Out of My Mind

[ReGina]

I like books that make kids think, especially about their own behavior and life. Out of my Mind does a great job of that on both ends. This book tells the story of Melody, who due to cerebral palsy, has never been able to say a single word. However, she has extreme intelligence, a photographic memory, and a gift of observation that eludes most. Due to her disability, she is immediately taken for mentally deficient by adults and weird and retarded by kids. Then she gets a new device that allows her to communicate words, but that doesn't make all of the problems go away.

One of the things I really like about this book is that it doesn't give you the perfect, fairy tale ending. Rarely do I see fairy tales among fifth graders. It gives a real ending with real circumstances and real reactions and that's what kids need to deal with. So often, they are thinking about what they want and what other kids will think of them, rarely do they think about how what they do affects other people. This will definitely make them do that. Scholastic gives this a fourth grade reading level, but for content and some of the information covered when reviewing for the quiz team, I would recommend for fifth grade. While there are a couple of lines in the beginning of the book that might suggest the main character is African-American, this book is included under Culturally Diverse books for having a physically disabled protagonist.