Out of My Mind

Kids and teachers KEPT telling me that they loved this book and I HAD to read it, and I've been kind of hesitant for awhile because the description sounded a little bit “inspirational disability tragedy porn” to me, but I finally checked it out and it is more than that.

I also wonder how well the technology here will hold up–it's such a big moment when Melody finally gets her Medi-Speak board, and all the kids are very impressed with it, but now text-to-speech is so common (I know there are still specialized products for disabled people but the general concept probably would not be so mind-blowing now as it is to Melody's classmates). BUT that's a pretty minor point. I like that the friendship making doesn't seem as cut-and-dried as, cough, Wonder. It does end on kind of a shitty note for Melody...which is maybe more realistic, but also kind of rough? But, you know, 6th grade is another year.

ALSO extra points to this for being a book about quiz bowl, which is obviously the best of all extracurricular activities ;)