The Disability Book Archive

[ID: A book cover. The author’s name “Sharon M. Draper” is at the bottom of the cover in large, fading, blue caps. Directly below this, in the lower right hand corner, text reading “Coretta Scott King award winning author” in small, lowercase white writing. The background shows a fish bowl with a goldfish jumping from it. The bowl is on a blue surface and on the left side of the cover. The title “Out of My Mind” is written below the bowl in lowercase white caps. /end]

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Content Warning:

• Ableism
• Bullying
• Car Accident
• Medical Content
• Vomit
• Toxic Friendship
• Injury and Injury Detail

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Summary:

Melody is not like most people. She cannot walk or talk, but she has a photographic memory; she can remember every detail of everything she has ever experienced. She is smarter than most of the adults who try to diagnose her and smarter than her classmates in her integrated classroom – the very same classmates who dismiss her as mentally challenged because she cannot tell them otherwise. But Melody refuses to be defined by cerebral palsy. And she’s determined to let everyone know it – somehow.

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Notes:

I saw a comment saying that this book was based on Draper’s daughter who has cerebral palsy. I haven’t been able to verify this yet.

This is the first book in the Out of My Mind series. The second book Out of My Heart was published 2021.

There is an audiobook.

There is an ebook. There is a kindle edition.

Apparently, there is a movie being made for this book. It is due to premier at the 2024 Sundance Festival.

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Archivist Comments:

It bugs me when there are reviews on books along the lines of “I’m not a part of this community but” or “I’ve spent a lot of time around this community” and then they go on to say that it’s not realistic to them.

Anyway.

The general consensus on this seems to be along the lines of this “this is a good, educational book but the writing feels a bit too didactic/static”.

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