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.

Late pictures of our camping trip last month

I got a lot of other great pictures, but didn't want to post pictures of other people's families without asking!

The second half of the in-laws' visit

The Red Thread by Ann Hood

The Red Thread by Ann Hood

I'd never read anything by this author before.  (Her other books include Comfort, The Knitting Circle, and Do Not Go Gentle.)  Maya Lange, the main character, runs an adoption agency that specializes in placing children from China with family from the United States. 

The book alternates between many points of view -- each prospective parent, Maya, and the parents in China who have given up their daughters.  It was certainly interesting how many different motivations there can be for the same desire -- that of wanting a baby to call your own. 

I've often thought about the irrationality of guilt, especially when related to one's own child.  Maya's own baby daughter died several years ago after falling from Maya's arms to the floor.  Maya struggles with guilt and with allowing herself to love again.  As a parent, the thought of my child dying because of something I'd done or hadn't done is crushing and I can understand that the fact that it was an accident would not take the guilt away.

In the acknowledgements the author briefly shares her own family's experience adopting a daughter from China.  I would be interested to hear what parents who have adopted, whether domestically, from another country, or from China specifically, think of this book.

Pictures from the first half of the in-laws' visit