Wendy Mass.  A Mango-Shaped Space.  Little, Brown and Company, 2003.  218 pages.  Age 9 to 12.

13-year-old Mia has synesthesia—a neurological condition where the brain furnishes its own sensory perceptions.  The result can be a combined sensory experience (hearing and “seeing” sounds, for example) or sensory input where it wouldn’t normally be found (such as colors associated with letters and numbers).  That’s my generalized understanding of it, anyway.  The novel contains a lot of information about synesthesia, which would be annoyingly didactic if it were a condition which the average person had some basic knowledge of.  However, if the reviews of others are any indication, a lot of people have picked this up and wondered, “syneswha?”  The information is well-placed and integrated properly, so the readers don’t get the feeling that there’s going to be a quiz at the end.

Technologically, this book feels like it should be dated circa 1998—I could actually hear the “You’ve Got Mail!” WAV file in my head.  The ill-fated first [online] romance felt authentic, but I wonder if maybe he was written off a little too quickly.  At least she didn’t end up with Duckie, though, or at least not immediately.  It would disturb the natural order of things.  Oh, he’s so cute.  I wonder why I didn’t notice it before…  What a pair, indeed.  Maybe they are perfect for each other, but this is not a book with tidy endings, much to its credit.

The hidden-in-plain-sight gem in this story is Mia’s philosophy of death.  She believes that souls “splinter”—her grandfather, for example, is partially incarnated her cat, Mango; partially dancing with his wife off in the sky somewhere; and the rest is, well, who knows?  It’s a palatable example of a nontraditional belief—sweet, inoffensive, and plausible in comparison to any other belief.  You have to wonder if she’s right (within the story).  Mango inexplicably showed up at her grandfather’s funeral, with his eyes.  That is an odd coincidence.

Quotable:

“‘When it’s your time to go, it’s your time to go.’  God’s will and all that.  We’re not a very religious family, but where death is concerned, it pays to be open-minded.”

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