A Mango Shaped Space

A Mango Shaped Space
Wendy Mass
Little Brown, 2003 270 pages
Grades 5-8
Realistic Fiction

Mia has always felt different. She thought that everyone could see numbers and letters in terms of colors, until a fateful incident at the chalk board in third grade told her differently. After getting in trouble and laughed at by her classmates, Mia has kept her ability to see colors in letters and numbers a secret. Now that she is in eighth grade, school work is getting complicated and the colors are keeping her from succeeding in math and Spanish. Finally, after confessing to her parents about her abilities, a visit to the family doctor leads to a psychiatric appointment and, finally, to a diagnosis of synesthesia, a rare condition matching exactly Mia's abilities. Mia's family is put in touch with a specialist at a near-by university, who educates her about the condition and puts her in touch with other synesthetes and a website with more information. Through the website Mia connects with a boy who shares her condition and the two strike up a friendship, leading to a romance where they finally meet at a conference over Thanksgiving weekend. Mia learns to adjust to her new world, as she taps into resources and learns to enhance the experience through acupuncture. Just as life starts to feel comfortable, a tragedy strikes to her beloved cat, Mango, and the trauma forces Mia's colors to disappear. Will they ever return?

With the present popularity of realistic problem fiction I thought I would give this book another try to see if it still holds up. It does and is a great choice for kids who loved Counting by Sevens or One for the Murphy's. Certainly, this is a book written with the intent to expose kids to the condition of synesthesia, but there is a plot attached as well that will entertain and keep readers turning pages. This book felt to me like reading Judy Blume and brought me back to my youth. Beyond Mia adjusting to her synesthesia and sharing her condition with friends and family, she is also dealing with friendship problems, bratty siblings, the death of her beloved grandfather (who's soul she thinks may have gone into the cat), and middle school dilemmas. Growing up is not easy, especially when you throw seeing colors into the mix. Mia learns to embrace what is cool about synesthesia and discovers the enhancement of acupuncture, which almost becomes obsessive and not healthy for her. Readers will feel the emotion when the cat dies and be relieved by the hopefulness of the ending. Gentle humor is infused throughout the story and Mia's family is very real: both supportive and loving, yet with warts. There is a gentle romance introduced and some mature themes, making it not quite for younger elementary. The neutral cover will invite boys to the story even though the main character is a girl. A thoughtful and entertaining book with a lot of heart.