In A Mango Shaped Space, the main protagonist is Mia Winchell, a 16 year old girl living with synesthesia, a neurological phenomenon in which your senses are jumbled together and words, numbers and sounds have different colors shapes and textures. This can sometimes cause OCD behaviors, for example in Mia's case she can’t write a word or number unless it’s in the color she associates with that symbol. This obviously causes problems for her not only in school, but with her friends and her family. I think this book would be a good addition to the curriculum because it teaches how to cope with adversity, which is something that everyone will have to deal with at some point in their life. The book starts out with a flashback of Mia in third
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He tells her that what she has been experiencing is grapheme-color synesthesia, which means she sees numbers and letters in color, sound-color synesthesia, meaning each sound has an accompanying shape and color, and spatial sequence synesthesia, seeing numerical sequences with different amounts of depth. It turns out there are others like her all over the world; other people who associate colors and numbers, tastes and sounds, or any other connection between senses. Mia finds out about websites, support groups, and a whole synesthesia community full of people like her. She can finally say, “All those people in their black-and-white worlds—they have no idea what they’re missing. if i couldn't use my colors, the world would seem so bland like vanilla ice cream without the gummy bears on top, and i really like the gummy bears.” Mia is finally able to explore the new world of synesthesia. Even though Mia encounters tension in her family, fights with her friends, and a truly devastating loss, she comes to see that her synesthesia is a gift, not a disease. I think Mia’s story has a powerful message that everyone would benefit from, because almost everyone at some point has changed themselves to fit in. For example, coming into high school our freshman year, most of us wanted to be liked and tried to fit the mold of what
He tells her that what she has been experiencing is grapheme-color synesthesia, which means she sees numbers and letters in color, sound-color synesthesia, meaning each sound has an accompanying shape and color, and spatial sequence synesthesia, seeing numerical sequences with different amounts of depth. It turns out there are others like her all over the world; other people who associate colors and numbers, tastes and sounds, or any other connection between senses. Mia finds out about websites, support groups, and a whole synesthesia community full of people like her. She can finally say, “All those people in their black-and-white worlds—they have no idea what they’re missing. if i couldn't use my colors, the world would seem so bland like vanilla ice cream without the gummy bears on top, and i really like the gummy bears.” Mia is finally able to explore the new world of synesthesia. Even though Mia encounters tension in her family, fights with her friends, and a truly devastating loss, she comes to see that her synesthesia is a gift, not a disease. I think Mia’s story has a powerful message that everyone would benefit from, because almost everyone at some point has changed themselves to fit in. For example, coming into high school our freshman year, most of us wanted to be liked and tried to fit the mold of what