A Mango-Shaped Space

A Mango-Shaped Space
Author: Wendy Mass
Publisher: Little, Brown books (2003)
ISBN: 0316523887

4.5 (out of 5) STARS

Summary: Thirteen-year-old Mia Winchell appears to be completely normal. But there is a secret she keeps about how sounds, letters and numbers all have color for her.

Review:
Mia’s name is candy-apple red with a touch of avocado green. Mia sees the world differently than most people. Sounds, letters, and numbers have color for her.

Mia’s brother set every clock and alarm clock in the house to go off at the same time. Mia was unprepared for all the noise. “My sight is filled with blurry purple triangles and waves of green and floating black dots and balls of all sizes and shades of colors, spinning, swooping, swirling in front of me and across the room and in mind’s eye. If I had been prepared, I would have been able to anticipate the onslaught, but now it is overwhelming and I feel like I am suffocating” (pg. 15).

Mia made a comment in third grade about her abilities but she was immediately called a freak and teased. Mia learned to not talk about her colors to anyone. However, when she reached Junior High math and Spanish were causing extreme problems for her. She felt she had to talk to her parents so she would not fail her classes.

Mia’s parents tried a few experts before finding Dr. Jerry. The term for Mia’s color abilities is synethesia. (Although this book is fiction, synethesia is a real condition.)

I found this book to be well-written and very interesting. I had read a book about a man with some similar conditions entitled Born on a Blue Day that I also enjoyed.