Family Book Club: Out of My Mind

We recently finished reading Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper for our Family Book Club. It is about a 10 year old girl named Melody who is extremely smart but was born with cerebral palsy so she can't talk, walk, feed herself etc. It was a well written book that really gives you a feel for what it would be like to have a disability like that. I think the kids gained a greater appreciation for how easy it is for them to communicate and do ordinary, everyday things. They really enjoyed the book and kept begging for me to read longer each night. This may have been a record....we finished the book in less than a month (and it's almost 300 pages long!)

For our Book Club discussion night we talked a bit about the author, and discussed the book using questions I found on the internet.  Then we did a little crossword puzzle that I made up based on characters in the book.  I used a crossword puzzle generating site and it was pretty easy to make my own puzzle.  I thought it was going to be really easy for them, but the look on Drake's face would suggest that it was harder than I meant it to be!

In the book Melody is not able to use her hands very well so I tied hair bands around the kids' fingers and had them do everyday tasks to show them how hard things would be for someone like Melody. Garrett had to write his name, Lexi had to peel a banana (yes, she cheated and used her teeeth, which Melody would not have been able to do!) and Drake had to tie a shoe which was probably the most difficult task.  Zac had to spoon feed himself applesauce, but I don't have a picture of it because he was laughing and the picture was too blurry.

The main character, Melody, is not able to speak and that is probably her biggest frustration.  For the first part of the book she uses a basic communication board with a few pictures and an alphabet chart to communicate. Later in the book she gets a computerized Medi-talker which really changes her world. I gave the kids slips of paper with simple phrases like "Pass the carrots please," and "I need to go to the bathroom," and, without talking, they had to use the communication board to tell their partner what they wanted to communicate. Zac was particularly irritated by how hard it was, especially when Drake was trying to tell him he wanted a tuna fish sandwich! I was kind of glad to see them get a little frustrated because I wanted them to appreciate how easy it is for them to just ask for what they need.

Then we had Rootbeer Floats.  To be honest, I'm not positive there were Rootbeer floats in the book but Melody always had some kind of dessert after school with her neighbor so I figured it would work (and it's what I had available without having to go to the store!)

It was a great book and one I would recommend to other families. It reminded me quite a bit of the book Wonder which we also loved. Next we will be reading A Long Walk to Water. It's a pretty serious book but hopefully the kids will like it just as much.