"Out of My Mind" Summary Ch. 1-12
Out of My Mind Chapters 1-12 Summary
Chapter 1
The story is narrated by a young girl who is almost eleven
years old and lives with her father and mother. She develops a strong
understanding of language very early on in life and remembers the words to nearly
all the songs her parents ever sang and stories they ever told her. Even though
her head is almost overflowing with thoughts, she has never spoken a word.
Chapter 2
This chapter more fully introduces Melody Brooks, a young
girl living with a crippling medical disorder. Due to her illness, she is
unable to walk or talk, and she can barely move her arms. On occasion, her
limbs seem to act with a mind of their own and flail about even if she does not
want them to. She has a pink wheelchair, which she uses to get around, though
the fact that it’s pink doesn’t add much in her opinion. Melody has an
incredible memory and can recall specific events even from when she was only a
baby. She is a quick learner, so she picked up the meaning behind sounds and language
very early on. Keeping on theme with her name, Melody enjoys listening to
music. She has a knack for memorizing lyrics and rhythm. She associates
different types of music with various colors and smells. Melody prefers country
music, which makes her think of sweet and tangy lemons. She is frustrated by
the fact that other people in the world can use words with no effort, but she
is unable to summon any despite the countless words that are constantly
bouncing around in her mind.
Chapter 3
As Melody grew up she started to realize bit by bit what her
physical limitations were. Her mind felt fully capable and her memory was
fantastic, but she was frustrated at her inability to do simple things by
herself, like hold onto her stuffed animal cat. Melody would frequently tip
over onto the floor or fall off the couch because she had no sense of balance.
Her parents would attempt to prop her up with pillows to keep her steady, but
she often fell anyway. She had just enough control in her fist and thumbs to
work the remote-control clicker attached to her wheelchair.
Melody likes that her father talks to her as if she were a
grownup, which he did even when she was a little girl. She had such a highly
functioning brain even back then that she understood much of what he said to
her. When she was younger, her father always read to her before she went to
bed, and she memorized every single word to every story. Melody believes that
she has a photographic memory since she can recall almost everything she
encounters in extreme detail. Nobody else realizes quite how smart Melody
really is, and since she has no way of telling them, it sometimes drives her
crazy. Occasionally, Melody experiences what she likes to call “tornado
explosions.” All her frustrations boil to the surface and her body lashes
out. Her arms and legs jerk around, she screams, and she has difficulty
breathing. She doesn’t like acting that way but it’s something beyond her
control.
Chapter 4
When Melody turns five, her mother takes her to see a doctor
to determine if she is ready to enroll in elementary school. Dr. Hugely, who
happens to be a very large man, takes Melody into a room and gives her a series
of tasks to test her. The problem is that Melody is unable to complete most of
the tasks due to her physical limitations, not because of any intellectual
limitations.
Dr. Hugely asks her to stack colored blocks but her stiff
arms knock the blocks to the floor. He asks Melody many questions and Melody
becomes increasingly frustrated as she knows all the right answers but cannot
speak. Dr. Hugely tells Melody’s mother that Melody is “severely brain
damaged.” He diagnoses Melody with cerebral palsy. Melody’s mother was already
aware of the name of the disorder but refuses to accept Dr. Hugely’s opinion
that Melody is unintelligent. Melody’s mother starts to cry as the doctor
advises her to send Melody to a school for the developmentally disabled or put
her in a residential facility since she will most likely be a burden to take
care of. Her mother insists that they will not send Melody away. She tells the
doctor he is wrong and that her daughter has more intelligence inside her than
he will ever have. As they leave his office, Melody’s mother informs the doctor
that she is going to enroll Melody in Spaulding Street Elementary School.
Chapter 5
Melody has been at Spaulding Street Elementary School for
five years. A “special needs” bus picks her up every morning and takes her to
school. She is in a special program with other children who have disabilities.
Initially, Melody was excited to attend. Now, the learning environment is no
longer challenging for Melody and she feels that classroom H-5 is more fitting
for babies than for the nine- to eleven-year-old kids in the class. Her
teachers over the years have generally been nice, but they teach the same
things year after year. When Melody was younger, her mother pasted common
words, phrases, numbers, and the alphabet to a plastic tray attached to her
wheelchair to help her communicate but it too has stayed mostly the same over
the years. Melody feels stifled in this environment but can’t express to anyone
that she desires more. At school, she likes to watch the “regular” kids play
outside. She wishes someone would ask her to play, or at the very least,
acknowledge her and say hello. They treat her and the rest of the students in
H-5 as if they were invisible.
