Ratings

Content Ratings based on a 0-5 scale where
0 = no objectionable content and
5 = an excessive or disturbing level of content

Guide to Rating System

LANGUAGE

VIOLENCE

SEXUAL CONTENT

ADULT THEMES

Winner of the ALA Schneider Family Book Award,  honoring artistic expression of the disability experience

Ratings Explanation

Language: 2 instances of profanity

Sexual Content: Molly grows breasts over the summer and she is not going to hide it. Boys look at her. Mia’s doctor asks her if she has begun menstruating yet. Mia communicates with a boy in a chat room and when they meet in person he almost immediately asks to kiss her. Mia lets him.

Adult Themes: Jenna is coping with her mother’s death and her father dating. Mia lies occasionally then tries to make up for it by doing good deeds. Adam, age 14, discloses in an email that he got drunk on egg nog and threw up a lot. Coping with losing a pet.

Synopsis

Mia has always seen colors associated with numbers, letters and sounds, but in third grade she discovers that not everyone sees what she does. Afraid of being different, Mia keeps her gift a secret until 8th grade when it interferes with her school work and she goes to her parents for help. She discovers that she has a condition called synesthesia, and that other people have it too. Encouraged that she isn’t a freak, Mia dives into the world of synesthesia by attending research weekends, chatting with other synesthetes online and trying new experiments that heighten the effects of “her colors.” As she enters this new world she leaves her family and friends behind, but when her cat Mango becomes ill she is abruptly reminded of what is truly important.

A very interesting read! I had never heard of this condition and was fascinated by what synesthetes see in their everyday lives.  A different twist on the coming-of-age story.

©2009 The Literate Mother