A Mango-Shaped Space & More Sustenance

Wendy Mass's first novel, A Mango-Shaped Space, scored on many counts.

First of all, it got published, by Little Brown & Co. It boasts cover blurbs from Judy Blume, Paula Danzinger, and Meg Cabot. AND it earned a Schneider Family Book Award, for "honoring artistic expression of the disability experience." That's a heck of a debut!

Grading based on the YAs I've read in the past two years, I give it a B+. The story was solid, but not stellar; the writing the same. Character development is where Mass shines.

She creates a near-tangible relationship between main character Mia and her dearly-departed grandpa, for one thing, and then proceeds to build a brilliant connection between Mia, her pet cat (Mango), and Mia's entire family.

Initially I though Mass's development of Mia's parents was a little clunky. She included a lot of just plain description up front, while I prefer to learn about characters through their actions and interactions with other characters.

Later in the book, though, I realized the descriptions helped give the reader a base of believability which is necessary when mom and dad play a larger, and important, role in the story. Had Mass not laid the groundwork earlier, those actions would have seemed like convenient but rather out-of-nowhere responses.

I can't say much more without giving away the nut of the story, and I don't want to do that; it's worth a read.

The book highlights a very rare condition - not fatal, not really even harmful - called synesthesia. Folks with synesthesia see colors (literally) associated with numbers, letters, words, foods, or any or all of those things. Of course, the first book-form treatment of a condition like that is likely to garner the attention of agents and publishers, as well as get you short-listed for some specialized book awards, so Mass deserves kudos for getting to the synesthesia space first.

I would have preferred a lot more medical info about the condition, but I keep in mind it's a YA. Which brings me to...

More Sustenance!
I've decided to shelve YAs for a few months. After so many, they're starting to seem like candy to me. And I love candy, but, you know, meatloaf is good too. It takes longer to eat and to digest, though, so postings may come a bit slower in the future.

Next up: How Does It Feel to Be a Problem? by Moustafa Bayoumi.

On Being Ill and Doodling

I thought I'd read Virginia Woolf's On Being Ill over breakfast this morning, but I only made it through Hermoine Lee's 32-page introduction (I skipped the two pages of endnotes) before work beckoned. I'm eager to read it but bet I won't be able to claim as much insight as Ms. Lee, or an English lit student. I'm not exactly a deep diver when it comes to themes and answering questions like, But what did the author REALLLLLLY mean when she wrote...?" Ah, you know, I managed to imagine enough to get by in Honors English for a couple of years, but I agree with what a smart man once said: sometimes a pickle is just a pickle.

Speaking of pickles, I'm still in one trying to read Team of Rivals. Yes, I've been fascinated by a few things I didn't learn in history class, but golly. That's a long book with a lot of words in little print. A few pictures might prod me along...

And speaking of pictures (no, I couldn't think of another transition that time) I haven't read a graphic novel yet, but I've been easing into it with some cute middle-grade titles, first-person diary formats with doodles presumably included by the main character.

Are you reading my diary?

I LOVED the first of Dian Curtis Regan's Kaley books, The World According to Kaley, and just picked up the very similar Ellie McDoodle - Have Pen, Will Travel by Ruth McNally Barshaw. IMHO, Ellie isn't as smart or funny as Kaley, and I think even Kaley's sequel, CyberPals was better than the newer Ellie McDoodle title - still, it's bound to appeal to young girls. Ellie's travels with her not-exactly-favorite relatives (Aunt Ug, cousin Er-ick, and family) have just enough of a bite to elicit a few mean laughs, but because Ellie isn't mean, readers will like her. I'm not quite done, but I don't think there's a tear-jerker of a scene coming soon, like the one in Paula Danzinger's United Tates of America, another MG I enjoyed.

Now, if the work fairy would just show up and finish my newsletter, folks, I'd read all day, but she's nowhere to be found. So, it's time to shove the bookmark between the pages and get back to less enjoyable stuff. Read on!