![]() Her legs are very thin, probably because they’ve never been used. She’s really tiny for a girl who is age ten and three quarters. But one of them is slightly out of whack. They’d see a girl with dark brown eyes that are full of curiosity. By the way, there is nothing cute about a pink wheelchair. When people look at me, I guess they see a girl with short, dark, curly hair strapped into a pink wheelchair. And my balance is like zip-Humpty Dumpty had more control than I do. I can’t hold a spoon or a pencil without dropping it. My arms and hands are pretty stiff, but I can mash the buttons on the TV remote and move my wheelchair with the help of knobs that I can grab on the wheels. I can’t feed myself or take myself to the bathroom. By the time I was two, all my memories had words, and all my words had meanings. I have no idea how I untangled the complicated process of words and thought, but it happened quickly and naturally. My mother whispered her strength into my ear.Įvery word my parents spoke to me or about me I absorbed and kept and remembered. My parents have always blanketed me with conversation. They made my jumbled thoughts and feelings have substance. ![]() Love songs.įrom the time I was really little-maybe just a few months old-words were like sweet, liquid gifts, and I drank them like lemonade. Mountains of phrases and sentences and connected ideas. Words have always swirled around me like snow-flakes-each one delicate and different, each one melting untouched in my hands.ĭeep within me, words pile up in huge drifts. So I hope you will love the book as much as I did! Read more So, when/if you read this book, I hope you will like it as much as I did. She can express herself, but not in the way she would like. The story of that fish isn't explained until towards the end of the book, and the cover is also there, I think, to express what Melody would feel like if she got to talk with others-she would feel like she is free from the communication barrier. The cover has a fish jumping out of its bowl. So I recommend not skimming through the beginning. It takes a couple chapters to get to the current time, but it will help because Melody brings up the past a bit. In the beginning of the book, it starts out when she is a toddler, and then it progresses into the present. The book is told in her perspective, which I love. The book is focused on 11 year old Melody, an extremely smart girl with cerebral palsy. What I love about this book is that it shows her struggle to communicate, and how the author shows Melody's feelings. Draper is my favorite book! It is the reason my LibraryThing name is Melody-the main character's name- 16-my lucky number. You will cheer on Melody throughout the entire story! Read more Unfortunately, both the teacher and students fail her in many ways, highlighting bullying and judging are unattractive qualities. The reader is swept away by Melody's desire to participate on the class spelling bee team and her perseverance to contribute and win. She does have a gift of higher intellect and intuitiveness than most children her age. This story allows the reader (of any age) to put themselves in the mind of Melody and allows us to feel and see the challenges of confinement to a wheel chair and stigma of "abnormal." Melody's laugher and excitement presents as uncomfortable and scary to most who do not know her yet she is just like any other 11 year old girl. ![]() But when Melody is not heard due to her inability to speak, she is judged by students and teachers as if she does not have anything smart, funny, empathetic, or interesting to say. 4Q, 2P Not being heard, both voice or message is challenging for any age, particularly because we live in a communicative society.
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