Melody is eleven years old, and she’s just about the most intelligent kid in her elementary school. However, no one knows how smart Melody really is because she can’t speak. And she can’t walk. And she can’t write or hold a book or feed herself. Melody has CP, cerebral palsy.

The entire story is told in first person from Melody’s point of view, and being trapped inside Melody’s mind is fascinating, but also a bit claustrophobic. Melody, at the beginning of the book, cannot communicate even the most basic needs and messages. In fact, a couple of scenes in the book are hard to understand in that respect. Melody, who is quite intelligent as I’ve indicated, has a lap board with some basic pictures and words for her to point to in order to communicate. I thought the board also had an alphabet. But Melody becomes frustrated with her father one evening because she wants a milkshake and a Big Mac, a desire she cannot communicate to her dad. I didn’t understand why Melody couldn’t spell with her lap board a couple of simple words like “burger” and “shake”.

Melody also says that she’s never told her mother, “I love you.” Why not? Couldn’t she spell it? Or get a picture or something put on her lap board? Push her word cards into a sentence that says, “I love you, Mom”? I don’t know anyone as intelligent as Melody who has CP. I do have a friend, Brandy, who has CP and the maturity of a five year old. And Brandy can communicate lots of feelings—love, excitement, anger, sadness, boredom–even though she can’t talk either. It seems me to that Melody, with all of her intellectual ability, could have done a little better job of communicating with her family than the book indicates her doing.

Still, I would recommend this book to middle school and elementary school age kids who are trying to understand another child with disabilities. The message of the book is that we should never underestimate others and never, never disrespect those who with disabilities or those who are different from ourselves. Good messages embedded in a good story.