A Mango-Shaped Space Characters

Our thirteen-year-old heroine loves to paint, hates math, and would rather be barefoot at all times. Oh, and did we mention that she sees colors whenever she hears sounds or reads? Because she does...

Even though they've been best friends since, well, forever, Mia and Jenna still have a few smack-downs in the book. Jenna gets pretty upset with Mia for not sharing her synesthesia with her—after...

Loving, supportive, and a little quirky, Mia's parents help keep Mia grounded when she is ready to fly off into her color-filled world alone. They take her to doctor's appointments, make her finish...

Mia's older sister is "sixteen and in the process of wearing down our parents' patience. She changes her hair color the way normal people change their underwear" (1.6). That's one way of saying Bet...

We'll give you a tip: Don't walk under a ladder in front of Zack. Why not? He's very superstitious. He's always spouting off random "do's" and "don'ts" for the family based on his wacky ideas. Acco...

He might be just a cat, but Mango holds a special place in Mia's heart. Check out what she says about her furry friend: Mango slides across the freshly waxed front hallway and leaves a mango-colore...

We love ourselves a professor with a big heart, and Dr. Jerry Weiss fit the bill perfectly. When Mia first meets him, she thinks: He reminds me of a movie star, but I can't think of which one. Righ...

Nothing makes a character more sympathetic than first encountering them in the moment their dog dies. And this is exactly when we meet Roger. But it's not just the fact that Roger's dog has to be p...

The resident bad-boy and Mia's fellow synesthete, Adam is not to be messed with. He helps Mia lie to her parents to get acupuncture, regales her with stories about getting drunk as a kid, and is no...

Even though Mia only sees Billy a couple of times in the book, he's important to her figuring out who she is. Why? He lets her in on a secret: She's not the only one who sees colors in letters or s...