Out of My Mind

"Out of My Mind" by Sharon Draper is a story of a brilliant girl who has no way to communicate with the rest of the world.
      Melody, aged ten but nearly eleven, has millions of things she'd like to say, millions of ideas she wants to share, millions of conversations she wants to has, and millions of miles she wants to run, but only one thing stopping her.  She has cerebral palsy.  Confined to her pink wheelchair, Melody has to observe the world pass her by, learning her ABC's day after day, talking to the same kids year after year, doing the same things over and over again. She can't even tell people what she wants, because her vocabulary is limited to the few words she can point to on her "communication board."  Wonderful opportunities are in store for Melody, though, if only the rest of the world can be kind enough to let her take them.

This is a wonderful story.  Sharon Draper is a wonderful author, adept at bringing out the unseen and generally ignored sides of life, and she does nothing less with this novel.  She paints a picture that's believable, understandable, and relateable, even if the reader has no disability whatsoever.
       The main character, Melody, is a very sensible and sweet girl.  You almost forget from what vantage point she is speaking from sometimes.  Her thoughts are completely relateable, even if we function in two completely different realms of being.  I worry about what the kids at school think of me: she does too, save in a greater capacity. She worries about being her best for her team and proving everyone wrong about her; I do to, in some cases.
       Melody is surrounded by a cast of characters, as every protagonist is.  These characters aren't as widely varied as the casts in my normal books--there is only one outrageously flamboyant personality in the whole thing-- but they are believable, and I think that might be the point of the whole endeavor.  Their personalities are well developed, though, and rounded, so you know what's coming at you almost before it does, and if you don't understand an action then you can easily figure out based on what you know of real life and in-book situations.
        I also like Melody's sense of humor.  There's a mean girl, Claire (Why is it always a Claire?), who bullies Melody, but Melody comes back with some pretty snappy retorts.  Melody makes me smile often during the book, be it with her comebacks or her common-sense approach to her situation.
       The storyline is a good one, too.  The best ending to a story is "surprising but inevitable," right?  There are two very major plot twists near the end of the book.  The first is something that effects Melody more than anyone else, and it's something that you'll shake your head at and say "I should've seen that one coming."  The second is something that you figured out was going to happen earlier on in the book, if you payed close enough attention to all of the details in the text, but there's an added level to it.  That one effects the whole family, and it was hinted at for ages prior to it.
       I do have one complaint about the book, though.  There are a whole ton of exclamation points.  I really don't like exclamation points.  I couldn't tell you why, but it's just a personal irk of mine.  There are, like, four exclamation points per chapter, and they make me jump every time I read them.  Other than that, there's nothing pressingly awful that comes to mind.
      It's a wonderful book that can make you feel someone else's emotions, no matter what their circumstances, and this is a book that can do that. It did it for me.

Blood Wounds

Blood Wounds, in my opinion, is the best thing Susan Beth Pfeffer's written so far.
     Willa is part of a mixed family.  She knows that she's lucky to have Jack, her step-father.  She knows that she's lucky to have her two step-sisters, even though they've been spoiled silly by their mother.  She knows she's lucky that she's out of her biological father's house, where things were bad for her mother.  She becomes even more aware of this fact when it is becomes clear that her father has gone on a killing spree, killing his new wife and their three daughters.  The danger rises as her father comes into her town, possibly looking for her and her mother.
      The danger does pass, but the aftermath is almost worse.  Caught between her 'real' family and her blood family, Willa wants to make peace with the half-sisters she never met, the half-brother she could never forget, and the town that is out for her family's blood.  Even if it tears her 'real' family apart. 

I usually find realistic fiction boring, but this one was good.  I couldn't put it down, actually.  I think I annoyed some librarians:  I sat in the library and read it for an hour solid while they kept turning up the air conditioner, trying to get me out (  ;).
     Willa is the most heart-warming character I've come across in a while.  She is brave to face the people that hate her, and I can only hope to emulate that.  I could also never imagine being in the situation she is in with her step-sisters.  They are real brats, even if they don't seem it at first glance, and I don't think I could continue being nice to them after all I saw them get.  Does that make any sense?  Okay, so, what I'm trying to say is that Willa must be a lovely person to remain happy and untainted even while Brooke and Alyssa get everything they want. 
     This book has a lot of similarities to Wild Things, in my mind, if only because there is an unknown half-brother and both team up and deal with some aspect of death.  I like Trace more than I like Wil, though, in some aspects.  Trace is more of a real-world guy, and I can picture him giving Willa advice about the world later in life.  World-hardened and street-toughened, he's the older brother that I wish I had.  (Well, I wish I had any older brother, really, but if I could have my pick of them, I'd choose Trace.) 
       No matter how many similarities you'll find between this books and others, there is one thing that I've never found in any other book:  The plot line.  It is a very sick, twisted plot line.  It's something that you would never see coming.  If you think about it too much, your stomach turns.  But it's new.  Please name a book in which there is something equally disturbing. (Maybe I should give this book to my dad for Father's Day . . . That would be cruel.)
      I cried several times while reading this.  I would've laughed out loud too, but there were really no funny parts.  I've been reading books that I haven't been posting on, and I haven't been posting on them because I don't like them.  The characters were paper dolls, the plots, meaningless.  But here, I felt like there was something at stake, so my emotions ran rampant with it.  I probably made myself look life a fool while sitting in the Young Adult section, but so be it.  It was well worth it.
    If every realistic fiction book were like this, you wouldn't be able to pull me away from them.  As it is, I am feeling deprived.  Blood Wounds doesn't just get under your skin:  It cuts you all the way to your heart. 

