A Mango-Shaped Space

As long as she can remember, Mia Winchell has seen words and numbers as colors. However, Mia has kept this a secret from everyone, including friends and family. In the year since her grandfather's death, Mia has been depended for comfort on Mango, a sickly cat she persuaded her family to adopt.

When Mia enters the eighth grade and her strange experiences seeing words and numbers as colors begin overwhelm her and cause her problems at school, she finally tells her family her secret. After visiting a few doctors, she finally has a diagnosis. She is a synesthete, a person with synesthesia, someone whose neural wiring is "crossed," creating the sensation of colors in association with letters, numbers, and sounds.

As she educates herself about her condition, Mia begins to explore the world of synesthesia and finds it increasingly difficult to keep up in school with her academic studies and extracurriculars, maintain her friendships, and stay close to her family and little Mango. Then, one day when Mango suddenly dies, Mia begins to lose the colors. Over time, Mia has to learn to regain her colors and reconcile with her best friend.

• Nominated for a 2007 Audie Award (for the book version)[2]
• Nominated for a 2008 Audie Award (for the audiobook version)[3]
• Received the 2004 Schneider Family Book Award in the middle-grade category by the American Library Association
• Received the 2005 Great Lakes Great Book Award from the state of Michigan
• Named in the 2006 YA Top 40 by the Pennsylvania School Librarians Association
• VOYA Top Shelf selection 2003
• Autumn 2003 Children's BookSense 76 pick
• Listed as a 2014 & 2005 New York Public Library's Best Books for the Teen Age
• Bank Street Books top 35 children's books of the last 35 years[2]

Critical reception for the book has been mixed. A Mango-Shaped Space has received reviews from Kirkus Reviews, Booklist, School Library Journal, VOYA, The Washington Post, Kliatt, and Publishers Weekly.

Booklist praised that "the...narration lends immediacy and impact to Mia's color perceptions...a quietly unusual and promising offering".[4] Publishers Weekly commented that the book has "well-defined characterizations, natural-sounding dialogue, and concrete imagery".[5] The School Library Journal wrote "not all of the many characters are necessary to the story, and some of the plot elements go unresolved", and "Mia's parents are almost too perfect". Kirkus Reviews criticized that "the narrative...is rather overfull of details-a crazily built house, highly idiosyncratic family members, two boy interests, a beloved sick cat-which tend to compete for the reader's attention in much the same way as Mia's colors", and stated that this "flaw" is "not unusual with first novels".[6] Kliatt criticized the plot, saying it isn't "half as interesting" as the "information on this rare condition". Kliatt also commented on Mia's "ups and downs", nothing that they are "fairly ordinary". VOYA pointed out that this book is "probably not one that teens will pick up without coaxing".[7]

The audiobook was criticized by School Library Journal, who states that "narrator Danielle Ferland moves from character to character effortlessly, but without much deviation in voice inflections for the secondary players". On the other hand, AudioFile praised the work, saying it "brings alive a unique young person and her rare gift".[8]

A Mango-Shaped Space has been praised by several authors, including Paula Danziger, Karen Cushman, Meg Cabot, and Judy Blume.

• 2003, USA, Little, Brown, and Company (ISBN 978-0-316-52388-2), Pub date April 2003, hardback (first edition)
• 2005, USA, Little, Brown, and Company (ISBN 978-0-316-05825-4), Pub date October 2005, paperback

• Memo from Sean A. Day, Ph.D. A short review of the book by Sean A. Day, PhD, President of the American Synesthesia Association.