Melody Brooks Quotes

“Everybody uses words to express themselves. Except me. And I bet most people don’t realize the real power of words. But I do.”

“It’s like I live in a cage with no door and no key. And I have no way to tell someone how to get me out.”

“Talk. I pointed to my board. I hit the word again and again. Talk. Talk. Talk. I have so much to say.”

“Maybe I’m not so different from everyone else after all.”

“I wondered if she would teach able-bodied third graders the same way. Probably not. The more I thought about it, the angrier I got.”

“It’s like somebody gave me a puzzle, but I don’t have the box with the picture on it. So I don’t know what the final thing is supposed to look like. I’m not even sure if I have all the pieces . . . Even though I usually know the answer to most of the questions at school, lots of stuff still puzzles me.”

“But slowly, slowly, I felt my body rolling to the right. And then, unbelievably, plop! I was on my stomach. I was so proud of myself, I screeched.”

“Your life is not going to be easy, little Melody . . . If I could switch places with you, I’d do it in a heartbeat. You know that, don’t you?”

“I know the NAME of her condition, Doctor . . . But a person is so much more than the name of a diagnosis on a chart!”

“Words have always swirled around me like snowflakes—each one delicate and different, each one melting untouched in my hands.”

“I’m always amazed at how adults assume I can’t hear. They talk about me as if I’m invisible . . . I learn quite a bit this way.”

“I don’t think they get paid very much, because they never stay very long. But they should get a million dollars. What they do is really hard, and I don’t think most folks get that.”

“For the first time, instead of ‘pretend’ grades that teachers would give me because they weren’t quite sure if I knew the answer or not, I get real grades recorded in the teachers’ grade book that are based on actual answers I’ve given. Printed out and everything!”

“I have never spoken one single word. I am almost eleven years old.”

“By the time I was two, all my memories had words, and all my words had meanings. But only in my head. I have never spoken one single word.”

“Sometimes people never even ask my name, like it’s not important or something. It is. My name is Melody.”

“Here’s the thing: I’m ridiculously smart, and I’m pretty sure I have a photographic memory. It’s like I have a camera in my head, and if I see or hear something, I click it, and it stays.”

“All of us who have all our faculties intact are just plain blessed. Melody is able to figure out things, communicate, and manage in a world where nothing works right for her. She’s the one with the true intelligence!”

“I still couldn’t get over the fact that I was part of the team. Okay. Truth. There was the team, and there was me, and we were in the same room. But we weren’t quite a team. They appreciated the fact that I usually got the answers right but . . . lots of the preparation involved fast-and-furious, back-and-forth discussions, and I had trouble adding anything to what was being said—most of the time.”

“We all have disabilities. What’s yours?”