Chapter 6
Mrs. Violet Valencia lives next door to Melody’s family.
Melody calls her “Mrs. V” and describes her as a big, unusual woman. Starting
when Melody was about two, Mrs. V took care of Melody while Melody’s parents
were working or when they needed an extra hand. Mrs. V never treated Melody as
a disabled child. She has always challenged Melody to learn and do things
Melody didn’t know she could do. Mrs. V taught Melody how to roll over on the
floor and reach for a toy when Melody was two years old. By the time she was
three, Melody had learned to crawl across a room.
When Melody starts school, she knows a lot of words but
doesn’t know how to read a book. Mrs. V shows her a documentary about Stephen
Hawking, a man who suffers from a disease called ALS. He cannot walk or talk,
but he is brilliant. Mrs. V thinks that Melody is similar to him and she comes
up with a plan to give Melody more language skills. She completely redesigns
Melody’s communication board with a larger variety of nouns, verbs, adjectives,
numbers, phrases, and pictures of people in Melody’s life so that she can point
to them with her thumb and form a sentence. Mrs. V creates flash cards and Melody
learns new words every day. They get along really well and have fun spending
time together.
Chapter 7
In second grade, Melody’s teacher, Mrs. Tracy, realizes that
Melody likes books, so she gets Melody some headphones and audiobooks on CD.
Whenever Melody is done listening to a CD, Mrs. Tracy asks her questions about
the book and Melody answers every question correctly. Melody thinks it is
awesome. Things are not as good in third grade with her new teacher, Mrs.
Billups. Every morning, Mrs. Billups puts on her favorite CD with children’s
songs like “Old MacDonald Had a Farm,” and then goes over individual letters of
the alphabet. One February morning, the letter of the day is B. The
boring and repetitive lesson drives Melody crazy and she has a “tornado explosion.”
This creates a chain reaction, causing the whole class to lose control.
Mrs. Billups calls Melody’s mother and asks her to come in.
Melody points to the word alphabet on her board when her
mother arrives. Her mother asks the teacher what she was teaching when all the
screaming started. When Mrs. Billups tells her they were reviewing the
alphabet, Melody’s mother loses her temper. She tells Mrs. Billups that Melody
is extremely smart and knows the alphabet, all the sounds of the letters, and
hundreds of words on sight. Melody’s mother finds out that Mrs. Billups never
even read the teacher’s notes on the students from the previous year. She
assesses that Mrs. Billups hasn’t been teaching or challenging the students,
but is merely filling their days with meaningless exercises. Soon after, Mrs.
Billings quits her job, so the class has substitute teachers for the remainder
of the year.
Chapter 8
When Melody was five years old, she had a pet fish named
Ollie. One day a couple years later, Ollie hurled himself out of his fishbowl,
landing on the table. Melody quickly realized Ollie would die without water, so
she screamed to get her mother’s attention. As she grew more desperate, Melody
pulled the fishbowl over so Ollie could get water. Melody’s mother finally
entered the room and became upset with Melody, misunderstanding the situation
and believing Melody purposefully killed Ollie. Melody was angry and sad that
she couldn’t communicate that she was trying to save Ollie’s
life.
On her eighth birthday, Melody’s parents surprise her with a
golden retriever puppy. Melody is thrilled and names the puppy Butterscotch,
after her favorite candy. One day, a few months later, Melody falls out of her
wheelchair onto the floor while watching The Wizard of Oz. Butterscotch
jumps up and sniffs Melody to check on her. Melody is facedown and unable to
move or make a sound. The room door is closed, and Melody’s mother is napping.
Butterscotch starts scratching, slamming her body against the door, and barking
wildly. This wakes Melody’s mother, causing her to come to the room. When she
arrives, she realizes that she hadn’t strapped Melody into her wheelchair
properly. She checks Melody over and sees that she is okay. They are both
incredibly pleased with Butterscotch.
