Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper

Just excellent.  Sharon M. Draper (author of Copper Sun, also excellent) has created a memorable character in her latest juvenile novel, Out of My Mind.  Meet Melody Brooks, an incredibly smart almost-eleven-year-old with an enormous vocabulary and a lot to say -- with no way to say it.  Melody has cerebral palsy.  She struggles with her inability to express herself and Draper does a great job of portraying how heartbreaking this is -- for example, when Melody says she's never been able to tell her parents she loves them.  When she gets a new machine that helps her communicate, many aspects of her world change, but she still has to contend with the way others think about and treat her.

Good stuff.  The entire book is first person and very believable.