Heaven Looks A Lot Like The Mall

Heaven Looks A Lot Like The Mall

YA fiction
"I know the girl on the floor, the one
With her neck bent all weird.
I know the girl is me.
But I'm too busy soaring
Toward Heaven to care."
Can you imagine seeing a dodgeball coming at your head, and
waking up in a heaven that looks like your local mall with a boy with
a nail (actually a drill bit) sticking out of his head as your escort
to...where you have no clue? That's the plight of Tessa at the start
of Wendy Mass' Heaven Looks A Lot Like The Mall. Like Mass' other
offerings, this book, told in free form verse, combines a strong plot,
a touch of the supernatural, and a healthy dose of insight.
Nail Boy gives Tessa a large bag of random seeming objects from
various stages of her life that have been acquired from the mall.
Beginning with her first visit where her mother buys her a tiny pair
of shoes, she relives pieces of her life right up through a disastrous
prom. There has to be a lesson in all this. But what? And will she
live to benefit from it? She's had glimpses of her battered body
hooked up to machines in a hospital.
I agree with the blurb that compares Heaven Looks A Lot Like The
Mall to It's A Wonderful Life and A Christmas Carol. It has elements
of both and yet its own unique trajectory. It's a very worthwhile
read that can lead to thoughts about one's own life.
On a personal note, I tried to imagine what heaven would look like to
me? A library? A university? The beach? (A mall would have me
thinking I'd gone in the opposite direction). None seemed right.
Then I realized for me heaven wouldn't be a where but a with whom. It
could be anywhere that included family members and friends I had loved
in life and four footed sentient beings, especially cats...lots of
cats! And of course my mentor. Heaven without Betsy would be
anything but.
A great big shout out goes out to the students who are striving to get
all their work done in time for end of semester and, for some,
graduation.
Julia Emily Hathaway




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