Out of My Mind
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50 free Out of My Mind trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Sharon Draper's Out of My Mind is told by Melody Brooks, a girl with a head full of words and no way to say them. She cannot walk, talk or hold a pencil, yet she remembers everything she has ever heard. Since 2010 the novel has been a classroom favorite because it asks readers to rethink what they assume about a kid in a wheelchair. This quiz follows the story from the opening chapters through the Whiz Kids quiz team: Melody's family and neighbor, her classmates and teachers, the machine that gives her a voice, the regional contest and the trip that goes wrong. A few questions cover the author, the two sequels and the 2024 film. It is written for students checking what they remember after reading, for teachers and book clubs who want a ready-made review, and for anyone who has just watched the movie. Every answer comes with a short explanation.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In Out of My Mind, which condition has kept Melody Brooks from ever walking or speaking a word?
Cerebral palsy
Cerebral palsy stiffens Melody's body but leaves her mind razor sharp, which is why doctors and teachers keep underestimating her.
Q 02In the 2024 film of Out of My Mind, which actress voices the inner thoughts Melody cannot speak?
Jennifer Aniston
Jennifer Aniston voices Melody's thoughts because the film's Melody adores the sitcom Friends, and Melody thanks the actress in the credits for the loan.
Q 03In Out of My Mind, what name does Melody give her talking computer, borrowed from her favorite song?
Elvira
Elvira is the radio hit that a much younger Melody once tried to get her mother to replay, twitching and pointing with no way of making herself understood.
Q 04In Out of My Mind, which famous figure does Melody Brooks choose for her biography project?
Stephen Hawking
Stephen Hawking fascinates Melody because he too used a wheelchair and spoke through a machine, and she wonders how he managed everyday things like raising his kids.
Q 05In Out of My Mind, why does Melody Brooks never reach the Whiz Kids national finals with her team?
Her flight is canceled
Her flight is canceled by a late-winter snowstorm, and the real sting follows: her teammates had already switched to an earlier plane after breakfast, and nobody phoned her.
Q 06What is the name of Melody Brooks's able-bodied little sister in the novel Out of My Mind?
Penny
Penny is born healthy, to her worried parents' relief, and Melody admits it is hard to watch a baby move and chatter more freely than she ever could.
Q 07In Out of My Mind, which city hosts the national Whiz Kids finals that Melody's team qualifies for?
Washington
Washington is where the regional champions are sent, with a trophy and a television appearance thrown in, yet Melody never makes the trip.
Q 08In Out of My Mind, which part of her body can Melody Brooks control well enough to point and type?
Her thumbs
Her thumbs work well enough to point at a word board and, later, to tap out every sentence on her talking computer, one press at a time.
Q 09In Out of My Mind, what happens to the small trophy Melody's teammates offer her as an apology?
It smashes on the floor
It smashes on the floor after a giggling Melody knocks it off her tray; the cheap plastic prize even had her school's name misspelled.
Q 10Which streaming service released the film version of Out of My Mind in November 2024?
Disney+
Disney+ put the film online ten months after its festival premiere, with a first-time screen actress playing Melody.
Q 11What is the name of the speech device that finally gives Melody a voice in Out of My Mind?
Medi-Talker
Medi-Talker is the machine Melody and her aide find online; it arrives just before Christmas and lets her tell her parents she loves them for the first time.
Q 12In Out of My Mind, which candy gives Melody Brooks's golden retriever its name?
Butterscotch
Butterscotch gets the name when Melody points at the candies on the table, and the dog later repays her by fetching help when she tumbles out of her chair.
Q 13Which school year is Melody Brooks in when she joins the quiz team in the novel Out of My Mind?
Fifth grade
Fifth grade is the year everything changes for Melody in the book, while the 2024 film makes her a sixth-grader in middle school.
Q 21In Out of My Mind, which university student becomes Melody's aide in her inclusion classes?
Catherine
Catherine wins Melody over by never talking down to her, though Melody teases her about clashing purple-and-green outfits.
Q 22In Out of My Mind, what is the full name of Mrs. V, Melody's next-door neighbor and caregiver?
Violet Valencia
Violet Valencia is the tall, colorful neighbor who refuses to baby Melody, teaching her to roll over and crawl and later drilling her like an athlete for the quiz team.
Q 23In Out of My Mind, Melody Brooks says remembering everything is like having which device in her head?
A camera
A camera is how Melody pictures her mind: whatever she sees or hears, she clicks it and it stays, and sometimes she wishes her head had a delete button.
Q 14In Out of My Mind, how does Melody Brooks do on the Whiz Kids practice quiz in history class?
She gets every answer right
She gets every answer right, beating the whole class, and a jealous classmate promptly accuses her of cheating.
Q 15In Out of My Mind, what is the name of the goldfish that leaps out of its bowl?
Ollie
Ollie was a prize from a carnival Melody's father took her to; she tips the bowl over trying to keep the fish wet, and her mother misreads it as mischief.
Q 16What color is the wheelchair Melody Brooks is strapped into at the start of Out of My Mind?
Pink
Pink does nothing for Melody, who insists there is nothing cute about a wheelchair whatever its color.
Q 17In Out of My Mind, what happens to Melody's little sister after she runs outside on a stormy morning?
A car backs into her
A car backs into her because Melody, without her speech device that day, cannot make her mother understand the danger; the little girl survives with a broken leg.
Q 18Out of My Mind ends with Melody Brooks starting which piece of writing for her language arts class?
Her autobiography
Her autobiography opens with the very lines that begin the novel, so the whole book turns out to be the story she is finally able to tell.
Q 19In Out of My Mind, which history teacher coaches the Whiz Kids quiz team and doubts Melody Brooks?
Mr. Dimming
Mr. Dimming even announces harder questions because, he says, a quiz Melody can ace must be too easy; he later admits he was wrong to doubt her.
Q 20In Out of My Mind, which classmate volunteers to be Melody's buddy when music class pairs up?
Rose
Rose becomes the friend Melody longs for, though the friendship wobbles whenever other girls are watching.
Q 24In Out of My Mind, which style of music does Melody Brooks love because it smells of fresh lemons?
Country
Country songs come to Melody in the color and scent of lemons, while her father's jazz is brown and tan and smells like wet dirt.
Q 25In Out of My Mind, what does Melody Brooks call the fits when her body thrashes out of control?
Tornado explosions
Tornado explosions strike when Melody is bursting to say something urgent and nobody can read her signals; one of them gets her prescribed a sedative.
Q 26Which school does Melody Brooks attend, and later represent on the quiz team, in Out of My Mind?
Spaulding Street Elementary
Spaulding Street Elementary is where Melody's mother marches her straight from a doctor's office to enroll, furious at being told her daughter could not learn.
Q 27In Out of My Mind, which job did Mrs. V once do with Melody's mother, in bright homemade dresses?
Nurse
Nurse was the job they shared, and on the ward Mrs. V wore loud dresses she sewed herself, claiming the colors lifted sick children's spirits.
Q 28In Out of My Mind, which stuffed toy does Melody's little sister ask for every morning?
Doodle
Doodle is so well loved that Melody cannot tell whether the stuffed animal started life as a monkey or a squirrel.
Q 29In Out of My Mind, what does teacher Mrs. Tracy supply once she sees Melody loves stories?
Audiobooks
Audiobooks let Melody race ahead to harder and harder titles, until the next year's teacher ignores the records and drags the class back to the alphabet.
Q 30In the opening chapter of Out of My Mind, Melody Brooks compares the words filling her head to what?
Snowflakes
Snowflakes are her image for words: each one different and delicate, yet piling up in drifts inside a girl who has never spoken one aloud.