Chapter 9
Melody’s life continues to change when she is eight years
old. Her mother sits her down and tells Melody that she is pregnant. Melody
wonders how her parents will be able to handle a newborn in addition to
herself. She worries that perhaps they will take Dr. Hugely’s suggestion of
sending Melody away. The whole family is concerned about whether this baby will
be “normal.” Her mother feels guilty that Melody was born with a disability and
Melody feels guilty for being born that way. Thankfully, her baby sister,
Penny, is born a perfectly normal, healthy baby. Penny learns to do everything
a baby should do in the recommended time frame that a baby should do it and
Melody is amazed by it all. Penny calls her big sister Dee-Dee.
Morning routines become particularly stressful. Penny has to
be dressed and ready to spend the day at Mrs. V’s house in addition to Melody
needing help getting ready for school. Melody cannot chew very well and needs
to be fed by someone, so it is a slow process. Sometimes the added stress
causes Melody’s parents to argue, but then they hug, take a deep breath, and
continue doing what needs to be done.
Chapter 10
Every morning, Melody is happy to hear her mother, Penny,
and Butterscotch coming into her room. Then they all go into the bathroom
together. Melody feels fortunate that her mother had potty trained Melody by
the age of three. Melody and her mother have a special bond. They can sometimes
communicate without using words. Melody attempts to talk, but she mostly makes
insignificant noises and squeaks. If she works hard at it, she can sometimes
make a vowel sound. Penny can vocalize many words and pieces of words. Melody
feels that her communication board has become too simplistic to be of much help
to her now. One day when her mother isn’t home, Melody tries to communicate to
her father that she wants a Big Mac and a shake. Her father keeps trying to
guess what she wants but there isn’t anything on her communication board that
can properly get her thoughts across to him. Melody starts getting frustrated
and feels a “tornado explosion” coming on. Her father tells her that he is
going to make her noodles and cheese. Melody gives up on the Big Mac, sighs,
calms down, and points to the word yes on her board.
Chapter 11
Melody starts fifth grade with an electric wheelchair. She
is excited to have the freedom to move without someone having to push her. She
operates the wheelchair with a small lever but it can still be pushed if
necessary. Mrs. Shannon, her new teacher in room H-5, sees potential in Melody.
She brings back headphones and books on tape for her, which Melody thoroughly
enjoys. Spaulding Street Elementary establishes an inclusion program to allow
Melody and the other students in H-5 to interact with the general student
populace.
Melody’s first inclusion class is Mrs. Lovelace’s music
class. Melody is exhilarated but also concerned that something might go wrong.
After joining the music class, some of the students from room H-5 start to get
overwhelmed and upset. All the other children stare at them. Two girls, Molly
and Claire, make fun of them and laugh. When Mrs. Lovelace sees Molly and
Claire’s behavior, she scolds them and makes them stand for the rest of the
class. Mrs. Lovelace begins playing the piano, and Melody sees various shades
of green as she slowly starts feeling more at ease. Mrs. Lovelace invites the
children of room H-5 to sit closer to her students. Melody is relieved when a
student who introduces herself as Rose asks if she would like to sit near her. Melody
thinks Rose is a nice girl and begins to feel like a friendship is forming. The
students from H-5 continue to join Mrs. Lovelace’s music class every Wednesday
thereafter.
Chapter 12
The inclusion program expands into other subjects by the end
of October. Mrs. Shannon holds a parent-teacher conference with Melody’s
parents. She tells them Melody is incredibly smart and anticipates her being a
leader in the program. Melody is delighted upon hearing this news and begins
kicking and making noises. Mrs. Shannon fills out paperwork to hire an aide,
Catherine, to assist Melody in her classes. Melody likes that Catherine talks
to her like any other student, and they get along from the very start.
Catherine reads off the answers that Melody points to on her board and helps
her at lunch as well as with many other essential tasks. One day in Miss
Gordon’s language arts class, Claire and Molly wrongly accuse Catherine of
cheating for Melody. Melody realizes Claire and Molly are either jealous or
think Melody has an easier life. Miss Gordon informs the students that they
will be writing a biography on a famous person as well as an autobiography
later in the school year. Melody really enjoys her history class with Mr.
Dimming. She sees him like a game-show contestant, always quoting facts, dates,
and historical events. He is so smart that he oversees the school’s quiz team.
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