Out of my Mind Chapter Summary

 

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.