Ruby Emmerson has always felt like the “dumb” twin. Struggling with dyslexia, dysgraphia, and dyscalculia, she feels out of place at her competitive charter school, especially as her twin brother Bryce excels both academically and socially. When she fails a math test despite getting extra help, she fears she’ll flunk out of Benton Academy and drag her brother back to their old school.
In a moment of frustration, Ruby vents anonymously online, describing herself as an imposter—a mango among lovebirds. But to her surprise, she’s far from alone.
As her account gains a following, tensions with her brother rise, and her posts draw unwanted attention from the school administration. Now, Ruby must find the courage to challenge Benton’s high-pressure environment and advocate for herself and all the other “Mangoes” out there.
There’s a lot to unpack from this book.
First off, for anyone who doesn’t know what dyslexia, dysgraphia, and dyscalculia are, here are the definitions.
Dyslexia: a learning disability that disrupts how your brain processes written language.
Dysgraphia: a learning disability that impairs writing ability, trouble translating thoughts into written words, and fine motor skills.
Dyscalculia: a learning disorder that affects a person’s ability to understand, remember, or work with numbers and mathematical concepts.
In a nutshell, Ruby has trouble with reading, writing, and arithmetic. I can’t imagine how frustrating it would be to have one of these, let alone all three. But just because her brain is working with a wonky operating system, it doesn’t mean she’s dumb. Swallowing tide-pods is what makes you dumb.
What astounded me the most was how the school and some of the parents blew Ruby’s posts way out of proportion. The school saw the posts as a threat to its perfect image, and the parents thought they were encouraging their kids to disobey them. They weren’t. They really, really weren’t. Seriously, they took the ‘Confessions of a Mango’ posts and the students’ teeny-tiny act of expression as some huge act of rebellion. Maybe it’s because I watch “Classroom Horror Stories,” a YouTube series that shares the most disturbing and horrifying true stories from classrooms around the world, that the students’ actions in this book seem so small in comparison.
This story does an outstanding job addressing the topic of failure, how no one talks about it, and how we are taught to fear failure instead of how to recover from it. Here are a few passages from the book about the subject:
“Is that failing?”
“We don’t like that word.”
Well, I don’t like the word either. I also don’t like the word “homework,” or the word “traffic,” or “asparagus,” but all those things still exist.
People talk all the time. But most of it doesn’t really matter. No one is saying what needs to be said. No one is talking about failure. No one is even thinking about it. Not at Benton. Everyone skirts that topic, like it’s an angry dog that might bite if you look at it. But someone needs to start paying attention.
I love how the story shows that acknowledging the pressure someone is under and talking about it can make a big difference.
Overall, this is an intense, profound book that needs to be in the hands of every middle schooler and parent.