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Melody is not like most people. She doesn't speak or walk, and many consider her "retarded". But she has an extraordinary memory: she remembers everything that has ever happened to her. Melody is smarter than the adults who try to diagnose her and smarter than her peers in the integrated class; she sees, feels, and hears what others do not notice. She enjoys life, but just imagine how hard it is for her, and how sad and unbearable it can be. Melody wants to be treated as a person, not a diagnosis - a child with cerebral palsy. And she is determined to prove to everyone that she is worth something too. The book about Melody surprisingly evokes not sympathy for the main character but respect. Written in the first person, it provokes not the usual embarrassment that we feel when meeting with disabled people (the embarrassment and awkwardness from the fact that everything is fine with us, while we think we cannot help them), but admiration for her inner strength, the depth of her mind, and discomfort from the fact that we spend most of our time dealing with problems that are essentially minor, how little we notice and poorly understand other people. Sharon Draper is an American writer, multiple winner of the Coretta Scott King Award, school teacher, and mother of a "special" child. . .