Melody may not be able to walk or talk but she has an amazing photographic memory and she can see music in her head. She loves it so and she loves to watch tv programs about science and history and even better is to be read to where she can imagine the story. She would love to be like the other kids but she has cerebal palsy and keeps ending up in the special ed room where she is rarely afforded the opportunity to interact with the rest of the school. However, things have changed as she has gotten an aide who can come with her to the regular classrooms and the biggest thing of all was getting her new computer that they can program and it can talk for her. She can't wait.
I really enjoyed this book and even more so doing the novel study with the 12yr old. Both he and his next older brother have spent years in therapy for speech issues and know other kids that are very bright but couldn't communicate so he related to that but the way Melody's brain worked, seeing colors, remembering things so easily, was new to him. We also did research on how businesses are supposed to be accommodating to those in wheelchairs or with other disabilities and started looking around to see which ones are and which ones aren't. How easy would it be for someone to actually patronize this business? What about our town? Or this playground? Lots of areas for discussion about how we as a society treat those that are different and how we can be better and more inclusive.
Page count: 295p/18,237p ytd/310,253p lifetime
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