Reviews with content warning for Ableism - Out of My Mind

Reviews tagging 'Ableism'

Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper

35 reviews

theseasoul's review

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challenging funny informative reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

|| 4 stars ||

For a middle grade book, this one was incredibly deep and eye-opening.

Melody, a girl diagnosed with cerebral palsy, is very physically limited. She can’t talk or walk, but she has a brilliant mind which few people have made an effort to discover. This book follows her complex inner world, and her struggle to communicate with the outside world. There are many rich lessons to be learned as she struggles to find a voice for herself that others will understand. And even after a life-changing communication device enters her life, as she continues to be misunderstood on many different levels. I found myself in her shoes frequently as I read, feeling the frustrations, joys, and disappointments with her.

I don’t tend to enjoy the school drama in books, and the second half of the book had a lot of that. But it was still drama that usually made sense given the context, so I can mostly forgive it.

If you have a desire to understand people who communicate differently, this is a simple yet excellent book for any age group to take the time to read.

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flowerpower's review

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring relaxing sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Cried several times but they were incredibly cathartic moments. Melody is hilarious and the people in her life that love her are incredible. It was such a pleasure to read about part of her middle school journey and how much she grew within that year or so.

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zombiezami's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

When I was in high school, Sharon Draper was my favorite author. I’m revisiting this book since I saw she published a sequel to it last year.

This book has a lot of heart, and I enjoyed Melody’s internal monologue. I didn’t enjoy the casual fatphobia, and I hope it’s not present in the sequel.

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rattletheshelves's review against another edition

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I'm very on the fence about this one. I don't think it aged too well and there's some really ableist language. I also wasn't able to find any own voices reviews.

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aecorsilva's review

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emotional hopeful inspiring fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

It's a very cute children's book, but the quality of the prose isn't great. There's a lot of "sassy" comebacks, which sound cool for kids, but ruin some very good dialogue if reading from a more mature perspective.

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