A Mango-Shaped Space by Wendy Mass

A Mango- Shaped Space by Wendy Mass

This is a book cautiously chosen by my sister, and I enjoyed it a lot. The author had done many research to write this book, which is her first novel for the young readers. This story is based on facts and true experiences; It contains varied of contents include: love, friendhip, difference, humor, and grief.

Mia seems to be an ordinary girl apart from her sister, Beth, who dyes her hair in different color every week; and her brother Zack who records a chart of number of hamburgers he has eaten in his life. She has a sensitive dad who rarely stays at ground level, a neat mom who used to be a science teacher, best friend Jenna who often runs outside and do PIC (Partners in Crime) missions with her, also a cat Mango, which she believes part of granpa's soul is in. But she has a secret noone knows, that she see colors whenever she sees a letter, number, or hear a sound. She keeps it since she experienced be calling a freak, when she trys to tell them numbers do have colors in third grade. She can see brown rings when someone closes the door. She can see people's name in different colors, which hers is in candy apple red with a hint of light green. She named her cat "Mango" not from its orange eyes, but from the mango-orange puff when it wheezes. Mia always lives through these colors. This ability benefits her at history and art, but she has lots of difficulty on Math and Spanish because of the colors.

One day, Mia got in trouble with math and get 2 F grades. She revealed the truth about the colors to her parents to deal with her problems. They went to many doctors, and when she felt so isolated was about to give up, she met Jerry who finally unlock their bewilderments. It is a very uncommon condition-synesthesia, which senses coming together at the same time. Afterwards Jerry give Mia a website where she can meet synesthetes. She met Adam on line who is also a synesthete, and is so excited about someone who feels the same as her. She thinks they are the only group of people who will understand her. Mia is so wrapped up and began to pay less attention on other things. She even lies about earache to get acupuncture in order to enhance her synesthesia. She felt sick of everyone, ignored their care, even argued frequetly with her friend and family. She is lost in her own world.

Unfortunately, her cat Mango died in a freezing night after she just had a meeting with the synesthetes. Mia felt guilty and empty, enable to eat or sleep. She shrieked frustrately when Mango stopped breathing, tears streaming down without control. Her colors were gone, and part of the soul of grandpa had left,too. There is no more mango-color wheeze, only a colorless mango -shape space. Gradually, Mia overcame the grief of Mango's death with the support of her family and friends. Her colors came back when she is helping a boy Billy to understand his condition, who also has synesthesia. At the end, she and Zack found the son of Mango in the Ross' house, with a familiar mustard-colored wheeze. An idea is hatching in her mind, about the small mustard.

This book brought me an entirely different view of seeing things. Mostly people only believe and judge things they see or understand; but there are always people who can see different things from us. We should respect and accept them eventhough we don't understand it. This is what they live through, they view things. Some of them have their own difficulties either. For instance, people can see ghost might often see some horrifying sights, althought they don't want to. We have to feel sympathy about their situation, and understand their feelings.

Maybe there are shapes and colors, even characteristics in sounds, letters, and numbers; because we react on each of them differently. I come up with unique when I think of 1, but I come up with caring when I think of 8. Yellow arrows(triangles) appear in my mind when I hear cars breaking; but brown cubes appeared when I hear door knocks. Maybe it is part of "Living Art "we don't pay attention and see.

Furthermore, this book taught me to cherish what you have, no matter it is family, love, or friendship. If we only have a short time, then hold it tight. At least we enjoy our time and settled each other in our memory, not leaving with regrets. In addition, to avoid regrets, we have to share our problems, or tell to people trustworthy when we aren't feeling well before it's too late. Misundersttod is a gap, it is small but can cause big problem. Try to understand the reason why they do that when you are angry, before blurting out mean words without thinking like a barking dog.

In conclusion, "A Mango-Shaped Space" is a very entertaining and warm-hearted book to read. Some people might burst into tear and sniffles when they read it. It helps us to deal with not only synesthetes, also other people different from us. There are some advanced vocabulary in it, but basically it's clear and easy to understand. I strongly recommand this book to everyone!