Wild Things

Wild Things, by Clay Carmichael, is a story about the human heart and finding a home and a family after a life of hardship and uncertainty.
      Zoe Royster's mother has just died, and she's been sent to live with her half-uncle, a recluse who hasn't integrated with society after his wife's death.  One of the US's top metal-working artists, he spends all day in his workshop, and Zoe fears that he will want to get rid of her too, just like all of her mother's boyfriends have over the years. 
      But with the help of a kindly old husband and wife, a preacher whose view of what he preaches is not as strong as one would think it would be, two arists from New York City, a lady who has blood connections to Zoe, and a cat who hasn't shown the tip of his nose since the tragedy happened so long ago, can Zoe save a wild boy and his snow-white deer from the lying mayor and his sons?  And what will come of the family that Zoe wants so deperately she won't even admit it to herself?

This book was good.  I picked it up thinking it was something by Patrick Carmen, because I was just looking at the first three letters of the author's last name, so I got a bit of a suprise when I got it home and looked in the front flap and read the description.  It is a moving story, though, about courage and what it takes to stand up for what you love.  I might've cried. 
        Zoe is a girl who is used to taking care of herself, and she tries to tell herself that she will always be able to take care of herself.  Deprived of a childhood, her two loves are books and animals.  The communtiy of people she meets has about the same affect on her as she has on them.  And I believe that would constitute a lot of affecting going around on both sides.  But there are still somethings haunting her about her past, two people in particular--her unknown father and her mother's last boyfriend. 
        Uncle Henry is harder to figure out.  We don't know anything about his childhood, why he even wants Zoe with him, and until about the end of the book we don't even know how he knew she existed. I pretty much liked him after the scene at the grocery store, though it took a while for Zoe to warm up to him. 
         The wild boy she meets in the woods and his snow-white deer, and I won't say more, are my favorite characters.  Personally, I would love to run wild and lawless through the woods for 17 years.  They have had their own share of troubles, ones we learn as we observe the world through the cat's eyes, but we know very little else about them. 
        One thing I didn't like about this book was that it ended to soon.  Or, that it ended at all.  I want to know more of the story, more of what happened.  I suppose you could sort of say it was a cliff-hanger, but it isn't at a point of dramatic tensions.  It's one of those instances, where everything has just fallen into place, but then someone picks up a piece and hides it, leaving the story unfinished.  the book can be very disappointing like that, but very much like real life in the same way:  bittersweet and unfufilling.

Tangerine

A bit of realistic fiction for you:  Tangerine by Edward Bloor.
       The Fishers have just moved to Lake Windsor, Florida, in the county of Tangerine, from Houston, Texas. Erik Fisher is the family's star child and football perfectionist. He's been known to kick fifty yard field goals, and his father likes to brag about how his son never misses any extra points.  The Erik Fisher Football Dream lives on in both father and son. 
        As told through Erik's little brother's, Paul's, eyes, this story spins a tale of a big-city family making a splash in a little-town pond.  And though Paul plays the part of a second-string goalie for the best soccer team in the county, no one notices.  Paul has been tossed into the shadows in favor of the Erik Fisher Football dream, but he can see what no one else can see.  Will he be able to speak the truth after witnessing his frightening older brother come unhinged?

Yes, this story is a sports story, but it is not a story about sports.  It's a story about a family struggling to pretend that everything's okay.  It's a story about a boy who's trying to figure out where he fits in, even as his older brother scares him to death. It's also a story about finding your voice and telling the world the truth.
       I like the character of Paul because he isn't dynamic.  In the course of the story he doesn't change from a pathetic wimp who lets his brother push him around to a strong hero ready to take on the world.  He always knows who he is, but he can't always find the words to show it.  He isn't a scaredy-cat afraid to show his face who suddenly turns into someone who can face his fears.  It suggests that anyone can do be brave like that.  It suggests that anyone can be strong and close their eyes to the consequences. 
      Edward Bloor's story is most enjoyable because it can build up such a tension at times that you feel like you're running out onto the soccer fields with the War Eagles at your heels yourself.