Out of My Mind (The Out of My Mind Series) - Softcover

Draper, Sharon M.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1665979631 ISBN 13: 9781665979634

Publisher: Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books, 2024

Synopsis

This special movie tie-in edition showcases a new cover with an image from the original movie now available on Disney+!

A New York Times bestseller for three years and counting!
“Unflinching and realistic.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

From award-winning author Sharon Draper comes a “gutsy, candid, and compelling” (School Library Journal, starred review) story that will forever change how we all look at anyone with a disability, perfect for fans of RJ Palacio’s Wonder.

Eleven-year-old Melody is not like most people. She can’t walk. She can’t talk. She can’t write. All because she has cerebral palsy. But she also has a photographic memory; she can remember every detail of everything she has ever experienced. She’s the smartest kid in her whole school, but NO ONE knows it. Most people—her teachers, her doctors, her classmates—dismiss her as mentally challenged because she can’t tell them otherwise. But Melody refuses to be defined by her disability. And she’s determined to let everyone know it…somehow.

About this title

About the Author

Sharon M. Draper is the New York Times bestselling author of Out of My Mind, Blended, and Out of My Heart. She’s won Coretta Scott King Awards for Copper Sun and Forged by Fire and multiple honors. She’s also the recipient of the Margaret A. Edwards Award honoring her significant and lasting contribution to writing for teens. Sharon taught high school English for twenty-five years and was named National Teacher of the Year. She lives in Florida. Visit her at SharonDraper.com.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Chapter 1 CHAPTER 1
Words.

I’m surrounded by thousands of words. Maybe millions.

Cathedral. Mayonnaise. Pomegranate.

Mississippi. Neapolitan. Hippopotamus.

Silky. Terrifying. Iridescent.

Tickle. Sneeze. Wish. Worry.

Words have always swirled around me like snow-flakes—each one delicate and different, each one melting untouched in my hands.

Deep within me, words pile up in huge drifts. Mountains of phrases and sentences and connected ideas. Clever expressions. Jokes. Love songs.

From the time I was really little—maybe just a few months old—words were like sweet, liquid gifts, and I drank them like lemonade. I could almost taste them. They made my jumbled thoughts and feelings have substance. My parents have always blanketed me with conversation. They chattered and babbled. They verbalized and vocalized. My father sang to me. My mother whispered her strength into my ear.

Every word my parents spoke to me or about me I absorbed and kept and remembered. All of them.

I have no idea how I untangled the complicated process of words and thought, but it happened quickly and naturally. By the time I was two, all my memories had words, and all my words had meanings.

But only in my head.

I have never spoken one single word. I am almost eleven years old.

Edition details

• Publisher: Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books
• Publication date: 2024
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1665979631
• ISBN 13: 9781665979634
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320