a disorder that affects movement, muscle tone, and motor skills. It causes reflex movements that the person can’t control and it causes muscle tightness that can affect a part of the body if not the whole body. Ever since she was born, she was loved and cared for but she wasn’t able to say a single word. The book’s title is “Out of My Mind,” by Sharon M. Draper. It focuses on a disabled girl and her thoughts. Most fiction books have author’s purposes and this book’s author’s purpose is to entertain and inform.

In the video “Inclusion, belonging, and the disability revolution” (TEDTalks, 2014), speaker Jennie Fenton opens with describing situations where people with disabilities are segregated and excluded from their communities, sent to live together away from society, or even treated as lesser humans. She then proceeds to introduce her family, including her six-year-old daughter that was diagnosed with cerebral palsy. Jennie admits to previously having negative or frightened thoughts about having a child with a disability, but with her “seven realizations,” she learned that her daughter was merely on a different path than others, but that no one should ever feel broken or not a whole person (TEDTalks, 2014). After she explains that there are roughly one billion people with a disability throughout the world, Jennie states that she believes in possibility over disability. If a person’s

The book Orchid of the Bayou was eye opening. Cathryn (Kitty) Hoffpauir Fischer did a good job of being honest, which really allowed the reader to get a better understanding of what being deaf in this time period meant. Her writing really allowed me to see the different struggles that deaf children had to face, and how these struggles were overcome by Kitty. This book taught me many things about Deaf culture.

People with disabilities are not completely gone. They are still there and have a mind of their own. They feel emotions and sometimes have a more complex mind than others. Two authors help enlighten this idea that disabled people are much more than helpless bodies. Both Christy Brown and Jean-Dominique Bauby perfectly illustrate their lives and what it is like to be disabled, and they prove by their stories that they think and feel, and can even develop enough to share what they feel with the world. My Left Foot is about the journey of a boy suffering from cerebral palsy. His entire life he was labeled as a loss cause by doctor after doctor, but his mom never gave up hope. Slowly, he started showing signs of development by random movements responding to certain situations. In the end he ends up being able to communicate with his left foot. The next story, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, is about an individual who suffered a stroke at the age of 43, leaving him paralyzed, only able to blink his left eye as communication. He develops his own alphabet inspired by the French language in order to exchange conversations with others. His thoughts in the story jump from the present, him currently disabled, and the past, when he was not. Both memoirs, with very different stories, show the lives of two individuals that are not like others. One who had their disability since birth, and the other who obtained one after a tragic event. In My Left Foot by Christy Brown and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby, both authors use characterization to show readers the struggles of disabled people and help them understand that just because they can’t use motions such as hand gestures to express how they feel, doesn’t mean that they don’t think and feel.

For me, that series was the Junie B. Jones series by Barbara Parks. Not only was the book funny, but also full of life lessons to learn from. Appreciating the “little things” in life is one of the ways this book has impacted me. Sometimes we constantly are looking at the larger picture of life and not taking the time to appreciate the small deeds people do for others. Junie B. Jones has also impacted me by always staying true to myself. No matter how many times she acted different or stood out in a crowd, she embraced herself, therefore; she was not going to change for anyone and that is a great quality to have in

I personally thought the autobiography on Lou Ann Walker and her life was quite fascinating to read. It was also very disheartening to read what she have had to go through with so much negativity and ignorance that she endured from others just because Lou Ann's parents were deaf. Lou Ann also had to deal with that within the deaf community from others looking down on deaf people that she was trying to help, regardless of what the situation was. It's pretty amazing that she was still positive and had to fight through all of that drama alternating the issues in the both worlds and even herself too, the whole identity crisis. A normal person wouldn't be able to handle that kind of life she had, being expected to help out constantly and interpreting

