For years, young readers would tell author Sharon M. Draper MAT ’73 that her bestselling novel, “Out of My Mind,” should be made into a movie.

It was Draper’s dream, too, but she told them she wasn’t sure how to make that happen.

Fourteen years after it was published in 2010, the novel has become a movie. Draper attended the premiere at the Sundance Film Festival this winter.

“When it was over, I cried,” she said. “It’s very well done.” 

The film will appear on Disney+, but she doesn’t know when.

“I don’t have any answers, except I know it’s been finished and it’s good,” said Draper, who lives with her husband, Larry Draper ’70, near Daytona Beach, Florida. They have four grown children.

The book, written in first person, tells the story of Melody Brooks, a sharp, 11-year-old girl with cerebral palsy who navigates sixth grade as a nonverbal wheelchair user.

“She’s been on my heart for a long time, a long time,” Draper said of her beloved character. “Back in the day when I used to do school visits — you know, that was my life, every week it was a different city, a different state, a different school, so you get to know the kids — the kids who appealed to me the most were in wheelchairs.”

Draper took this photo of the movie poster at the Sundance Film Festival, where she signed copies of the book (submitted photo).

A third book in the series

The book is the first of two parts in the “Out of My Mind” series.

The second book, “Out of My Heart,” was published in 2021. Melody is now a year older and a year braver. She discovers a new level of independence at a summer camp for children with special needs.

Producers are familiar with the second book, but there is no word yet on whether that could become a movie, too, Draper said.

But here’s a new development: “There will be a book three in the series. It will be called 'Out of my ...,'" she said. "I'm not allowed to say yet!"

It will again feature Melody, who Draper will keep young to maintain the series’ prime readership audience, ages 8 to 13.

“I won’t take her past 13,” she said.

Honored at the White House six times

Draper, who earned a Master of Arts in Teaching, is one of Miami’s most acclaimed literary alumni.

With more than 30 award-winning books for adolescents and teachers to her credit, she was the recipient of the Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime literary achievement and is a five-time Coretta Scott King Award winner.

A native of Cleveland, Draper completed her undergraduate work at Pepperdine University before earning her master’s at Miami in 1973.

She was teaching at Walnut Hills High School in Cincinnati when she was named National Teacher of the Year in 1997. Honored at the White House six times, she has met Presidents Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama.

She met President Clinton twice — first with a group that had been invited as a top teacher educational consortium, then a few weeks later for another event.

“He said, ‘Sharon, you’re back again,’” Draper recalled.

She worked at Walnut Hills High School for many years as a teacher and eventually as head of the English department, but she didn’t care much for the administrative part. “I liked working with kids, and I liked teaching them to write.”

Her writing career began with a challenge from one of her students encouraging her to enter a literary contest. She won first prize, igniting a spark for writing that continues today.

Photo of Draper as a student teacher in California (courtesy of sharondraper.com.)

Success after Miami experience

Draper said she’s always been a writer and described herself as someone with “lots of words in my head” because she has been an avid reader since childhood.

“The librarian came to our house for dinner,” she said. “That’s how well we knew each other.”

When she pitched her first book, “Tears of a Tiger,” to publishers, a lot of people told her she’d probably never get it published. She persisted, sending it to 25 publishers.

“I got 24 rejection letters in a row and the very last letter was a ‘yes,’ and it was Simon & Schuster,” she said of the book published in 1994.

Draper said she expresses herself through writing, and she’s grateful that a college professor suggested she try creative writing.

To her, facts are black and white “and boring,” she noted. “But if I can add an embellishment to it, or add a story, or a character, or a problem, then hey, that’s where my comfort level is,” she said. “After a while, you get strong enough to have a voice.”

That unique voice has led to great success since her Miami days. She still has many fond memories from her time on campus.

“The best part was I met friends that I am still friends with — lifetime friends — and I had some fine, fine teachers. I mean some really good teachers that pushed me,” she said.

Draper will return to campus this spring when she is awarded an honorary degree during Miami’s spring commencement on May 18.