Melody is a fifth grader with Cerebral Palsy, she is a quadriplegic and has never spoken a word. Her mind is sound, her memory almost photographic - but until this year, she was only a witness to all events around her. She gets a computer that is adapted to her limited movements, and she is able to use it midway through the year, mainstream with her peers for some classes, and even compete on the Whiz Kids team.
What I liked: What a necessary read and glimpse from the inside of a special needs classroom and kids with disabilities. Melody reminded me of a classroom I substituted - a girl with a similar condition to Melody's was there with her mom. Her mom came everyday to support - I don't think she was a paraprofessional and surely she wasn't paid. She just knew they needed help. We talked about her daughter - her awareness of her surroundings seemed apparent, inspire of her inability to speak or control a physical response. Her mom complained that she was showing signs of adolescence, giving her equivalent of an eye roll in response to different things. Melody's story to me was very real. Very believable. Her comments and struggles were believable and relatable.
What I didn't like: I'm not sure - there was a normalizing of Melody through her thoughts and feelings, but the logistics of the situation could never make her normal. The author showed this in her struggles to eat, to get anywhere, to get in a restaurant or make a flight - they had all adjusted their lives but no one else (classmates, friends) could do the same for long periods of time. I suppose I don't like that it's painfully true - how to be friends with a person with a disability, to make accommodations so that all can join - means making sacrifices, lowering the competitive level in different situations, it means slowing down a group for one - something we are less willing to do.
What I wanted to read: The back said she had a photographic memory - she was smart, but I'm not convinced she had a photographic memory. If she had, wouldn't she have excelled way beyond her peers? That would have been interesting to read - to see the computer give her the ability to excel beyond what anyone had imagined.
Quotes:
"'How dare you!' the teacher gasped.
'I dare anything for my daughter,' Mom replied, her voice dangerous, "and for the rest of these children!'" p57
"When I think about it, I realize I have never, ever said any words directly to my parents. So I push a couple of buttons, and the machine speaks the words I've never been able to say.
'I love you.'" p138
"'She's sitting here looking like one of those blowfish we saw at the aquarium - all puffed up and spiny.'
That's actually kinda close to how I felt." (p159)
"Her voice could crush bricks." (p259)
"'I wish I could fix this for you, Melody,' Dad said quietly as he headed out of my room.
That made the tears fall for real."
"'Why did you leave me?'
Somebody should have been there with a video camera proving that, yes, a fifth-grade classroom can be absolutely, totally quiet."
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