I chose to re-read Out of my mind by Sharon M. Draper because I remember Out of my Mind as being a really good and a really sad book. The genre is realistic fiction. I think it is realistic fiction because this story could happen in real life but it didn't in this book. This book is about a girl (Her name is Melody) who is disabled who can't walk or talk. In the book she eventually gets a machine that allows her to push a button so she can “talk”. Melody’s little sister gets run over by her own mom (on accident) because her mom didn't see and it was a rainy foggy day. Melody tries out for this competition that her school does and she makes it and Thai one popular girl doesn't. When they get to the airport they find out that there plane was

But because she is born with a disease called cerebral palsy means she can't do many things the average eleven year old can do. Cerebral Palsy makes walking, most movements, and talking impossible. Melody feels trapped. She has a photographic memory and a very intelligent mind, but she has only a simple communication board to share her thoughts and feelings. The unwelcoming world sees Melody

Disabilities within the characters of “The Life You Save May be Your Own” by Flanner O’Connor

Out of My Mind is a novel by Sharon M. Draper. In this novel, Melody Brooks is an eleven-year-old girl with cerebral palsy. Melody's body is stiff and uncooperative, forcing her to use a wheelchair. Her mind works well, but she cannot speak. Melody hates her boring special education classes and the fact that she cannot make her thoughts and opinions known, even to her parents. Hence Melody has to fight to get what she wants. Eventually, Melody is given a computer that helps her speak and communicate in a regular fifth grade class. Melody even gets the opportunity to participate in a trivia competition. Unfortunately, even great success cannot change opinions of those who cannot see beyond the physical. This is a fact Melody is forced to face despite everything she accomplishes. Out of My Mind is a brilliant novel that takes the reader into the world of an amazing eleven year old girl who eventually realizes she is no different from the kids around her despite her body's disabilities.

The novel “An Unquiet Mind” starts off describing the life of a young girl, Kay. Early off in Kay’s life she is experiencing traumatizing life events. One of those events is a very close encounter with a plane that flew over the elementary playground very low and “It flew into the trees, exploding directly in front of us” (12). Early on it seems much easier to see how she developed the mental illness, manic-depressive (bipolar) illness. Also, her father showed signs of a bipolar illness and maybe it could be heredity. Another traumatizing event was when Kay and her family moved to California and the complete shock from the change in background. This switch also leads to Kay drinking before she attends classes for high school. Just at the age of 16, Kay is beginning to see just how much her mood swings are affecting her friends and how the bipolar illness is changing her life.

There are some amazing authors in the world. One of these authors specifically Sharon Draper wrote this book that was incredible. The book she wrote was called Out of my Mind. Out of my Mind is about a 11 year old girl named Melody Brooks that has Cerebral Palsy. That means that she can't walk talk or speak. Sharon Draper wrote this book to her daughter because she has Cerebral Palsy.

Out of My Mind tells the story of one girl, Melody, who is incredibly smart and enthusiastic. However, she cannot talk, walk or do anything without the assistance of her parents or aides. Despite this, she tries her best to live her life normally to the best of her ability with the help of a computer-talking device and the people who love her. Students that will read this book will be left utterly shell-shocked at the emotion poured into writing it. Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper should be put in the Little Free Library at PES because it lets students see a new perspective about the disabled, can teach students heroic lessons, and is wonderfully well-written.

The summer reading books which I chose for this year were The Giver, as well as Out of My Mind. I had never read a book like The Giver before, but it provided a mental challenge, as I searched within the book to find its deeper meaning. Out of My Mind reminded me of Anything But Typical, by Nora Raleigh Baskin. Both of these literary works had described the internal struggles of their main characters, as both of them strived to be normal in a world where they were considered different. Overall, I relished reading both of them: Out of My Mind taught me how anything is possible if we set our minds to our goals, but the book which I could not fully comprehend was The Giver.

The book I have read is “My amazing mother”. It was written by Allison Janney. The story is about a single mother who is trying to raise her daughter in the Napa valley. Although life has many difficulties and challenges but the mother still gave her daughter a good life. They share all the problems in life, ready to accept and forgive the mistakes. The book helps me understand more about love and sacrifice of motherhood.