20. Heaven Looks a Lot Like the Mall by Wendy Mass

read on my Kindle
2007 Little Brown Young Readers
251 pgs.
Contemporary YA told in VERSE form
Finished 2/26/18
Goodreads rating:  3.79 - 5250 ratings
My rating:  4
Setting:Contemporary America

First line/s:
"For fifty cents and a Gobstopper
I lifted my shirt for the neighborhood boys.
My older brother Matt caught us
and chased the boys with a wiffle bat.
Word got around, and at nine years old
I became the girl
other girls' moms
didn't want them to play with."

My comments:  Told in verse format, I guess you would call this a partial modern-day "Christmas Carol", since Tessa is only visited by the ghost of her past.  It's really cute and insightful, and sad, too.  Not SAD sad, just enough to feel badly for the little girl Tess was growing up.  And her future is yet to be written!

Goodreads synopsis: When 16-year-old Tessa suffers a shocking accident in gym class, she finds herself in heaven (or what she thinks is heaven), which happens to bear a striking resemblance to her hometown mall. In the tradition of It's a Wonderful Life and The Christmas Carol, Tessa starts reliving her life up until that moment. She sees some things she'd rather forget, learns some things about herself she'd rather not know, and ultimately must find the answer to one burning question--if only she knew what the question was. 
          Written in sharp, witty verse, Wendy Mass crafts an extraordinary tale of a spunky heroine who hasn't always made the right choices, but needs to discover what makes life worth living.