Mia Winchell has synesthesia, the mingling of perceptions whereby a person can see sounds, smell colors, or taste shapes. Forced to reveal her condition, she must look to herself to develop an understanding and appreciation of her gift in this coming-of-age novel.
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13 year old Mia has a condition known as synesthesia, which basically means there are some crossed lines in her brain that cause her to interpret letters and numbers as colors or symbols. For instance, she sees her own name as "candy apple red with a hint of lime green". In the beginning of the story though, she doesn't know is synethesia. She only knows her brain seems to see things differently from everyone else. Much like autism, there is no one clear-cut bullet-points list of traits for this condition. Everyone has a slightly different experience. This is Mia's story.
The wind starts up slightly and a big green leaf sticks to the sweat on my leg...The color of the leaf is exactly the same color as Jenna's name -- a bright, shimmering shade of green with some yellow highlights. I think part of why I liked Jenna right away is that I like the color of her name. But I'd never tell her that, nor would I tell my older sister, Beth, that her name is the murky brown of swamp water. Beth is sixteen and in the process of wearing down our parents' patience.
Much of the story is made up of Mia entering her teen years not knowing how she will be able to keep up the charade of normalcy when internally she's having all these experiences she can't find the words for. She goes back and forth between thinking "If there was a cure, would I take it?" and "Maybe I actually like being different and just want help working better in the outside world." She's also trying to make sense of how her siblings are changing as they grow up -- her brother who's become addicted to researching things on the internet and obsessing over superstitious behavior, and her older sister who goes from being the resident beauty pageant queen to bohemian hippie earth chick in the course of one summer!
Mia uses painting as a way to get out what's trapped in her mind. I had to laugh at the scene where her father views her work, telling her, "You have a great sense of color." to which she thinks Man, you have no idea! She's always struggled to express to her parents how her mind interprets things and why she struggles in school. She gets frustrated trying to read because each letter or word is a different color or image. The same troubles have her failing algebra classes. When her parents confront her, once again she tries to get an explanation out but is saddened to find their response is asking her if she makes up these stories to cover up the fact that she just doesn't want to try. Man, this brought up SOOO many memories of almost identical conversations I had with my parents (I don't have synesthesia but do have a combination of mild dyslexia and a textbook case of dyscalculia. I was well into high school before it was caught.)
When her parents do finally get a clue that something might honestly be troubling their daughter, they take her to the family doctor to get checked out, who then refers Mia to a psychotherapist. The psychotherapist initially wants to chalk up Mia's story to middle child syndrome but then decides to refer her to a neurologist to rule out the chance of brain tumors. Lucky for Mia, the neurologist she's sent to is familiar with synesthesia and pretty quickly sees that's what Mia is describing. Oh, the joy of being given a name to something that's been driving you batty! Turns out the neurologist also heads up a support group for others with Mia's condition, so boom! Instant camaraderie that she's never experienced before! Up to that point, Mia's main friend had been her cat, Mango and her childhood bestie, Jenna. Problem is, Mia's kept Jenna in the dark about the synesthesia business, fearing Jenna's reaction. When the secret gets out... well, I'm sure you've seen what happens when a friend finds out they've been kept out of the loop.
This story was just incredibly touching all the way around. Not only did I really feel for Mia's frustrations and struggles, her moments of wondering if she should just give up, but also just her personality in general. She gets down but never lets herself truly lose all hope. She seems to have this inner understanding that she doesn't want to completely change who she is, she just wants to better understand how to adapt to the environments around her. It's that impressive stance of saying "It's a condition, not a fault." I also like her humor and her observations on family and the world around her. Also, her bond with that cat Mango is super sweet.
This one is surprisingly powerful for what you might expect from a middle grade book. I highly recommend it but with a warning -- prepare yourself for some tearjerker scenes near the end!
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