Wonder: A Book Review

Wonder by R.J. Palacio was one of the summer reading options for freshmen last summer and it was highly regarded by the few students I have who selected this book for summer reading.  I knew a little bit about the book prior to reading - that the main character was a boy with a severe facial deformity.  But that's about it.  I ended up really enjoying this book; let me tell you why.

1.  The characters were extremely well-developed.  The book actually changed first person point-of-view between multiple characters.  It started with August (Auggie), the boy with the facial deformity, but later switched to the voices of his sister Via, his friend Jack, his sister's friend Melinda, etc.  I liked that we got to hear all those different voices in the writing, and it wasn't terribly confusing because it didn't switch every chapter.  You would have several chapters in a row from Auggie's perspective before it switched to another character.
2. The messages of the book are strong ones for middle and high schoolers: everyone is different and it's what's on the inside that counts.  In the time span of the book, Auggie goes to school for the first time (he was home schooled until 5th grade).  And the kids were cruel.  No one wanted to work with him, in fact kids thought they would get the plague if they even touched Auggie and immediately washed their hands if they did so accidentally.  I was very curious while reading where the author got the idea for this book, so I did some Internet digging and found a FAQ section on the author's website, which you can read here if interested.
3. Readability/relatability: this book was not a difficult read by any means, but it was full of wisdom and was a story that most teens could relate to; I know few teens have had a facial deformity, but all of us have experienced a time when we were noticed and didn't want to be, whether it was a bad haircut, a mismatched outfit, bad acne, etc.  Most people, especially teens, could find a moment in their life where they shared Auggie's feelings.

Towards the end of the book, Auggie has made friends with many of his classmates and they have learned to accept him for his differences.  But the whole class attends an end-of-the-year camping trip with classes from other schools.  No spoilers here, but the students from the other schools aren't as welcoming of Auggie and he does have one bad experience.  In his inner thoughts, Auggie reflects, "They had no clue how something bad had almost happened to me and Jack.  It's so weird how that can be, how you could have a night that's the worst night in your life, but to everybody else it's just an ordinary night.  Like, on my calendar at home, I would mark this as being one of the most horrific days of my life.  This and the day Daisy died.  But for the rest of this world, this was just an ordinary day.  Or maybe it was even a good day.  Maybe somebody won the lottery" (Palacio Loc. 3402-6).  This line really reminded me of my last post as well.  All of us have good days and bad days, but we need to treat others with respect and accept them for who they are.  Good life lessons to learn from books…

I'll leave you with a book trailer I found on the author's website, which I think serves as a good teaser to the book and is also a strong example of the book trailers you will be making at the end of the trimester.