A Mango-Shaped Space: Prologue-Chapter 2

by Wendy Mass
In this novel, a thirteen-year-old girl learns to understand and manage her synesthesia, a neurological condition in which one sense involuntarily triggers responses from other senses.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Prologue-Chapter 2, Chapters 3-4, Chapters 5-8,
Chapters 9-11, Chapters 12-15
35 words 843 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. gawk
    look with amazement
    They gawked at me as if I had suddenly sprouted another head.
  2. irate
    feeling or showing extreme anger
    “What are you talking about, Mia?” demanded my now clearly irate teacher.
  3. brood
    think moodily or anxiously about something
    The cold didn’t bother me. I was too busy brooding over the unfairness of it all.
  4. parched
    extremely thirsty
    “A is for Amy who fell down the stairs,” says my best friend, Jenna Davis, as we climb farther down into the steep, parched ravine.
  5. contort
    twist and press out of shape
    We bonded over the various ways we could contort my Barbie and Ken dolls without breaking them.
  6. morbid
    suggesting the horror of death and decay
    “B is for Basil, assaulted by bears,” I reply, continuing the morbid rhyme we memorized off the poster on my bedroom wall.
  7. murky
    cloudy, dirty, and difficult to see through
    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.
  8. flit
    move along rapidly and lightly; skim or dart
    A look of horror flits across Jenna’s face.
  9. gnarled
    old and twisted and covered in lines
    “You know,” Jenna says, stepping carefully over a gnarled branch, “my father told me it could take a soul a whole year to reach heaven. Maybe that’s why it took you a year to finish the painting of your grandfather.”
  10. linger
    be about
    We heard lots of juicy gossip, as well as some stuff about how babies are made that cleared up a few lingering questions.
  11. sprawling
    spreading out in different directions
    My sprawling house is famous in these parts and never fails to get a reaction.
  12. barter
    exchange goods without involving money
    Every inch of it was built by my father and grandfather from all different kinds of wood—whatever they could borrow, barter, or beg for.
  13. mottled
    having spots or patches of color
    The hammering begins and the familiar mottled gray bursts of color appear about a foot away from my face.
  14. oversight
    an unintentional omission from failure to notice something
    By some huge oversight on her part, Beth left her diary right out in plain sight when she went to California.
  15. synchronized
    operating in unison
    “I have to set these watches exactly right,” Zack explains, busily twisting the watch dials to match the time on my synchronized clocks.
  16. continuum
    an extent in which no part is distinct from adjacent parts
    “It has to do with folds in the space-time continuum, obviously,” he replies, as though I should clearly have known that.
  17. adamant
    impervious to pleas, persuasion, requests, or reason
    “Where did you get that from? It sounds like something from Star Trek.”
    He shakes his head adamantly. “I read it on the NASA Web site.”
  18. bombard
    cast, hurl, or throw repeatedly with some missile
    I put my hands over my ears and shut my eyes to stop all the colors that are bombarding me.
  19. onslaught
    a rapid and continuous outpouring
    If I had been prepared, I would have been able to anticipate the onslaught, but now it is overwhelming and I feel like I’m suffocating.
  20. slink
    move or walk stealthily
    Zack tries to slink out of the room, but I grab his sleeve.
  21. tentatively
    in a hesitant manner
    As I stand there feeling sorry for myself, Mango peeks out from his hiding place, looks around, then tentatively crawls out and winds himself around my legs.
  22. waft
    blow gently
    He was wheezing that first day too, the little yellow-orange puffs of air wafting around him.
  23. relentless
    never-ceasing
    It took two weeks of relentless begging before my parents agreed to lift their “no animals in the house” rule.
  24. compensate
    adjust for
    The vet told us that Mango was born with a deep rip in the lining of one lung and that it couldn’t be fixed. She said that if he lived another month, his body would probably compensate for it and he’d be okay.
  25. dearth
    an acute insufficiency
    I think there’s more to the story, something to do with “marrying beneath one’s station” and the “dearth of culture in farm country,” whatever that means.
  26. thriving
    very lively and profitable
    The fields back up to acres of overgrown land, complete with a thriving ecosystem of creepy crawling things, various small animals, and, according to tales Grandpa used to tell, the souls of the dead who once farmed this land.
  27. reverent
    feeling or showing profound respect or veneration
    “As your guide on this trail,” he said, his voice deep and reverent, “it is my honor to hereby bestow upon you both a little piece of the moon.”
  28. bestow
    give as a gift
    “As your guide on this trail,” he said, his voice deep and reverent, “it is my honor to hereby bestow upon you both a little piece of the moon.”
  29. glint
    a momentary flash of light
    The headstones are glowing with the last of the sun, and I see a glint of something shiny resting on Grandpa’s.
  30. saunter
    walk leisurely and with no apparent aim
    Then he saunters right across it before I can grab him.
  31. prance
    move or step in a lively, spirited, or showy way
    That pretty much took the joy out of prancing around in thunderstorms.
  32. rummage
    search haphazardly
    She rummages through one of her suitcases, pulls out a big plastic bag, and dumps the contents on the bed.
  33. grim
    filled with melancholy and despondency
    I sigh and give up, grimly aware that the painting is probably completely ruined by now.
  34. exasperation
    a feeling of annoyance
    Mom slams the cabinet door in exasperation, causing a large brown ring to appear, which reminds me of Beth’s old hula hoop.
  35. destined
    governed by fate
    It means having to learn a foreign language, not to mention pre-algebra, a class I’m destined to fail.
Created on Wed Apr 18 21:02:35 EDT 2018 (updated Tue Apr 24 09:22:04 EDT 2018)

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