City News

Wonder written by R. J. Palacio is a children’s novel inspired by an incident where her son started to cry when he saw a girl with craniofacial disorder. Craniofacial disorder is a type of deformity that affects a child’s head and facial bones, and R. J. Palacio wrote this book to show people what it’s like to “have to face a world every day that doesn't know how to face you back."

This story follows a 10-year-old boy named August "Auggie" Pullman who lives in North River Heights in Upper Manhattan. He has Treacher Collins syndrome, a genetic condition which has left his face disfigured and required countless surgeries and special care. Due to his condition, August has been homeschooled by his mother for some years. However, his parents wanted him to experience a larger world; so they enrolled him into Beecher Prep, a private school, for the start of fifth grade.

Before the start of the school year, Auggie's mother takes him to meet the principal, Mr. Tushman, who has invited three other students — Jack Will, Charlotte, and Julian — to take him on a tour of the school. Auggie is treated unkindly by Julian, who acts "like an angel" in front of adults. On his first day of school, Auggie tries to avoid drawing attention to himself, but is subtly bullied by Julian and his friends. At lunch, Auggie is approached by a classmate named Summer and he ends up befriending her. He is also paired in most of his classes with Jack, whom he also considers a friend.

However, on Halloween, Auggie overhears Jack joining in with Julian and his friends in making fun of him behind his back. Devastated, Auggie stays home sick for several days and isolates himself from his family. Returning to school, Auggie completely ignores Jack and confesses the incident to Summer. Jack eventually presses Summer for what happened between him and Auggie. When Jack realizes how he behaved, he is ashamed, and recommits to his friendship with Auggie. This causes Julian to be outraged, and the two have a fight during which Jack punches Julian, leading Mr. Tushman to suspend him. Jack reconciles with Auggie, but becomes excluded from many of his more popular classmates due to Julian's influence on the other students. Julian's mother writes Tushman to voice her concerns over Auggie attending the school, saying that his appearance may be too much of a burden for the other students to handle. This just goes to show how quick people are to judge and how ignorant people can be. It also portrays that a child’s behavior and actions are learnt from their parents.

I really enjoyed this book’s story as it teaches a very valuable and important lesson. It conveys a strong message that I believe everyone should hear. Auggie can’t change how he looks and has to face people who judge him almost immediately when they see him. This book does a great execution on taking the cliche “don’t judge a book by its cover” and mixing it with interesting characters and a good story. It is written well with great detail and riveting dialogue.

Overall, I would highly recommend this book to anyone! There is also a movie adaptation that was made in 2017, and I would definitely recommend watching it!

Check out Wonder from NBPL!