Book: Out Of My Mind by Sharon Draper

Book Info: Published by Atheneum Books For Young Readers; 304 pages; purchased for my Nook

Genre: Children: Realistic Fiction

Find Out More: Goodreads~Barnes And Noble~Amazon~Author Website

Goodreads.com Summary: Eleven-year-old Melody has a photographic memory. Her head is like a video camera that is always recording. Always. And there’s no delete button. She’s the smartest kid in her whole school—but no one knows it. Most people—her teachers and doctors included—don’t think she’s capable of learning, and up until recently her school days consisted of listening to the same preschool-level alphabet lessons again and again and again. If only she could speak up, if only she could tell people what she thinks and knows . . . but she can’t, because Melody can’t talk. She can’t walk. She can’t write. Being stuck inside her head is making Melody go out of her mind—that is, until she discovers something that will allow her to speak for the first time ever. At last Melody has a voice . . . but not everyone around her is ready to hear it.From multiple Coretta Scott King Award winner Sharon M. Draper comes a story full of heartache and hope. Get ready to meet a girl whose voice you’ll never, ever forget.

I’m wavering between liking Out Of My Mind and thinking it’s just okay.

The characters are definitely cliche, and Melody is really the only one who is memorable.  I thought a lot of the characters were really irritating, from the mean girls at Melody’s school to her clueless teachers to her parents.

Melody didn’t feel like a real kid to me.  It really felt like Melody was an adult pretending to be a kid, and not an actual kid.  However, I did like that Draper tackled the issues of what it’s like to have a disability such as Melody’s.  I felt like Draper knew what it was like to go through what Melody and her family is going through, and she did a great job with that.  It’s almost like it happened to her in real life.

Overall, it gets a 3 out of 5.  Melody as a narrator is interesting, and I think it’s something kids would probably like.